SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] WEDNESDAY JANUARY 18, 1893.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4322, 18 January 1893, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 18, 1893.

Being tub extended title of the Waibarapa Daily, with whioii it is IDENTICAL

• The New Zealand Educational Institute has been endeavouring to impress upon the Minister for Education the necessity of removing some of the more glaring anomalies which render our schools in some respects inferior to those of the Mother Country, Personally tbeschoolmasters who man the Institute, have few grievances. Their work is fairly light and their pay is fairly good and it is to their credit that on the whole they display more anxiety to improve the wretched cram and sham examination system of the Colony than to secure special benefits for their own order. As yet we have not had a Minister of Education in New Zealand who has had courage and knowledge to face the weak points of the system and to remove them. Mr Fisher once was Understood to be jn the work of reform but his sudden retirement from office proved fatal to the project. The present Minister is probably no better or no worse than his predecessors. We are given to understand that tbere will beno substantial change in the Act but at tho same time an effort will Ijb made in the direction of improvement that mußt sooner or later take place. The Minister promises tlmt an interchange of Inspectorial districts shall be arranged and a conference of Inspectors oalled together but as this can only be done with the consent of existing Boards, it is doubtful whether the Minister has any powpr to give a pledge. The Minister also promises some new guidance towards securing, more satisfactory school attendances, and suggests tho expediency oi amalgamating small boards with large ones, besides holding out a hope that a provision may be made for old and infirm teachers. Apparently the Educational question will furnish a debate in the next session of Parljas ment, as the Government is evidently impressed with the idea of doing something; though at the same time it is extremely cautious lest the unadmirablo system in force be in any way disturbed. Were Mr Seddon Minister for Education, he would probably put a little of his common sense and deter- ' pnation into the department, and : give the Colony a better return for the enormous Bum of money expended 1 upon it. Mr Beeves, however, shines ' more as a talker than as a worker, , and is unlikely when he goes out of , office to leave his department in other than the unsatisfactory condition in which he found it. !