South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2419, 17 December 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1880.

Thoslv of the electors of New Zealand who have been waiting the turn of political events need hardly be told that the system of national education that has been inaugurated in this colony is in a position very much like that of the Provincial system when the Abolition Act was under discussion, in danger of being severe!}’ mutilated, if not destroyed. We do not desire to excite grave apprehensions, but it is impossible to disguise the fact that the recent alteration of Cabinet portfolios has an ugly significance. Xo greater friend of state education exists in the colony than the Hon Mr Uollcston, and the withdrawal of this department from his control must excite uneasy apprehensions. What is termed ±Vee education

has been persistently attacked within

and without the walls of Parliament, and, after the repeated assurances of Members of Parliament that the amount hitherto allowed for the maintenance of schools will never again be voted, we may depend upon it that when next the estimates come up for consideration a dead set will 'be made on the foremost plank of the education platform. The Colonial Secretary, who has just been appointed Minister of Education is pur c-rvcllnivc the representative and mouthpiece of the Biblo-•in-schools party in Otago. When he was eiected in Dunedin a year or two ago, it was on the Hihlc-in-schools ticket, and he stands pledged to his constituents, or at least to a majority of them, to do all in his power to break down the strictly secular plank. We need hardly say, that if those two planks—the free and secular—are torn away the whole system must fall to pieces. The Government may try to reconstruct a raft, but deprived of its great elementary principles, it can only he a lamentable burlesque of that national system, in which America, Canada, Victoria, and other advanced and enlightened countries and colonies, take a special pride. The colony has had many humiliations of late —its sackcloth and ashes have been paraded by no friendly hands through the press of the world ; but to bring a national system of education into existence only to be crushed to death will certainly bo a crowning disgrace. The present system may bo improved, ' hut to tamper with its free and secular principles is to endanger its existence. There are ways in which it can be modified. The infant department of onr schools is altogether a luxury, and free education might very well be restricted to primary subjects. In this way we believe -the schools might he worked at half their present cost. Hut it is not desirable that the free schools of the Sf;ito should be abolished or that contributions from parents should be exacted without the people who are interested being first consulted. Neither is it desirable that a gentleman who is known to be strongly opposed to secular education should be placed in the false position of having to administer a system of which he disapproves. The present Education system is the result of a. long and arduous political struggle and wo trust that it will not be interfered with. However much certain members of Parliament may be opposed to it, a sense of decency and responsibility will, we hope, prevent them from mutilating it until the next general election enables them to read the barometer of public opinion.

In connection with public exhibitions, whether they take 11 ic form of horseracing, athletic spurts, agricultural shows, llower shows, or ploughing matches, it is a customary and a pleasing duty on the part of the Press to pay a slight tribute of praise to the working oiliccrs for their courtesy and clliciency. Through no fault of our own we have been reluctantly deprived of that pleasure on the occasion of thcTimaru Flower Show, which came olf yesterday. For the lirst time in a long experience, onr endeavors to supply the public at at the earliest possible moment with the fullest information practicable concerning the awards of the judges, were effectually frustrated. In place of courtesy the representative of this journal was treated with the utmost incivility, and the result was that our report of the prizes had to appear shorn of half its dimensions. This is the more to bo regretted, as only a few minutes before the Secretary of the Society made an unseemly exhibition of his infirmity of temper, the Chairman of the Horticultural Committee at a luncheon given to the judges, took the opportunity of eulogising the Press for the way in which it has invariably reported the proet o 1ings and exhibitions of the Society. What subsequently occurred, was our and the 'public’s misfortune, not our fault. The Secretary of the Society—, usually an amiable Jack-of-all-Trades, and a lively illustration of the multifarious ollices that can be performed in a sort of way by one individual —was diligently employed doing the public bellman out of a living by taking the shillings at the gates. It was practically impossible that the same person could keep the gates of the Show and take charge of the Society’s books at the same time, and hence arose onr difficulty. The Secretary had for the time being, metamorphosed himself into a doorkeeper, and we found him in a frame of mind peculiar to public oflicers when much drudgery renders them careworn and caddish. The secretary-doorkeeper was unapproachable. AYe tried to approach him, and he became excitable and abusive, and the result was that we bad to content ourselves and onr readers with ball: a report. Of course the public who contribute to the exhibition, and the promoters of this Horticultural Institution. are the principal .sufferers by a cn a I rr Iciiiiis of this kind. Wc should not have paid so much attention to the occurrence as we have done, but for the fact that it is unusual, and demands an explanation. It is the lirst time in pur experience that we have bad the pleasure of coming into contact with the ollieial dack-of-all-trades at a public exhibition, and we trust it will be the last. Our experience lias been something like that of a sea bather, when for the lirst time bis skin comes in contact with a harmless looking florid little jelly lisli. The sensation was such as to demonstrate the advisability of keeping out of the road of the irritable and venomous especially on public holidays, and at places of public entertainment. Of course it is for our esteemed friends, the horticulturists, to consider whether it is well that the guardian of the municipal wasp’s nest can successfully preside over their floral hive. As regards our friend the Town Clerk of Tiinam, we cherish an exceedingly High opinion of bis abilities. 15ut wc think a gentleman who holds about a score of dilferent ollices under the borough and general Government—who is a living contradiction of the scriptural proverb that “ No man can serve two masters ” —who is town collector, valuator, inspector of

nuisances, dog inspector, inspector of public buildings and hackney carriages, and assessor on behalf of the Government, under the Property Assessments Act, deserves a holiday occasionally. Like Barkis, he may he “ willin ” even where no perquisites are hanging out, but suicides arc strictly prohibited, and avaluable public otlicer should bo restrained from plunging over head and ears in a dangerous sea of ollices. Such a hard-worked public ofliccr may be excused for an occasional display of acerbity, hut the thorny products ol the municipal flower-pot are out of place at an exhibition where harmony should he a prevailing feature. We certainly think, after our recent experience, that the municipal mulhnn iti jxirro, however versatile, indef.tigahle, and irrascihle. who, with all his accomplishments, lacks that cheap hut valuable commodity—civility—belongs to a class of tender exotics that are hound to sillier themselves vnd to confer their sntferings on others, by exposure at the gates of a Mower show.