STATE EDUCATION.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 252, 22 May 1868, Page 3

STATE EDUCATION.

(From the Otago Daily Times.') The schools and Colleges of a country exert a very great influence on its ■destiny. So generally is this acknowledged, that the leading nations bestow very special regard on the constitution, government, maintenance, and teaching power of their scholastic institutions. Education, which now divided with Reform the attention of the people of England, during the last 40 years, has acquired many friends, and has made immense progress. Take Ireland, for an example. That country, which for ages had only the hedge school, and whose gentry ■and priesthood, owing to close legislation, were forced to repair to foreign •colleges for education, where they came under influences which tended to weaken their attachment to our native institutions, has within a generation received an educational system that has met with very general approval. Its Common schools and Queen's Colleges are silently effecting a revolution, moral and industrial, that will prove most beneficial to Ireland. It is now the received doctrine, not only of Educationists, but of Political Leaders, that as a matter of justice and Christian policy, the State should plant a Common school in every district where there are 20 children of a school-age, Grammar schools in the 'centres of population, and a fitting Crown College where needed, for car-rying-forward the education necessary for professional life and the highest scientific pursuits. The example of British America and the United States are instructive, in connection with the proposal of the Government to establish a College in Dunedin. Upper Canada, with a population under a million, has 12 Universities and Colleges, and 130 Grammar schools ; while Lower Canada, with a population of about 900,000, has 2 special schools, 170 secondary, 2 Universities and Colleges, 10 superior schools, 3 normal. Nova Scotia, with a population not very much in excess of that of New Zealand, has 10 Colleges and 1123 Grammar and other schools.

New York State having a population of 3f millions, has 14 Colleges, 7 Medical schools, 10 Theological Institutes, 208 Academies, and State normal schools and Teachers' Institutes, in 50 counties. It deserves notice that this State, which has made liberal provision for the higher education, has an army of 11,621 public schools, with libraries, besides 1,520 private schools. Pennsylvania State, with a population of nearly three millions, has 26 Colleges, 8 Schools of Medicine, 20 State academies, and 335 Public schools for the higher branches ef education. But our American cousins, east and west, have made the most liberal provision for the highest branches of education. For a population of 35,000,000, including the Negroes, there have been established 135 Colleges, 60 Theological Colleges, 24 Schools of Law, 50 Schools of Medicine, 19 Scientific schools, and great numbers of High schools and Female seminaries.

From these figures it is evident that the G-overn merit may plead the examples of British America and the United States, for proceeding with the establishment of the College, and take from our Colony the painful singularity of being without an institution for the cultivation of the higher education.

A Modekst Peter the Great— The St. Louis Democrat has the following : —" Last fall one of our wealthy citizens, who has made a fortune as a baker, took his family to New York, and put up at the Metropolitan Hotel. While looking at the sights of the metropolis, he heard of a wonderful patent bakeoven, which was the envy of all the bakers at Gotham. Our baker paid a visit to the house where this oven was in operation, but was not allowed to see it, and could learn nothing of the principle upon which it was constructed. He felt his Gallic pride wounded at this rebuff, and resolved to fathom the mystery of the oven at all hazards. Going into Chatham-street he purchased a suit of old clothes, and returning to the

bakery he applied for a situation as journeyman baker. The proprietor was in want of a good French baker, and gave our friend employment at fifteen dollars a week. In about three weeks our resolute baker had learned all about the oven, and satisfied himself that it was a great invention, and worth a mint of money. He saw the patentee and purchased the exclusive right to use the oven in the state of Missouri. He then returned to the bakeshop and told the boss he must leave. 'Don't leave,' said the boss; 'you're a good baker and suit me exactly, and I will increase your wages to twenty dollars a week rather than have you quit.' That is not enough to pay the expenses of my family,' said the journeyman, 'and I must go out "West and seek other employment.' "Why, how much does it cost to keep your family ?' *I am paying fifty dollars a day at the Metropolitan, and I don't think you would be willing to increase my wages to that amount.' "Why, who the deuce are you.' 'I am J G ,of St. Louis, and I have bought the right to use your patent oven there, and I intend to put up a dozen or two of them and would like to employ you as foreman.' The New York Baker had nothing more to say, and the two friends went to the Metropolitan, and had a long talk over a bottle of champagne."

The New Mineral.—A rumor was current in town that the new mineral raised from the Golden Point Company's claim, concerning which Mr D'Alton is so very reticent, has proved to be platinum, a most valuable metal and considered to be even more precious than gold. Pure platinum is a white metal, of the same softness as copper, and is susceptible of high polish. It slowly volatilises at a temperature considerably above its melting point, and on quickly cooling, bubbles and spirts like silver. le. tenacity and ductility it is superior to all metals except iron. Its specific gravity is 21.15 ; or, after hammering 21.5. _ As a conductor of heat and electricity it is inferior to gold and silver. It has the property of condensing gases on its surface, and when once heated to redness, remains hot for some time if a jet of cold hydrogen or cold gas be impinged upon it. Platinum is not tarnished by exposure to air, it is unaffected by all acids except aqua regia, and is not acted upon by dry chlorine.— Pleasant Creek Chronicle, April 28.