The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1866.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 257, 11 May 1866, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1866.

The question of education was brought prominently forward during the last session of the Provincial Council. It is a subject the importance of which cannot be over estimated. The value of a sound and liberal education in youth, is of the highest and most lasting character. Those to whom the opportunities of systematic instruction were afforded in early life, carry with them through their , after career, marked advantages, and are ever ready to acknowledge the debt of gratitude they owe to those who were instrumental in leading them to cultivate the broad and verdant * fields of knowledge. The untutored and uninformed as a sequence to their ignorance, find it hard unless possessing, natural abilities superior, to those of the majority of mankind, to emancipate themselves from the subjective dependance on others who had been more highly privileged in youth. Learning in one form or another, is, in the present state of the world, necessary to all. In every occupation and position ; the rapidity of progress, in all departments of knowledge, entitles the present

era to be termed the " age of wonders." In science, in the mental expansion and elevation of .the masses, in practical acknowledgement of the moral responsibilities man owes to his fellow-man,, the present generation has. outstripped its predecessors, -> and thus far may be considered to have earned honorable distinction. The sequal to this progress is the increased interest that has been taken, and efforts that have been made to provide facilities for the education of the young. To the . deep and earnest determination which, with our forefathers,; became almost an idiosyncracyto educate their children to a higher standard than they had attained themselves — a determination which not un--1 frequently entailed great sacrifice and privation — may we not attribute the advancement that has been made. Do we estimate that determination at itß full value — do we cherish it, and hold it as the most valued part of our inheritance — a heir-loom to be handled down unsullied and undiminished to the coming generation ? Do we aim to bring up the rising race, with a healthy and well founded ambition to excel in those qualities which give solidity to the mind and ennoble the man ; a systematic training, in the varied and elevating means of mental and moral ascendancy ? It is to be feared that a colonial existance is not favorable to the quickening of our susceptibilities in this direction, "While feeling that every parent is bound to make a sacrifice to educate his children, the G-overnment politically as well as morally ought to aid when aid is needed. It is, therefore, matter for deep regret that Southland should be placed in a position which required it to discontinue all assistance to education: the suspension of the Educational Ordinance should have been the very last attempt at retrenchment that should have been adopted. It is plain that .in sparsely j populated localities, children of the 'present — the men and women of the future — must more or less grow up in a state of ignorance and vagrancy, unless the -Government supplement scholastic institutions. The remarks made in the Council, by Messrs Swale, Johnson, and others, to the effect that the schoolhouses were, closed, that the industrious settlers were grief-stricken at the thought that their children were growing up in barbarian ignorance, qualifying for evil deeds and running riot, because it was not within their power to afford them private tuition, was no exaggeration of facts. The closing of the schoolhouses throughout the Province will produce evils which years will not eradicate : it may be the means of in aftertime swelling the ranks of the " dangerous classes," and lowering the tone of society. G-reat as the harm that is being done in the country districts, in the town it is still greater ; its youths are rapidly graduating in the classics of the streets, and becoming fit to rank among the " Arabs " of London or Melbourne. The obligations of fostering and directing secular educational institutions of a country are beyond all others the most important, and to neglect them argues an indifference to the well being of the rising generation of a flagrantly censurable character. The celebrated .Robert Hall, once gave expression to the following terse and truthful sentiment. He said : — " Of all the crimes which merit severe and enduring punishment — if there is one sin of omission which will entail a deeper pang of remorse, and add £o the misery of a being throughout all eternity, it is the crime of neglecting to discharge with decision and earnestness the responsibilities attending the education of the youth cammitted to his charge." G-reat indeed are our responsibilities, and heavy will be the punishment of those who may neglect to fulfil them. We are not arguing now upon the perfectness or otherwise of the education j system which had so long existed in the Province, although it is perhaps the least objectionable which has ever been adopted in the colonies in conjunction with Government assistance. Unsectarian in its character, and comprehensive in its range of action, it is capable of spreading the rich benefits of educational training far and wide ; but in order to evolve the i ill measure of good it must be well and energitically worked. Whatever its defects may be, until another is substituted it cannot altogether be dispensed with to the advantage or credit of the Province. -However low the funds may be, however difficult the task is, the duty and the privilege of the G-overnment and the Council is to strain every nerve to remove the reproach which is now cast upon Southland; that she has no public schools, and her youth are growing up in ignorance, indolance, and vice. An able letter from an up-country contributor, upon this subject, will be found in the " Open Columns."