STATE EDUCATIONAL.

Southland Times, Issue 647, 22 March 1867, Page 2

STATE EDUCATIONAL.

(TO THE EDITOE OF THE SOtTTBIAND TIMES). Sir, —l have seen a letter (signed .*" Practical") in a local print, affecting to treat of Education. Erom the elegant allusions to the "tap" and "tipple," "Shandy Gaff,'' and "half and half" therein, the writer would seem better •qualified to write on the effects of alcohol on the human system than on Education. One thing appears plain enough* —namely, that he is a schoolmaster with but little to do, and on the look out for an endowment at the public expense. In the •words of a late writer, "he possesses no recommendation • save this, that; he ■ thirsteth for the receipt of public money " I have a shrewd suspicion of him as an ,'" individual who recently asked me to take part in a movement with the ulterior .-■■ objectof subsidisinghimself,but I have seen so much of the tricks and chicanery of incompetent schoolmasters and of selfish individuals, who want to benefit themselves at the expense of their neighbors, that I say —let us have free trade in Education as well as every thing else. The best man .will be supported, and those who have - nothing to recommend them but outside show and a display of learning-—that is to ■ay, more sound than sense —will meet* with all the encouragement they deserve. ■ As a parent I am disgusted with the.^vO'

which would deprive me of the oppor- < tunity of consulting my own choice in ' educating my children, and would compel 'me also to pay for what I disapprove of. : lam quite certain that Southland does need ' State ' Schools, or compulsory Education. To affirm the latter is to libel our willingness to do our duty ; while to assert the former is to libel our ability. I am, &c, COTTKTEYMAI*".