THE QUESTION OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4494, 14 August 1875, Page 2

THE QUESTION OF THE DAY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —The abolition of the provinces Act, as delineated in the Press of this province, has given general satisfaction, and if carried out this session it cannot fail promoting the prosperity of the colony, notwithstanding the contradictory statements emanating from an insignificant section of the community, who selfishly desire the continuation of the present expensive and impotent forms of Provincial Governments. Prominently among the opponents of the change are the officials, large and small, realising handsome salaries, in many instances sinecures, and a few sterotyped members of the Provincial Council, who earn their pound a day reclining on cushioned seats for the cry of hear, hear ! and laughter at the sappy expression and stale jokes of would-be politicians. As this expensive annual palaver of these miniature Parliaments, with their teapot crises, and in and out Executives, are becoming most intolerable to the people, any substitution in the shape of local government would be hailed with satisfaction. The measures comprehended in the Abolition Pill px*omise tins desirable end. As presently constituted, the power possessed by Provincial Governments over revenues and the waste lands of the Crown, is a crying evil, and injurious to settlement. Lands which ought now to be realising handsome returns in revenue from agricultural settlements, are falling into the hands of speculators, to meet the lavish expenditure of provincial officialism. The large blocks of land given away in this and Southland provinces, and the power bestowed upon squatters over the waste lands, will ere long re-act in a manner our astute politicians have not yet dreamed of, and which will test to the utmost the returns expected from the investment of the million loans.

In this province it is in connection with education, however, the most flagrant expenditure of the public money is perpetuated without any adequate recompense. A misappropriation of revenues, if properly and economically applied, would largely contribute to educate the whole of our colonial youth. From one cause or another spurious and timber-sounded reports were diligently hawked forth as to the efficiency of the Otago system of education, and the wondrous attainments of the pupils in Latin. Greek, and French. Without data the Press heralded. Government looked mighty, the local parliament applauded. Clergymen, with eyes uplifted heavenwards, expressed pious expirations at the religion inculcated at the rate of one verse per day without comment, while our peripatetic Governors were successfully tickled with accounts of “the emphasis, articulateness, and the deliberateness in the enunciation ” displayed by our precocious youth. What then is our real educational condition? “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ascalon.” It is that our embryo university, supported by large revenues, cannot muster more than nine students, one of the number, the bottle-washer of the chemistry profession, being the only medical student ; our high school, absorbing similar large revenues, a byeword for years, giving ordinary instruction to sons of people in affluent circumstances. The so-called grammar and district schools never having been properly examined, and without religious training, are in a most elementary concUUon. while hundreds of city And country Arabs are growing up like noxious weeds. The Education Ordinance in force, tinkered annually to suit the stereotyped ideas of old fogies having educational control, has driven trained teachers out of the profession, and their places are mostly supplied by non-professionals. The Education Board, at a large expense, hassent foracargoof teachers from Scotland to All the vacancies daily taking place, the pupil* teachers of one or two years standing raised to full charges being rejected by the parents. Altogether the Otago system is a burlesque upon education. It is then to be hoped that the abolition o! provinces, which is looked forward to with great expectation, will in » colonial system ot cthicalioli. Trusting 1 have not encroached too much on your valuable space,—-I am, Ac., A. G. All AX. Green Island, Otago, August 9.