THISTLEDOWN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1707, 19 January 1895, Page 2

THISTLEDOWN.

“ A mah may jest and tell the truth.” —Horace.'

I am glad to see Mrs Thomas standing for the Board of Education, and shall proceed to give a few reasons why School Committees will, in my opinion, act wisely by returning her. The responsibility for the education of children rests primarily on parents and of parents, more especially on the mother* The best that is in all of us we have learned at our mother s knee, Sad many of ui have but too. good reasoijfico deplore the' too early loss of our first and most important teacher, whose place is rarely supplied, even in part. Fathers have too many interests in the outside world of business or of pleasure to take such a lively or constant interest in the education of their children as the mother. Very often they have not the time, their hours being entirely engrossed by the necessity of providing them a material subsistence... Failing the parents, come nCxt in responsibility the churches. It was only when parents proved partly unable to educate their children, partly indifferent,.while the efforts of the churches were perfunctory in the extreme, that the State was compelled in self-defence to grapple the problem. This brings us to a notable instance of the way in which words mislead us. The State is, to most of us, an abstract impersonal entity, ■* A corporation with,’ as Dan O’Connell said, * neither a soul to he damned nor a body to be kicked,’ and so we are constantly calling on her to do things for us, as if she were some beneficent individual in Mars or Jupiter, who lavished her spare cash and attention on us in default of more worthy objects in those planets. Few of us realise that we are the State, that each one of us, man and woman, is responsible for what the State does or for what she pays. * * *

I notice my friend, Mr Hawkins, objects to the recent grant of female franchise on. the ground that woman has thereby forfeited a position of'neutrality and independence for a share in the conflict. He also thinks that by her coming tothe.front we have sacrificed our reserves to feed the first line of fire. That woman was neutral before is, if not correct, at least not im-~S possible, that she was independent is true if we except, the negative prefix in. That she was in reserve cannot be disputed, hut I fail to see the use of a reserve without' 1 arms, a political' corps d’appus without even thesavage’s bow and arrow of a vote. But this by the way: Women may hot he entitled to a say as to whether Seddon or Russell is to boss the colony, but. in the matter of how their children ought to he educated, I apprehend they have the fullest right to a voice and I see no better way to give the State system of Education of heart and a conscience than by enlisting the hearts and consciences of women in its working.

We must remember too that more than w ; half of our children and some two-thirds, j • if not more, of our teachers are girls or I women.. Miss Carpenter once remarked that the average matron of a public insti- j tution could throw dust in the eyes of any, man born. If then you object to women controlling the education of our boys, surely you will allow them some say in the training of our girls. If you object even to that, you want then to protect, the masculine

\jl .uCiSiu >. ■ teachers. I have seen it ‘on the paper’--: long ago that a pretty teachefess could do what she liked with the Minc?o s -..0f the Board. ' : ' "X’

X X X X : . Xw Personally Mi s Thomas is exceptionally/: well fitted for the position. Through her"' husband she is in touch with the practical i side of Education,; and has always shown, a keen interest in the progress and in par-’: ticular in the practical out-door strides of her. husband’s pupils.

The fact most militates against her i success is the far from favorable result of •Onehunga’s experiment. There were however personal local conditions quite sufficient, in my opinion, to destroy Mrs Yates* usefulness without bringing in any question of sex. Her failures appears to me, judging simply from the public fruits, to have resulted from three causes. First, her want of experience in-public affairs, few men would be capable Mayors without serving a term-of apprenticeship in the Council; secondly, a deficiency of temper on her part; and thirdly and principally, a systemof organised, rudeness and opposition on the part of certain Councillors. - With womentaking part in municipal, and colonial politics, courtesy need not disappear, it has only shifted its base. It used to he axiom that arguing with a woman was rude. Ed-

ucated women now are the strongest rebels against this doctrine and complain they are treated as puppets if you follow it. Argument, however, is only debased by personalities about either the wits or the motives of your opponent and the introduction of

women into the.fonner ought to stop both. x ?x j- ... *