COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5147, 21 September 1877, Page 5

COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib,— I The compulsory clause in the Education Bill being made permissive at option of local committees, will scuttle the ship, and all this noble legislation to improve the people will be rendered all but nugatory. If education is a necessity for the general and public good, let the general voice of the country, as now assembled in Parliament, pronounce it imperatively. Authority and responsibility thus attenuated and localised will soon require a conclave of servants to decide how many spoonfuls of tea shall be put in the parlor s teapot. Sir, I consider the rejection of Mr. Harper's clause, for stated hours to be set apart for religious instruction by the parsons of each denomination who may wish it, a reflection on our legislators. It has always seemed to me as the one great solution of the religious difficulty. The fact of a time being so set apart would impress the minds of both parents and children with the importance, of the object, and 'the day or half a day might be interspersed with games and associating the whole and making it.a pleasing reminisence for after years. 5 I, as a member of a committee, will advocate its adoption, if the several pastors will undertake the duty.—l am, &c., , William Beetham, Chairman of Taita School Local Committee.