THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, JULY 19, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2040, 19 July 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, JULY 19, 1875.

A meeting is called for this evening "of persons interested in memorialising the House of Representatives on the subject of opening the lands for settlement, inthe Thames. Yajley- and the adjoining d\s. tricts." The meeting is to;take place in; ■the: Council.Chamber at half; past: seven; o'clppt, and if all persons, interested in; the'subject attend, an adjournment to some building affording more accommodation will be; necessary: nary meeting to discuss this, matter,was lield on Wednesday last, at which. Dr. Kilgdur submitted the draft of a memorial, which he had prepared. This has been before the public some days, during which' those* who are directly interested have had time to digest its contents; .They should therefore be able to decide upon a definite course of action this evening, without anyvery lengthened discussion. Credit is due to Dr Kilgour for taking the initiative io|tbis matter, and especially for

; preparing the memorial, which sets forth very fully the disadvantages under which this district has long labored, and still labors from the want of available land for settlement; one very serious disadvantage being that men who have by industry or fortunate speculation acquired a little capital which they wished to invest in : making a home for their families have been compelled to seek a channel for .their investments elsewhere. Then we have alt felt the effects of a depression in . mining—almost the sole industry of the district; whereas if the land acquired by the Government had been thrown open for settlement an outlet would have been found for money-which has been locked up in bank coffees, and there would have been a permanent source of wealth added to the industries of the community. We are inclined to think; however, that while it will bo necessary to embody in any memorial adopted a complete" statement of the difficulties which beset the acquirement: of land for settlement,,it would be well to avoid anything that can be construed into a reflection upon the " administration of : the Government, especially regarding Native affairs. Some parts of the draft memorial, we take it, do this; and if the assistance and support of the Government be considered advisable or expedient, it would perhaps be ; as well to expunge such portions of the memorial as refer to the Government and their officials. It will not avail to say that the memorial is. addressed to the Parliament'and not^toitho.Government —that the assistance of the latter is not required. As long' as the present Ministers remain in office they will exercise a power with the House in all matters; and it is the native policy pursued by Sir Donald McLean; which has helped ,to make the Ministry acceptable to the House and the Parliament. It will not serve-the purpose, of .the memorialists to assert that large tracts of land have been;acquired in tbis district by i speculators, "by the aid of Government officials, sometimes in direct contravention of the law.'' If an instance of this kind of business can be adduced, by allmeans mention it—the speculator; the extehtand situation oftheland; the Government or Government officials concerned in,aiding its acquirement; and the clause of the Act which has been contravened. One fact of this kind would avail more than a long string of general allegations, in which it is easy to indulge but most difficult to prove. The draft will no doubt be useful as a basis on which to stand, but we* believe the promoters and friends of the movement will agree with us that it would be better to avoid general charges of maladministration against the Government, and adhere to a plain statement of facts.

We do not wish, it to be supposed that, from the remarks which appeared" in our leader of Saturday concerning Sir George Grey's speech at Auckland, we consider classics, mathematics, and the other subjects we then mentioned, ?all or nearly all that is required for a boy's education.There are many other subjects in which it is even more necessary that a boy should be well instructed, but we drew attention to these . first,!: because they form the gist of the remarks uttered by the Superintendent. The 'subjects we mentioned are indeed most important for any one wishing-to hold—as all should wish to hold —a distinguished position in after life ; but, in endeavoring to obtain excellence : in these, the paramount impor' tance of a thoroughly sound English education mustnever be lost sight of. What we mean to say is this—that oftentimes in the endeavor to reflect credit and honor on the school in .general (and the master in particular) by turning out some great' i classical scholar or brilliant mathematician, the necessity of being thoroughly, conversant with the English language itself is often neglected or disregarded; n This is more often the case with mathematics than classics, because though a boy or a man may attain to greatness in mathematics, while his acquaintance with his own tongue ia imperfect in the extreme, yetlas the - study of -classics involves,; even if it does n0t.... presuppose a knowledge of English; success without that knowledge is very improbable, even if it be not altogether impossible to attain. We would, therefore, in addition to those-subjects to which Sir George Grey drew attention, urge upon all head masters of our-better class schools how necessary it is that boys^hould be able to express, in a few words, the thoughts- they feel, and that they should be able, further to write on any ordinary subject with a certain amount of freedom and ease, which may be readily acquired by a little practice. We have seen men of some eminence in the mathematical and scientific world who were almost, afc a loss to_write a decent; letter, and who constantly misapplied terms, and misquoted phrases in a manner which made them the laughing stock of "'others', whose abilities were by no means on a par with their own. And jet all this might have been avoided if they had in youth been first well grounded in English, and encouraged io read standard works, written, by really good English authors ; nor would this have interfered with their mathematical or ; scientifin studie3, but rather improved them—if,' instead of; poring over • .'the jßinomial; Theorem, or. some work, of iLarjiner's, they" had branched off for sbmV fewhQurs.to other studies, and returned :to their first love with renewed zest. The study of words commonly used is also one well worihy of more notice, than it receives ; and yet Dr. Johnson might as well inever have uttered his words of; advice, "never "use 'a word whose meaning you do '■ not understand," for all the", attention his [remark now receives.. Boys and young, ■ mecH-to say nothing of older one's—-so frequently use words, especially long ones;'" in such a manner as to be totally inappli ' cable to the rest of their sentence, that it is quite evident that their knowledge of the word's real meaning is extremely

vague, even if they understand its meaning at all. If the study of such books as those by Ogilvio, •• Trench's Syno-

nyms," or, more especially, " Angus on j the English Language," formed part of / the of our schools, this s.tate of things would rapidly pass away, and we; should seldom have men possessed of real, ability making themselves the objects of J remark, by mispronouncing some word a i little out of common..use, or laying the accent in the wrong place on one of—to them—unusual length. We would say laW to all v whomTfc^Way^dncerii^takd first especial care that your pupils acquire such a thorough English education as may fit them to take 1 their "part in th<D battle of life as English gentlemen;, then, if possible, discover in what branch, either classics, mathematics or science, each individual boy is best .-calculated do shine, and urge him along the course for which he has most inclination by everymoans in your power. Every boy likes best those subjects which he can do with most ease^to. and 1 ■:these will generally beTound those for which lie has by nature the most aptitude, and which,

consequently, are; tho^seiitoj be encouraged i Of course due respect* must be had to parents' wishes as regards, the boy him-

self, and also to the particular "station" in j life which he is intended to fill. It would obviously,be waste of time to .press^a boy. forward in classics whose'vocation was to : be that of sailor, or to encourage a taste for astronomy in one who was destined never to stir from a counting house. ; All that we hav,o|^adeavoured toisay, mu¥t bei taken as a general rule" —like all other rules subject to exceptions in individual j cases; but as a general rule it majfbe taken to be simply this—first make a boy thoroughly master of hiyown tongue,^ and then encourage him to'pursuVby every means in his. power excellence in, those subjects he himself is' most anxious to learn. These generally go hand in, hand with English, and as he progresses moreiand- more in the] one,^ so; iwjll lies sbe \ more eager to progress, more and more, in the other. , Kf = •; :!f<