The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1889. DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOLS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1914, 9 July 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1889. DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOLS.

In his opposition to the raising of the Geraldine School to the status of a District High School, Mr John Talbot has acted quite consistently with previous performances. He did his best to; get the Temuka School disrated, but he failed, and now be is doing his | best to prevent Geraldine obtaining the same privilege as Temuka, and he will fail also. The very fact that he is opposed to it is ominous of success. In going to the extent of entering a protest against a resolution of the vast majority of the board complying with an oft-repeated request, Mr Talbot went beyond what consistent action required of him. Ho would have done bis duty sufficiently well enough te satisfy his constituents and his conscience, unless it is overexacting, without hampering the will of the majority with such impediments to success. Mis action denotes that there is a great deal of the “Not we, the people, but I, the King,” about him; that he is intolerant of government by majorities, that, in faet, he would be an autocrat if he could. This is fighting to t the bitter end; trying to kill the enemy with the last kick, muttering imprecations with the last gasp, and is an extent to which no public representative is called upon to go. The protest may hamper the action of the majority, but it cannot permanently prevent the majority from having its way. It may prove micbievous and vexatious, without doing anybody good, except in so far as it may give pleasure to Mr Talbot to see it rolling in as an apple of discord. In the same way when an attempt was made some years ago to bring Arowhenua and Temuka under the operations of the Municipal Corporations Act, Mr Talbot got a few of his henchmen to go round secretly, get up a counter petition and forward it to the Government. The result was that the people living in these places were put to great inconvenience and expense, but Mr Talbot was only successful for a short time. He succeeded in making mischief, but failed in doing good, and w© have no doubt his attempt at frustrating the will of the majority in the matter of the Geraldine bchosl will prove equally futile.

As regards this question of District High Schools, it appears to us to be the most liberal idea in the whole of the Education Act, the only fault being that there are not proper monetary provisions made for carrying it out. For years we hare held that the State has no right to educate beyond primary limits, excepting in cases where primary pupils display talents which it is desirable to cultivate. We want clever men for State purposes, and we eught to do our best to educate pupils displaying exceptional ability. The State has no right to pay for the education of noodles. The State is at present doing exactly the converse of this. It is educating noodles in high schools and colleges, many a clever boy, who would, in days to come, prove an ornament to society, has to turn his attention to something else, because of the inability of his ps rents to provide the means of giving him a more liberal education. There is in Timaru a liberally endowed High School, but.it might as well have been in Kamachatka for all the good it is to the vast majority af the people in the country districts. They cannot afford to. pay for board and lodging and the fees for their children, and consequently High Schools are simply nurseries for the children of the wealthy, be they noodles or Selons. To these we object. They should never have been established, but they \ are established, and they will remain so, and the only thing we can do is to make the best use of the materials placed at our disposal to develop talents which cannot afford the I luxuries of the High Schools, In t District High Schools alone these materials are provided. The wealthy men who made our laws provided endowments for High Schoels; they left District High Schools and primary schools dependent on the whims and fancies of Parliament. But we cannot alter it, and if we attempted it Mr Talbot would make one to oppose it. Our aim should be to cultivate the District High Schools as much as possible, for in them„the poor may hope to receive 4 good education; The Geraldine people are wise in the steps they are taking, and it does not redound to Mr Talbot’s credit that he should offer a factions opposition to what he knows to be the will of the majority. He would have done his duty very well without going to the extant of a protest, which can only hamper the movement in hand without in any way promoting the views which Mr Talbot advocates with a persistence and energy worthy of a better cause.