South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1882.
The report of the Education Board of South Canterbury is now, before us. It is necessarily a very statistical document ; bristling with-facts relieved by lamentations, v A paragraph is devoted to a.. detailed account of the present constitution of the, Boardi The last sentence is, to those who have been acquainted with the progress of educational matters "in this district, extremely suggestive. “In September,: Mr-Hpwell ■ resigned, and,-Mr Rpbaon; B. -‘Walcdtwas elected in-' llis " place.” What stirring scenes does this not call up ! “(Six new -schools . have been opened during the year ; and four new: districts had been proclaimed with a .view to establishing schools.” This joyous announcement is qualified by therjnptficiition that school., work has been greatly retarded, owing to the inability of the Doard to provide buildings.” The Board laments, too] that it has been unable to provide ior several districts whence petitions had reached it. The tabulated statement of the" expenditure of the year’s building grant is as fallows:—Six small schools, including furniture,' apparatus, etc., £ISOO ; grants in aid of buildings to be carried out at a future date, at Waimate and Temuka, £SOO each, £IOOO ; additions to schools at Milford, Waitohi Flak' and Kakahu,, £SOO ; insurance on school buildings, £175 ; general repairs and contingences, £125 ; total, £3300, No one can complain of the distribution of this miserable sum. The Board has done its best in this respect. The item of £175 to cover insurances on school buildings shows that insurance costs the Board a perfectly absurd amount. We are glad to see that Government intends taking over these remote risks (for they are remote) for school buildings, and to rebuild them when burned, at the public cost. This is as it should be. The chances of fire in these cases are very". remote, arid Boards have quite enough to do without incurring needless risks and responsibilities. The aided school regulations are shown to have worked very well, provisionally. There are 33 schools in operation. Regarding the salaries of teachers it is painful’to find that the. exigencies of the service l should have made it necessary ‘to lower these. It is the assistant teachers who suffer most. This is a very important matter, and it will indeed be penny wise and pound foolish on the part of the Government if the Board should be compelled to make any further reduction,. The scholarships are the bate noir of the Board ; their “ Old Man of the Sea ” whom they cannot dislodge. -A gratifying amount of money has been expended in payment of scholarships, hut it is quite an open question whether it will be the means, or has yet been, of spreading education which we take to be the purpose of a public school. Again,, the inadequate provision for auditing School Committee accounts has been referred to, this time by the District Auditors. The’ Board com- . plained ofdt last year, of course getting snubbed politely., Departments do 'mot want reflections or suggestions. It is, however, perfectly incomprehensible, why the Education Department should have ■so treated repeated protests against the vague, complicated and generally unsatisfactory framing of the schedules on which Committees present their annual statement and balance-sheet. ;
Illness appears to have worked havoc in the attendance at some schools ; otherwise, things seem to be looking hopeful? We hope the Board will this year find the Government purse strings, a little relaxed. The amount of monies at the command of the Board is so utterly inadequate for the purposes for which they are allocated, that the Board, with the very best intentions, finds itself quite unable to carry out the spirit and intention of the Act with any sort of liberality. The sweeping reductions that the Board was some time ago compelled to make, in the salaries of the teachers, have had a very prejudicial effect on the efficiency of the schools. The teaching profession offers no inducement to capable persons to embrace it. So long as it remains so ill-paid,. its ranks . will always be encumbered with the incapable and the broken down. In the interest of our children we want to see the teaching profession more and more elevated. We want to see men of talent going into it, not merely weakbrained bookworms. The Education Department, if they desire their system, their formidable syllabus, and their sounding programme, to bear any fruit at all, must be a great deal more liberally supplied with money. As things now are, the system threatens to collapse, to die of inanition. We shall take an early opportunity of reviewing, at some length, the report of the Inspector of Schools.
The Borough Council of Timaru are the most phlegmatic—-as the citizens are the most patient—body in the world, we verily believe. The present unfavorable weather has reduced the streets of this town to an unspeakably disgusting condition. Councillors pass and ropass with the stolidity of Mahometans—one would imagine they wore fatalists, and looked upon mud
as an inevitable visitation. The footpassenger wanders ..up - and down, wearily, ;looking for a icifossing, bub 'hone ;he is • fain to'-.-offer a silent prayer for preservation, ’’ plunger'iu mediae res, and go through the muddy batter, to the destruction of his" ffabiliments 5 .' ' Are ''there- no. scrapers to be h&dj. (Cannot a man or two be told offTd 'patfol'4he streets with SCfapers "and -bass- brooms, - andgive us a few' clear, pathsr across the (roads ? 'lt is absolutely disgraceful that the Council should permit things to continue ih this -state. Why, the Harbor ’Board or the Educationjßoard would,do. better than this. “ Get yom gone, and give place to honester men,” said-Mr Oliver Cromwell, in ttmiihg out the Parliament.’ We respectfully commend this memorable utterance to the Councillors of Timaru. r rSihco writing the above.we .have, mirabile. dictu, seen two men at work' with scrapers ! 1
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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2873, 9 June 1882, Page 2
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971South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1882. South Canterbury Times, Issue 2873, 9 June 1882, Page 2
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