The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1888. THE EDUCATION DIFFICULTY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2841, 7 March 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1888. THE EDUCATION DIFFICULTY.

There is an Education difficulty, just now, owing to the money available for new buildings foiling considerably short .of the requirements of the Boards, and the opponents of the Ministry arc lpalung as much capital out of the situation as possible. Because the Government will not spend more money on buildings than the Parliament has voted, lacking that patriotism which enabled Mr Ballance to override the authority of the legislature, we are toltl that the Education Act is being worked in the interests of selfish capitalists, ancl that the people, the immortal People, are being wronged and trampled upon by monied tyrants. Looking at the present holder of the Educational portfolio, all this seeuis very funny. Is not the Hon. Mr Fisher—our George, as he is wont to be called—the man of the people ? Has he not always run straight for the people, and does he not possess their confidence'? Anything more ridiculous than "our George" working the Education Act in the interests of wealth it is impossible to conceive. However, this sort of thing is not said in Wellington, it is only uttered in places like Masterton, where there are some people who will believe anything. Even here, however, most men are beginning to understand who. are the real friends of educational progress, and who simply use it as a stalking horse. As far as the cry about building grants is concerned, Mr Fisher is quite right in refusing to incur any expenditure which is unauthorised. Anyone who understands Mr Fisher's capacity and force of character will give him credit for being quite capable of bringing down proposals in the coming session which will secure the continuance of our national system of education in all its essential characteristics at a reduced cost, The House and the country expect as much as this from him, and we shall be very much astonished if lie disappoints them. The strength of the present Ministry lies in the fact that they are not rich men or scions of wealthy families. The people will take retrenchment more kindly from them than they would from men of larger means. It is of course easy to talk about selfish capitalists, but men like Atkinson and Fisher arc not capitalists, and are not working in the interests of capitalists. They arc genuine representatives of the people and aro working in their interests. The reign of the carpet baggers and public plunderers is over for a season, and if the men now in power are not quite all we could wish them to be—if they are a little uncouth and unpresentable—they are certainly honest and straightforward.