The Westport Times. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1870.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 655, 7 May 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1870.

Kingsley has said in one of his works, " If a citizen has one right above all others to demand anything of his country it is that he should be educated, that whatever capabilities he may have in him, however small, may have a fair chance of development." Although there is no excitement or strong feeling on the subject in the Colony or even on these Goldfields, it is in the case of the latter to be attributed rather to tbe apathy of the inhabitants than that they are well satisfied with the educational institutions they possess. A glance at the statistics of the Colony for 1868 will show how far successful the present Provincial institutions have been in providing means of education for the people. Otago, with a population of 48,577, had 71 public schools, 103 teachers, and an attendance of 4251 pupils; Canterbury numbering 38,448 persons had 56 schools, 91 teachers, and 3,299 pupils; .Nelson with a population of 23,814 persons had 39 schools, 56 teachers and 2,296 pupils. The above three provinces, containing about half the European population of the colony, contributed 9846 scholars out of "a total number of 13,928 attending schools in the colony. It will be thus seen that the provinces mentioned, as compared with other portions of the colony have educated even in proportion to their larger population a far greater number of children. The .question is, however, whether better results wouldnot be ultimately attained if the Provincial institutions were superseded and supplanted by Colonial institutions. So long as the Provincial authorities continue to possess the control of education, the benefits of the system cannot extend in the way that is to be -desired, but must result in a concentration of educational forces in and around the capital of a province to the great detriment ■of populous outlying districts. The subject is one of too vital importance to be left altogether in the hands of local governments whose revenues are uncertain. In the province of Auckland some little time back, owing to financial difficulties the Province found itself unable to contribute to the salaries of teachers and maintenance of schools, and for twelve months no ' assistance was provided by tbe Government, and although the large towns did not allow the schools to be .closed, the outlying districts suffered very materially. There are other objections also in connection with Provincial educational institutions. Mr Bowden, the Inspector of schools in Wellington, referring to the advantages of a Colonial system says:— ""What do we find in our Colony? Instead of a compact, uniform, and methodical sy stem of school organis-

ation, we fliid first in each province a system more or less perfect for the assistance and direction of primary education under the local government. These systems differ from one another as widely as systems organised at different times by different people without any common model would be expected to differ, and are all capable of vast improvement. Not more than half the children between the ages of five and fifteen attend school at all. We find also a sprinkling of hi«h schools, grammar schools, and colleges, without any distinct classification and without any well-defined curriculum—some public, some denominational, all heterogenous, often antagonistic ; and we find between them and the primary schools, a mixed lot of private schools, seminaries, and academies, constituting what the Americans call higgledy-piggledy schools. The Bishop's School, Nelson, stands almost alone as a school having defined aims intermediate beetween the primary schools and the college or grammar school of the Province." The future prosperity of a country is so intimately related to the education of the people, its solid worth is so largely increased by the education and industry of its adult population that no effort should be spared to introduce a comprehensive system of public schools adapted to all portions of the colony.