COMPULSORY FECUNDITY.

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 131, 17 March 1883, Page 419

COMPULSORY FECUNDITY.

At the last meeting of the Domain Board a resolution was carried to the effect "that the ranger be instructed to raise 5000 olive branches during the year." Shade of Dr Malthus ! what are we all coming to ? Who conceived this brilliant idea of propagation upon compulsion, and was it one of the conditions on which that unhappy ranger was appointed ? A moment's reflection will surely convince most people that the demand is unfair and unreasonable, not to say impracti-

cables-piling on. tlie agony too much, altogether.. N'd'mehtioti is made of extraneous assistance,; nor of'sending bur trusty and- weil-beloyed ranger on a practical and experimentaltour 'to Salt Lake City. No, nothing is said on these point's, and yet even the prolific rabbit, the lusty locust, and the festive fly would admit, in their calmer moments, that the thing " can't be done, Sir," under the monogamous system. Supposing, however, that it could, what do the Domain Board want with these 5000 olive branches anyhow ? Is immigration to be a thing of the past — to cease now, henceforth and forever ? Or do the Board design to furnish New Zealand and Australian churches with juvenile choristers, or aspire to raise a larrikin Salvation Army in the immediate future? It stands to reason that the matter must be referred to an outside committee (say Messrs Tyler and Dargaville) for further consideration and inquiry, and in the meantime, the oppressive mandate should certainly be withdrawn, and not held in terrorlm over the devoted head of our worthy, though but mortal, ranger.

SECULAR EDUCATION AND THE CLOVEN FOOT. If the existing system of primary education should ever fall upon evil days, that result will be brought about more by the insidious attacks of false friends, or traitors within than by the assaults of open enemies without. In all ages it has been a favourite plan with besieging commanders when a position was too strong to be carried by assault, to corrupt the garrison, to enter an unguarded portal with a golden key, surprise the citadel, and accomplish by fraud and stratagem what could not be done by 6heer force. "When the fox hath once got in his nose, He'll soon find means to make the body follow." The secular system of education is impregnable to open attack. It has repeatedly repulsed determined and well organised bombardments and assaults by the combined forces of its enemies, and even its outworks have remained intact. Taught by experience the tactics of their assailants, and the favourite points selected for attack, the leaders of the secular army have strengthened their defences, pushed their outworks forward, and countermined tha saps and mines so industriously and skilfully constructed by the beßiegers. The latter, though numerically weaker than the garrison, and disregarding one of the most important maxims in war, continue their futile and hopeless operations with a persistence, consistency, and bravery worthy of a better cause.

We are^not bigots on this question of secular education. It is the bigots who attack it, bigots of various denominations and sects. It is precisely because no element of bigotry enters into the question that we support the secular system of education in its present form, at all events until it has had a fair trial. We are not going to waste space on arguments in support of the system. They have been worn threadbare. Enough that being ourselves devoid of sectarian bigotry, we shall not import that element into any comments on the working of the Act. The paramount duty of those charged with the administration of the Act is to 6ee that the work of teaching is confided to trustworthy hands. When a principle, a system, an institution, or a military fortress is constantly threatened with attack — with a war a I'outrance — it is time to see that the ostensible supporters — the garrison, have the cause at heart, are loyal to the flag they profess to serve under, and may be implicitly trusted in any emergency.

Far be it from us to say or even hint that the criterion in the selection of school teachers ought to be entirely a denominational one. ' Given the requisite qualifications, and an honest intention to work out the spirit of the Education Act in a conscientious and straightforward way, and the religious views of the teacher are of minor or little importance. What is necessary in the teacher is purity of morals, ability, and honesty of purpose. But where a system is exposed to insidious attacks from without, it is running too great a risk to admit among its advocates supporters and executive men whose thorough adherence is doubtful, whose motives are open to suspicion, or whose allegiance is no.t absolutely sure. Where an army is constantly liable to attack it does not seek recruits from the ranks of men who owe allegiance to the enemy's flag, and it will not entrust the defence of its. outposts to deserters from the other camp.

These remarks may or may not be relevant to the facts which we are about to adduce. They are merely addressed in a general sense as words of warning to the friends of the existing system of primary education. It is for them to apply to specific cases the principles we have endeavoured to lay down. If the cap fits anyone, he is welcome to put it on and wear it. Now for the facts. Some months ago a person — whose name we refrain from publishing, not from fear of consequences, but because we do not care to strike a man when he is down — applied to the Board of Education for an appointment as a school-teacher. Inquiry having been made as to his antecedents,

it : was found that,he was, an .unfrbeked .priesjb.;; Ifc was alleged/that he had seduced a iPfotestantgirl, was' guilty of .o ther liaisons, had beeia;fre.quent : ly ; found ■ in brothelsj /and : svak intem c perate-4A-ips habits. Itwaß also alleged that on one occasioix-Ms friends endeavoured to remove him from apublic-. house, where he was on terms of improper intimacy with the proprietor's wife. . The. woman, complained that she could not get him to leave the house, and requested the assistance of his friends. Going upstairs for that purpose, they found him running about the rooms in deliriwn tremens, almost in a condition of nudity, and calling for one of the housemaids. On another occasion he got so intoxicated on board a steamer that the captain deemed it necessary to put him. under restraint by locking him up in a cabin, where he was afterwards found in a state which, had better not be described.

