EDUCATIONAL MATTERS IN TIMARU.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2445, 19 January 1881, Page 2

EDUCATIONAL MATTERS IN TIMARU.

SECOND EDITION

: [to the editor] Sir, —Preparatory to the meeting of householders at the Timaru Public School on Monday evening next, for the purpose of electing a School Committec for the ensuing year, allow me to make a'few remarks upon the action of the retiring Committee and on educational matters generally; In your leader of last evening you somewhat strongly condemn the Committee in endeavoring to supplement their incidental fund by subscriptions from the parents of the children themselves. I would ask, had not such been done, how could the Committee, in the middle of winter, have kept up a supply of fuel for the fires at the school, to warm the children during school hours? It was principally for this purpose that the appeal to the parents was made and cordially responded to. This would not have been required were it not for the inanition of the Legislature last session. The education vote was ground down to a minimum, making it an utter impossibility for the A-arious Committees to carry on their work, and yet our wise legislators did not at the same time provide a remedy. Had they done so there would have been no necessity for asking pecuniary assistance. Having disposed of this point, I would next refer to that paragraph in your leader referring (o the selection* of; candidates for the incoming School Committees. It is a well-known fact that the present Education Act is very far from being perfect, and the national system which it inculcates is rotten at the core if its promoters carry it out in its integrity. At the time it became the law of the land, money was plentiful and the colony apparently prosperous. A large sum of money was voted and expended with a free and liberal hand. To-day, all is changed, and the Government cannot find the wherewithal to continue the S3 r stein. Hence it is apparent that a change must ho effected somewhere. In Canterbury, prior to the present Act being passed, our public schools were worked under a system that answered exceedingly well, a nominal fee being payable in addition to a tenement tax, and it had been well if this Provincial Act had been followed up by a general due on a similar basis, and in the opinion of many, the present Education Act will be amended during next session of Parliament in accordance therewith. The Act also requires amending in another and more prominent direction, I allude to the exclusion of the Bible from the public schools, and maintain that the clause in the Act to that effect should he expunged, thus sweeping away secularism in its worst form. Britain’s greatness and superiority over every other nation on the face of the globe is universally admitted to have been caused through the Bible having been the groundwork of her faith, and its principles disseminated throughout the length and breadth of the tight little island. If we exclude the Bible from our national system of education, wo insert the thin end of the Avcdge, wherein- may-he slowly, .yet surely, the boasted supremacy of the British nation will, as has been the fate of other great powers, crumble in the dust. I would therefore urge all householders on Monday evening next to assemble at the various schoolhouscs where the meetings for election of committees are to he held, in large numbers, and to take a greater and wider interest in educational matters than they have previously done. Let them elect those in whom they possess confidence to carry out the suggestions I have made. Apologising for the length of my letter, and hoping that others will follow on such important a subject, I am, A. FISHER.