The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1885. THE EDUCATION SYSTEM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2081, 29 August 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1885. THE EDUCATION SYSTEM.

A great deal hns from time to tfime been said and written about the cost of the present system of education in the colony, nnd those who lire averse to it persist in the assertion that the amount that has to be voted year after year is more than the colony can afford, When we look at tlio fact that the expenditure upon all classes of schools lust vear amounted to £416,001), we are prepared to admit | that this seems a very large sum, and those who do not look further are apt to raise their voice in condemnation straightaway. We are inclined to look a little deeper into the matter. Many are apt to forget that the Government of the Colony is nothing more nor less than a huge comprehensive concern, in which every male adult may have a voice, and in which the property of men, women and children are supposed to be treated with the strictest impartiality. All works that are undertaken, and all systems that are maintained, are, not for the benefit of the Government, but for the benefit of the people. This, we think, will be admitted. Looked at in that light we find that the colony p»ys £416,000 per Milium, or less than £1 per head of the entire European population. There is no special tax to raise this amount, and everybody, even the school children themselves, therefore contribute to that amount. Nothing,, we think, could be fairer than this. Ah I but, says an opponent, if parents were to pay something towards the cost of educating their children, a large share of the burden would be taken off the shoulders of the Government, and the amount thus saved might either be remitted in taxation, or spent on useful public works. Those who are of that opinion forget, or fail to see, that everybody is a constituent part of the machinery by which the colony is governed. To reduce, taxation, and put a portion of the burden direct on the parents, would relieve those who have no children, and who, it may very reasonably lie presumed, are best able to pay a reasonable amount. This, we think, would not be a desirable thing to do. Supposing that thin were done without reducing taxation, then the contributions towards the government of the colony vould he increased by jiisfc as much as the parents paid—always presuming, of course, that State education is maintained. There is this to be said in addition, that the cost of collecting fees from parents would be considerable, while the collection of a similar amount by the Government costs next to nothing. Increased cost per head would therefore be % involved. The number of children on the books in the colony at the find of the year 1884, from unclassified up to those who passed the sixth standard, was 97,238, and the average cost af educating these was, roughly speaking, £4 7s per head. It must be admitted that uo private efforts could reduce this.