On these charges being reported to a committee of the Board of Education, they declined to ' recommend the man for an appointment, and. their decision was afterwards endorsed at a fullmeeting of the members, the decision being . entered upon the minutes. Time passed on, and. these occurrences were almost forgotten. The composition of the Board of Education is con-r stantly changing, members come and go ; only the chief officials go on for ever. The cares of private business, social engagements and responsibilities, occupy the minds of members of the Board. At beßt they can but snatch an in- | terval of leisure to attend the Board meetings, and then they usually accept the cut-and-dried . programme laid before them by their executive officers. These latter, on the other hand, are the l real masters of the situation. Long practice and experience have familiarised them with all the details ; it is their aim as well as interest to make the business slide as smoothly as possible, as it is equally the desire of the majority of the members to be relieved of mere routine matters, — to be . bored as little as may be convenient. The arrangement works to the mutual satisfaction of all parties. It is one which can only fall into abuse when the executive officers forget their proper position, and evince in too great a degree that tendency, which is more or less common to all bureaucracies, to centre all the real power in an inner circle, and to use the members only for the purpose of giving authority to things which have been pre-arranged by an official clique. The danger in such cases is that the power and authority of a public body will be manipulated and misapplied, for purposes of patronage, partisanship, and cliqueism, and that the entire system will degenerate into a vicious oligarchy. Then ; some person of an inquiring and probing turn of mind some day discovers that all beneath the fair exterior is corruption, rottenness, and inefficiency, and the public rub the scales from their eyes and perceive that they have been the victims of misplaced confidence.

But to our muttons. A few "weeks ago Mr Hobbs, M.H.R. for Bay of Islands and one of the members of the Board of Education, met the unfrocked priest in the street, and received his profuse thanks for having personally interested himself in securing him an appointment as a teacher. Not having moved in the matter at all, and in fact not being cognisant of the appointment in question, Mr Hobbs was rather taken aback. He proceeded to make inquiries, and found that this particular recommendation had been promiscuously slipped in among a number of others which were put before the Board by its officers for formal approval. Hobbs told his friend G-oldie. Now be it known unto all men that this indefatigable reformer has always a keen nose for;, scenting out abuses in administration. He had also a very Puritanlike horror of sacerdotalism, priestcraft, and hanky-panky generally, and his repugnance to fornication, adultery, and all other deadly sins, would win the admira- , tion of even a Joseph. Andrews. To him, therefore, the appointment of the unfrocked priest; to a pedagogue's rostrum, was like balm in Grilead, or a flagrant political abuse to a Parliamentary office-seeker. Smothering his holy horror, and restraining his combustible indignation, he proceeded to work with that method and caution, which marks his official conduct. When the 1 Board minutes were read at the next meeting, Mr G-oldie was suddenly seized with a spirit of vigilant inquiry and a parching thirst for information. He wanted to be enlightened a little on the subject of that particular appointment ; there was nothing he disliked so much in the world as the giving trouble, but being rather obtuse in these matters, his soul longed for more light. The remarkably suave and complacent O'Sullivan informed him that the appointment had been made on the strength of testimonials. Goldie wanted to see those testimonials, and a search was immediately instituted among the archives of the department. Still possessed by the demon of curiosity, Goldie proposed to fill up time by reading the original minutes in which the committee's refusal to recommend the same applicant had been endorsed by the Board. Then there were looks of wrath on the faces of members who realised the situation. ♦ r.f-i* Mr O'Sullivan, in those bland tones which. s<>>,; well become him, admitted that there had be&j?.^ some slight irregularity in regard to the appouit^ : > ment, inasmuch as it had not been submitted !'tp3ss committee, and had been made on his .'Qwni'i responsibility, on a promise of good behaviour ::6iLv the part of the applicant fov employment. Ther%^ is an old proverb, that " it is never too late : \f& mend," and it has been said that — Hf. " Sorrow for past ills, doth restore frail man To Ms first innocence." No one but a curmudgeon, a bigot, or a selfrighteous hypocrite would be so ungenerous and narrow-minded as to perpetually flaunt a man's frailties in his face (whatever his religion), kick him when Ke is down, and heap the recollection, and obloquy of the past upon his head to prevent his rising again and resuming his position in society. • , . -•- — ■ . But the Board on this occasion seemed to had thoroughly alarmed. Probably it was not jM much concerned about the appointment itselfj^f thct manner in which it had been made. Qj^^H the servants of the Board had deliberately u^^^H

the functions and authority of his masters, had acted, in defiance of their decision, in a matter in which, he might fairly have laid himself open to a suspicion of something very different from atrici; official impartiality. So the Board promptly paaaed a resolution cancelling the appointment. That it did not pass another resolution censuring the officers concerned in' making the. appointment, can only be attributed to its easy good-nature and forbearance, and its desire to avoid unpleasant bores. Another noteworthy feature in this business ia that it all took place within closed doors, after the Press reporters had been smilingly bowed out by the gentlemanly secretary, and that no record of the proceedings or any hint upon the matter has appeared in our contemporaries. That we became cogHizant of the affair is only due to that faculty of penetration and orignal discovery which so often places us in possession of valuable facts that are caviare to the ordinary news-hunter. They reap the harvest so carelessly that our gleanings in the newsfield often exceed the crop which they garner. It is perhaps also somewhat fortunate for us that the Superintendent and Secretary of the Board have so nicely and adroitly arranged the business that all the more important subjects are judiciously kept back to the last, when the reporters have received their conge, and the members are so wearied with the previous business, so thirsty, or apprehensive of the proximity of the dinner hour, that they are ready to pass anything and everything without enquiry or discussion. It is lucky for us, because it always leaves a special field of exploration for our very observant lynx-eyed news-ferrets to nose out little tit-bits of information by running the gauntlet of the sauve and sagacious Siiperintendent, the taciturn and strictly red-tape secretary, and the small army of clerks, billet-hunters, and office boys who are ever on the watch to brain with the heavy rulers and pointers any daring reporters who venture up the stairs. But as to how the public relish this little arrangement is a matter which must be left to conjecture.