The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1879.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5821, 25 November 1879, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1879.

Although wo make no pretensions to the possession of the gift of prophecy, we believe we shall not prove far wrong in the end if we venture to predict that the pruning knife will sooner or later have to be applied to our educational expenditure. Already we have to make provision for an outlay of very little under a quarter of a million of money annually, to keep our educational establishment head and shoulders above water. Given a gradually increasing population, in proportion to the ratio of the past, it is obvious that, peering into the future, the quarter of a million will at no very distant day be wholly inadequate to the requirements of the department. In the normal state of things we are bound, therefore, to anticipate an increased rather than a diminished expenditure. And where is the money to fcome from ? But that is not the only question which suggests itself. When the existing schools prove inadequate to meet the demands upon them, will the Government be justified in. tying the purse-strings and refusing to expend more of the public money in the erection of new buildings, or providing additional accommodation and teaching power ? Should such an experiment tie then tried, it will be very much like an attempt to put on the brake after the- coach has commenced to roll over. The time will be out of place and the remedy ineffectually. It is manifest that the difficulty—not of ten years hence, but of to-morrow—-ought to be faced boldly, manfully, and with a thorough determination to place the instruction of our youth upon a broad and if possible permanent basis. If it is to rest upon the ability of the Treasurer to dole out annually, from the public revenues, a given sum of money, the existence of our educational system must necessarily depend upon the goodn es; ; of harvests, the price of wool, am iho various other constituent elements w hi cli contribute to or materially influence tvho Financial Statement. The engagements of the colony to its outside creditors necessarily demand the first attention of every Treasurer. So far as wo can judge, j the only hope of any Treasurer succeeding in making both ends meet just now, with regard to the internal economy of the country, is in the willingness of the

public to submit to large additional taxation. I£ in excess of what is actually required for the common and necessary purposes of government, the people are to bo threatened with an annually increasing burden for the support of our educational institutions, tho time is probably not far off when tho whole subject will be eagerly discussed and examined by those who havo hardly given a thought to it h< lore. We are by no means suggesting that the Legislature should attempt to deal with the subject during its present session. That would bo out of the question. But the sooner the country is brought to realise the fact that it is paying a quarter of a million a year for teaching the youth of tho country, and that that burden must inevitably keep on increasing, the better for all of us. Already New Zealand is by far the most heavily taxed portion of tho British Empire. Can the colonial finances continue to bear the strain which is put upon them 1 And are the taxpayers willing to bear a burden which prima facie ought to be borne exclusively by those who participate in the benefits of our system of public instruction !

Viewed in the abstract, there seems no reason why almost every parent in Now Zealand should not be compelled to educate his own child. Noris thereanyspecial reason for believing that he would fail in his duty if left to himself. It is not as if the country was in a state of poverty, or its people nothing better than serfs. One would almost suppose that before any such educational laws as wo have in force in the colony ever saw the light, it had been clearly demonstrated to the Legislature (1) that the masses were in a state of unpardonable ignorance, (2) that the general rule, rather than the exception with parents, was to neglect tho education of their children, and (3) that the ordinary machinery throughout tho country had entirely failed to accomplish the purposes for which it was intended. No one pretends that such a condition of things ever was proved or could be proved to the satisfaction of the Legislature, or even that jury of nations of whom Sir William Eitzherbebi once spoke. All over the country we observe that Roman Catholics and English Church men alike are steadily preparing themselves for an alteration in the law which will remove what they regard as the one great blot of our existing educational system. There is little doubt that ere long the public mind will be sorely exercised upon the problem, whether in the existing circumstances of the. colony a return to simpler methods of self-government will not be more desirable than additional taxation. Our educational system is paternal and experimental. Wo would rejoice to see something more imbued with a spirit of self-reliance than our present plan, according to which wo educate, free of expense, the children of people who are well able to pay for themselves.