STATE EDUCATION

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3650, 31 October 1890, Page 2

STATE EDUCATION

Viow of HtW<o. BM&ftn&a. <. At Gro) town-on Tuesday evening, : Mr VV. 0. Buchanan said • There was one question wliicb was of great. importance—"the question of Edrioa. tion. Young New Zealand would' soon form'the majority : of our population—would soon practically , govern New Zealand, and it war the utmost importance that should grow up without a education'to fit liiin for his duties in life. Last session Parliament had voted the large mm. of £378,000 for education, and a good many thought ' that this sum was larger than the. Colony could afford in its present condition. That was not by any " means hia opinion. It was the one great; benefit which was returned to the mass of the population out of' the heavy taxation which they paid, : The greater part of it was paid away in salaries to their teachers, and when the,importance of securing the . men obtainable was considered, 1 they would recognize it was necessary to • pay them fairly, They had recently lost by death the services of Mr Bunting, a man who had made his mark during tbo Bhort time he had been amongst them, and it was only those who had had their children under their oliarge who could,realise the services rendered by such men to the community.. He would always be found in the future as he had been in the past, a supporter of their (mi ■ secular, and compulsory system, FarV would it be from him to undervalue the importance of a religious training, but he did not believe., our schools were the best piece to give suck. The teaching profession waß rightly on® to all religious denominations, anflif Bible reading in schools were iuito- ' ducod,_ the l members: ofany one denomination would in many cases certainly disapprove of the Biblo being read to . their ohildren by any teaoherof other denonination, We should thus run tlieriskof introducing religious, differences, which we allwished had been left behind in tins . old country. He had frequently " heard it stated that young New Zealand was addioted to all sorts of larrikinism, and was growing up without any moral or religious restraints, and would be any thing but ' a credit to those who had gone before them, He had beeniooking up tha statistics on the matter, and was / happy to tell them that the figures pointed to a very different conclusion. Taking the convictions for drunken* ness for 1888 as an example: only ■ one in 2,006 of those born in New Zealand over 15 years of age was convicted for tius offenoej while no less than one in every 280 born out' side the Colony was . so doalLwithiC Put in another way ; . While young New Zealanders formed 40 per cent, of the whole population over 15 years of age, they furnished only 5 per cent' of the drunks; then again, as to more serious crimes, CQmpriginW v ' larceny, misdemeanors, and other ! offences, as well as drunkenness, the convictions were, lin '92 : oi thosa born outside the Colony, while the record was only 1 in every? 436 of those born within the Colony. :He had gteat pleasure in putting. tWaa figures in circulation in reply,-to the aspersions so frequently, cast at our young colonists, He thought, that at all events they afforded no proof of the charges so frequently levelled at our education sygtom,.:.