South Canterbury Times, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2332, 7 September 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1880.

It is deeply to bo regretted that the Timaru School Committee should have allowed themselves to be inveighlcd into a position of antagonism to the spirit and intention of the Education Act. At the usual monthly meetingof the Committee last evening - a communication was read from the Board of Education notifying certain reductions in the salaries of teachers and incidental allowances which were rendered imperative by the reduction of the education vote. The Chairman, having pointed out that the incidental fund, already scarcely sufficient to meet urgent requirements, would lose about £BO per annum, it was resolved, after considerable discussion, that circulars should be forwarded “ to parents of children “ (other than infants) attending the “ school, asking them to contribute one “ shilling per month in cases where not more than, two children from one “ family arc attending ; or two shillings “ and sixpence per month in the aggre- “ gate when more than that number are “ attending.” In other words the parents of children attending the Timaru School arc to be asked to contribute sixpence per month per head in aid of the incidental fund. Wo have no doubt that the Committee before arriving at their decision amply weighed the matter under discussion, and if they have committed a serious error it is simply one of judgment. But while we arc willing to believe that they are actuated by most excellent motives we cannot, help thinking that the stop they have taken is a false one, and one which they themselves will, on due reflection, endeavor to recall. The of education introduced in the colony is understood to be free, secular, and compulsory. Since the experiment has been commenced every care has been taken, both by Education Boards and School Committees, and particularly by the legislature,that these principle should be carefully preserved in their integrity. Any proposal in the shape of a pecuniary demand on the parents has been stoutly resisted. It has been the boast of the framers of the Act that- the cost of education is borne, not partially but entirely by the State, and that the whole of the expense involved comes out of the consolidated revenue. In this instance we believe the Committee are inadvertently violating the spirit of the Act under which the system of national education that prevails in the colony has been instituted. The incidental fund may probably be a most important factor in our education

system, but, if so, the responsibility of maintaining it in a state of unimpaired efficiency should be allowed to rest with the Board. The latter has thought proper to reduce the salaries of teachers, but whether it is justified in reducing tbo allowances for fuel, &c., is another question. IE the Timaru Committee, instead of setting what we cannot help thinking is a pernicious example to the other School Committees of the district, made a firm stand, and distinctly told the Board that the incidental allowances must he kept up, we have no doubt that ways and means would ho found for complying with their demands.

We attach a good deal of importance to this resolution of the Committe, because it appears to he a departure from the original design of the promoters of free education in New Zealand, It has not the sanction of the Legislature, or even of the Board of Education, although wo arc well aware that some of the members of the South Canterbury Board are warmly in favor of any method by which contributions from parents is likely to ho exacted. The tax no doubt is a voluntary one, hut this circumstance only adds to its vicionsncss. Some parents will respond to the begging circulars, while others will treat them as waste paper. This will eventually give rise to a kind of class distinction in the schools, and wo will have the spectacle of contributing children basking in the sunshine of the teacher or monitor’s favor, and the juvenile noncontributors regarded as jumpers. We arc not conjuring up possibilities, but wc arc submitting a state of matters that must ensue if this resolution is carried into effect. If the kind of equality that at present forms one of the distinctive features of our State schools is to be preserved, jiaronts must not be asked to become subscribers. It would he ten times hotter to have fees imposed at once than to allow bogging sheets to bo scattered among the homes of the children by impecunious school committees. Supposing these circulars arc tolerated, where is the abuse to end ? Parents may just as well he invited to contribute towards the salaries of the teaching staff as towards this particular fund. The adoption of the proposed circulars is a violation of one of the most vital principles of the Education Act, and wc feel heartily sorry that the Timaru Committee should have taken the initiative in aiming a blow which, if allowed to take effect, must eventually prove destructive to the present system.