EDUCATION.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3915, 16 July 1881, Page 2

EDUCATION.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sib,—Parental love is the purest, tenderest,. least selfish, and most disinterested of all the passions and emotions that influence and animate the human heart:: the whole soul is engrossed bj it, so God-like and powerful i 9 its nature; so powerful, indeed, that in its excesses we recognise its vast strength, even when it destroys the happiness ot the parent and the welfare of the offspring.; This potent—this engrossing influence, may be powerfully and beneficially directed in uniting the zealous suffrages of all food citizens, and all righteous parents, carrying earnest of success and omnipotence of power to maintain an entirely unsectarian system of education, in opposition to the attempts to introduce religion ihto: our* schools. Working men may rest.assured that nothing but free education will give them just laws to defend their rights and promote their interests. At present suitable labouring men's representatires can scarcely be found, because men in other grades of society have opposing iuterests, and in his own rank, men have not the educational advantages that would enable them to compete easily and confidently with the sophistry of the learned, or the eloquence of the classic, and this difficulty' will remain until removed by national education. Equal instruction would withdraw all difficulty in selecting from the producers of all wealth able, intelligent, and honest representatives of their own class—men who, taken from the people,, would legislate for the people, and who, uniting the qualities of good common sense, educational acquirements, practical knowledge, and theoretical refinement, would act with the plain dealing of honest men, thinking enlarged views of social and physical science, and speaking with the eloquence and clearness of educated men. Thus it will be seen that even our present and immediate difficulties may be met and overcome by a sound system of national unsectarian education, for by it ■ the mind will not only be improved; but the whole national character re-moulded. At present our legislators do not posaess the requisite knowledge to effect tnia. Their time, and much of. the time of other; Legislative bodies, is occupied in altering or repealing bad laws. They can punish, but have yet to learn how to prevent. They, at great national cost, erect gaols and penitehtaries; they have handcuffs, tread mil Is^ lawyers; constables and detectives, solemn oafchAand terrible penal codes, I?ut let them learn that all; these form not men to virtue, but often' make. them hypocrites in , ripe. Let our legislators be warned in timei; let them learn! the' impotence of cowardly fear; let them recognise the omnipotence of ;God-like reason.. It is not the chain and whip only tlittt constitute" slavery! •''• FW beyond the dungeon and fetters, slavery is that, that not only bends the body, but the mind to oppression, fettering man's reason, shutting out from his reach common sense and practical knowledge. This is the 1 oppression we must unite in destroying, and in the human mind, where it dwells and reigns, there, by all powerful education, we must destroy it. Let us mot be behind our Southern neighbours, in urging our representatives to oppose the iutroduclion of religious teaching into

our schools, and afc the forthcoming general elections let us be prepared to return to Parliament tho3e only who, through the medium of free national ana practical instruction, will seek to remedy the abuses that mar all the beauties ot our national institutions, the vices tnat stain the fame of our national character, and the miseries that destroy our national happiness. We have had enough ot declarations ; let us have realities. We say we are free and equal ; let us really become so. —I am, &c, Bon Ami. , ... .„ J, a hi—; , v »*^l»{^»«s la««ss*9*Sf (To the Editor of the Evening Star.) " """■'" Sib.—Some; books ; are." Lf §£ fra«£sjfd to end," and so are leading articles. OwingTothTllf^ of your morning cpntempqjarjfjgh^has found another Trinity—three—in_one——- " Waitete,", *\ Ele(?tor,:i,and a County 'Councillor; the latter 6f\ f<rhom he^dearly loves, jand the amount of Christian spirit' shewn in yesterday's leadjingjiarjiicle is a striking proof of his .conversion. No doubtjthe lady preacher wilt be proud of this, |her special coriyert; Poort little-O'i follow? he has certainly gone mad, jand is,. ; >. running a muck "'against his best fnandr&f?^ I thiiik it is the duty of the authorities .that they should at once send tiro medical men tp see if ; he^is not a fit subject -s?*&■ r -y large ; institution near Auckland -well known to himself and the public; there he would be allowed to worship his ■- Trinity and .himself. What Ws there ih; my letter of Thursday last to so stir up the bile of the chosen of the people, I cannot tell ? If he disagrees with the letter ;why don't he give the Writer and tlie public some information that - WOttld be ; of some service tor them, r insteadof the Billingsgate article of yesterday. From; Tararu creek to Parawai r i^,Uis world, and his nose, though 1 so" latfge, cannot see beyond these 'points. Just fancy putting Hamilton In the* Watbrto,' ? and Makatu on the East Coast, in the one Electoral District. Once'Ma time. Sir George Grey vvas 'the'greatest Butnbug -- in the Colony; we fall downioiffl worship him, but then like the QoapcjHor, ire..Jmtb/t f, visited the Kawau;r. Qhinemuri,,,:poromandel, and other places., outside the boundaries of those. already mentioned ; are as nothing to >' him; WaitieJ is * l duffeh Te Aroha a sftffidleyrand yet he told us that the,latter had.a re?f |op<Lfor 200ozs to the ton. What little bit" of sharp practice was it he and the Councillor fell out over—the public would like :to knowl STli^?!#Md- 41:Sq}-meJ|§j||#g3*| what kind of puffing the Councillor wanted to be done and whi£h he refused : to do ; would he be kind enough to publish a sample. People used to fancy that more than one councillor had "v hand in running i his paper, yet &i that times it* Wai'a resp^c- "'" table journal' He T 'object's"fo UdtllHJillors having |friends in the Waiktto j,nd the j East Coast, surely that is becausfe he has none; left him^eJf^iP^itfpf^te^fn^^ at, the uext election; at Ohinemufi,> T and to give that badj|r treated fportipttpf T the Thames County the use of hisTajuable;, [ services which the burgesses of the South; t; "Ward are completely full of, „-,.?, ~— Electob.