THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY OCTOBER 16, 1867. ADULT EDUCATION.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 41, 14 October 1867, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY OCTOBER 16, 1867. ADULT EDUCATION.

Perhaps one of the most eloquent speeches that wore ever made in Parliament was that of Mr Lowe against the third reading of the Reform Dill. While all parties in the House were all hut unanimous in its praise, and disputed with each other its paternity, ho stood up and denounced the measure in language more vigorous and prophetic than has ever been heard since the days of Chatham. It is difficult to extract much sober truth out of a speech so impassioned, so threatening, and so ominous; yet there was one truth that it appeared either to be the object of the speaker to impress upon his hearers, or which could not fail to make that impression if that were not his object, which was, in effect, this:—That an extension of the electoral franchise necessitates an extension of the means of education not only for children but for adults. This necessity is as great in New Zealand as in England. A great number of young men, who either now are or who will shortly be called upon tc exercise a voice in the Government of the colony have not received the advantages of a common school education There were no schools of the kind in existence in their youth, and consequent! y night schools are required in order to place those young men who were children in the early days of the colony on a footing of equality, as regards the means of acquiring elementary instruction with those who now have an opportunity of receiving a common school education. We were glad to find, therefore, from the School Inspector’s Report that the fees received from Night Scholars would be supplemented by a grant of an equivalent amount from the Provincial Treasury. But though Night-schools are one of the means which can be employed to convoy elementary instruction to adu Its elementary instruction, itself, is only a means to an end. We should be sorrv to under value the importance of the Evening School, but there are other and better means than it for securing the education of adults. Institutions of Local Self-government are of this character. They are in fact adult schools, and though reading and writing may not be taught by their instrumentality, it is all but universally admitted that they contribute powerfully to form the judgment and promote the political education of the people. They possess other merits in a very high degree, but viewed in an educational light their importance, in the peculiar circumstances of this colony, ought not to be lightlyregarded. The adult population of this Province is comprised of old settlers, “ new comers,”and native born colonists, and the time is not distant when the latter will be the most numerous of the three classes. It will be well therefore to enquire delicately in what position the latter stand in point of intelligence to the other two.

We once heard an old settler say : A new-comer is not worth his salt, for he can’t do anything until he is shown how, and he wont then unless you keep your eye upon him.” Such a statement is perhaps too sweeping, hut it is not altogether unfounded. This helplessness, and indisposition to work, in the absence of an overseer, arc either the results of that extreme division of labor, or of that servitude, which is now so prevalent in those districts in England from which generally “ new comers ” have emigrated Men under the present manufacturing’ system are likened to machines, as they can do nothing of themselves, and what they do they do mechanically. But they are not even machines, but only parts of a complicated piece of machinery, which, when detached, are comparatively useless. They are as helpless as the old settler described them. On their arrival here they have to go through another schooling, and serve another apprenticeship. They may have attended a Factory or a Sunday School, to which the native-born colonist has not had the chance of admission; they may have acquired information from books lectures and discussions on a variety of subjects on which the native-born colonist is profoundly ignorant; but nevertheless, in man3 r respects the first are but children, while the latter is a man. If, however, “ the new comer ” is so inferior to the native-born citizen, he is so in a much greater degree, to he old Colonist. The latter has participated in advantages which the “new comer” has not yet enjoyed, and in which, from the circumstances of 'the ®case, the nativeborn colonist can never be a partaker The old Colonist has to a more or less extent, experienced the effects of an old and a new civilization. He has been twice educated, and has served a double apprenticeship. These advantages have been necessarily denied to the other two. He has lived in an old and in a new country sufficiently long to render him