New Zealand Times. MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4381, 5 April 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. MONDAY, APRIL 5, 1875.

The troubles of the now Superintendent of Auckland are only beginning. He has already been interviewed by the Education Board of that province, who make out as complete a case of insolvency as one could hope to read. The expenditure of the Board is at the rate of £20,000 per annum, while their available income is only £12,000, leaving a deficit of £BOOO. We can well believe the statement of the deputation, and we sympathise with them most thoroughly. They are endeavoring to perform all but impossible duties ; namely, to maintain an educational machinery for the province without anything like sufficient funds. What the Auckland Education Board has done in this direction already is vastly to their credit j but it is abundantly evident that the whole system must break down unless extraneous aid be given. The contrast between the educational appliances in the North Island, —(and we take Auckland as typical of the other provinces,)—and those of Canterbury and Otago, is most marked ; so. marked indeed, as to become a public scandal, arid something worse. We do not find fault with.Otago and Canterbury for providing for their own educational requirements. Far from it; to have done less would have been to have neglected their boundeu duty. But what we do say is this, that while one section of the colony is able to maintain an efficient educational system out of territorial revenue—in other words, by the sale of the public i estate—another section of the colony should not be compelled to depend upon direct taxation • for its school fund, or neglect education altogether. There is something incongruous in such a system, to say the least of it ; and we agree so far with Sir George Grey in saying that the Colonial. Government should take the education question up as one of paramount importance to tho colony. We have already stated the case of Auckland ; that of Wellington is little, if at all, better. In a former article we referred to the utter inadequacy of the means at the disposal of the Wellington Education Board, and we need not dwell upon that point at present. Suffice it to say that the existing state of things cannot and should not last. The inhabitants of every part of the North Island owe it to themselves to demand at tho hands of the Government an equalisation of - taxation, which, without disturbing existing endowments for educational purposes, would place all parts of tlie colony on a level with regard to primary schools at least. To do otherwise would impose a cruel wrong upon the North Island which, Ihrough.no fault of its settlers, does not possess any land fund out of which to found and maintain an efficient school system. When we look, for instance, at Canterbury, we find that the Provincial Council there makes liberal provision for education. The Superintendent of Canterbury, Mr. Eolleston, when opening the Provincial Council on Friday last, referred to this subject in the following words, as reported by 'telegraph ; “ The ‘ ‘ liberal provision made by you for “ education, has produced most satisfactory results during the past year. “ The number of children attending “ the district schools in the province, “ during the quarter ending 30th Sep- “ tember, 1874, was 10,136, showing an “ increase of 2411. You will be asked to 1 ‘ make further liberal provision for the “ current year.” Now, thaf is tho language one likes to hear from the Executive chief of a great province. It is altogether different in tone from that which Mr. Superintendent Eitzherbbrt will, in all likelihood, use in his opening address to the Wellington 'Provincial Council within the present month ; and •we have only to refer our leaders to the mournful tones of Sir George Grey’s reply to the Auckland Educatiori Board to show the vastly different circumstances of the two provinces of Auckland and Canterbury. One is all gloom, uncertainty, and indignation ; the other is all satisfaction and hopeful expectancy. Sir George Grey looks for relief to a cheese-paring economy ; Mr. Eolleston has no thought for money, and proposes to spend it most liberally for the educational requirements of the province. We congratulate Mr. Eolleston, while we sympathise with Sir George Grey.

But wo cannot approve of everything Sir George Grey said. We do notthink that there is such wasteful expenditure as he imagines in the General Government departments. It will be his duty, however, when ho takes his seat in the House to point out where the waste is. If he detects it, and succeeds in stopping it, he will indeed deserve well of the country, whether the saving would, as ho anticipates, educate all New Zealand or not. Wo suspect that he is over-sanguine in this, and that he will find, as all others who have attempted to reduce the estimates of expenditure have found, that the House of Representatives, while always ready to talk economy, is equally unwilling to vote it. Talk costs nothing, and pleases constituencies; votes often displease friends and expectants. Sir George Grey may succeed in his war against wasteful administration. We heartily wish him success ; but meanwhile wo would indicate to him a source whence he might, in time, largely increase the educational endowments of Auckland province. We refer to the three educational trusts which ho created as Governor, namely, St. Maxy’s, North Shore, St. Stephens, Parnell, and the Three King’s estate. Those exceedingly valuable endowments have fallen wholly under ecclesiastical rule, and as an almost necessary consequence, they have been grossly mismanaged. The facts are clearly stated in the report of a Select Committee of the Auckland Provincial Council, and a later report by a Royal Commission, appointed by Mr. Stafford’s Government, and of which, if we are not mistaken, Mr. Gisborne was chairman. Those endowments, judiciously administered, would produce several thousands a year as building sites, not to speak of the agricultural land. Hero is a nest which Sir George Grey should take possession of in the interest of his province. Legislation may bo necessary to effect this object, but there should be no difficulty in obtaining an Act to do justice to “ the children of “ both races inhabiting the islands of the

“ Pacific,” for the free education of whom the reserves were- originally set apart. These trusts have been grossly abused. Sir Geokge will do credit to himself, and benefit the province,of which he is Superintendent, by restoring them to their original purpose.