South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2453, 28 January 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1881.

Complaints are numerous about the expensive character of tht State education dispensed in New Zealand, but our grumbling friends have only to look over their shoulder and they wiil find plenty of consolation. We have no doubt been extravagant in the way of school buildings, using brick and stone where weatherboards would have answered, and planting schools and schoolmasters where, in the absence of population, their energies have been going waste. But as regards education itself, we have only to institute comparisons between the curriculum here and that which is adopted in the State schools of Australia, in order to find that, so far from being liberal, we have been strictly conservative. The State schools of New Zealand, unlike those, for instance, of Victoria, have not reached the singing stage. Not that the juvenile human voice has been entirely neglected in the public schools of this colony, but it has generally been cultivated under the influence of the cane instead of the sol-fa method. In Victoria, the Government dominie teaches not only the three R’s, but such accomplishments as singing and drawing. The schools of the various districts have been parcelled out to specialists, and certain intervals in each week have been devoted to the fine arts. Such a luxury as this, we have no doubt, would make the complexions of the identities of this colony, especially the bachelor ones, change color. The consternation caused by the introduction of instrumental music among Presbyterian worshippers would he a tame thing, alongside of the vehement loathing and unutterable amazement that would ensue if such an innovation were proposed. The introduction of the fine arts into our State sbools would be regarded as the last extravagant straw on the camel’s back. If the system did not immediately break down, then the peophets all over the country would be in a worse dilemma than the seer of Parihaka, who has had to fall back on a hot potatoe for inspiration. Victoria fortunately, by her attitude, at this moment offers a warning against educational extravagance. In travelling beyond the rudiments she has gone beyond her means, and she is now retracing her steps. The incubus of drawing and singing masters is so great that the Government has resolved to gradually get rid of their services. A number of these teachers are to be dispensed with, and those retained are to devote a portion of their time to instructing State school teachers, who are to receive a secondclass license as soon as they are competent to teach these subjects. We learn that the colony referred to has about a hundred teachers qualified to teach singing, and an equal number qualified to teach drawing. In making promotions, those qualified in these subjects will have the preference. It is anticipated that the reductions will effect a saving of £5,000 a year. The drawing and singing masters, whose services are dispensed with will receive as compensation a month’s salary for every year of service, and the compensation will amount to about £2,500.

It might be worth while considering whether similar inducements should not be offered to teachers in New Zealand. The ability to teach drawing and singing are matters not to be despised. Why should the intellectual nourishment dealt out to young New Zealand be inferior to that which is dispensed to young Australia ? If the colony is to be made inviting to families from abroad, we must show that we are keeping pace with our cousins in the adjacent continent with regard to education. We believe that such things as drawing and singing might be cultivated in our public schools without the slightest additional expense. If the attainment of these accomplishments wore rendered essential to the promotion of teachers the difficulty would soon disappear. A good deal of attention is devoted in our public schools to drill. Boys and girls are made to rise up, sit down, and generally move about with the regularity of automatons. Physical culture—the training of the muscles—is doubtless very good in its way—but why should the whole of the senses •not receive a fair share of attention ? Is there any good or specific reason why a love of the beautiful should not be cultivated. Drawing is the training of the eye and the hand, just as music trains the voice and the ear, bringing the different organs into harmonious operation. Both- drawing and singing have a refining tendency, hence their high value as educational processes. Physical education is the education of the body ; music and the fine arts supply the education of the soul. We are not disparaging the former when we say that the one is as superior to the other as day is to night, or the sun to a farthing candle. Some slight attention to music and drawing, even, if they are accomplishments, would do our day schools no harm.