The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1870.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 722, 11 October 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1870.

Tee question of national compulsory education is one that we believe must, at some time, engage the legislature of the colony, and the earlier attention i 8 given to the subject, the less difficulty there will be in securiug success for the movement Already in England the secessions from the voluntaryists, who at one time were by far the more numerous, are increasing yearly, and the principle is fast losing ground that we should let well alone, and leave all education to voluntary effort. If there be one matter above another which merits the close consideration of any government it is to see that the children of the state receive that educational training, which it is needful to give in order that they may have a fair start in the world. A fundamental axiom that is applicable to the home country must apply also, if even with lessened force, to this colony ; and, if wo do not possess tho redundant popu-

hition, that presents such a difficulty in regarding the question from an English point of view, the necessity is only in a degree less urgent that wo should secure to every individual the means of qualifying himself for the battle of a lifetime. If it is the acknowledged duty of the state—and that it is cannot admit of dispute—to watch jealously the rights of those classes who cannot protect themselves, then undoubtedly that of children, as the largest of these helpless classes, should recommend itself to the earnest care of the nation. They are weak and helpless, in fact and in the eye of the law, and as, if allowed to grow up wiLhotit that training which is needful to their holding an ordinary position in life, a cruel and irreparable wrong is inflicted upon thorn, it becomes clearly the duty of a government to see that they are not deprived of their dearest privilege and birthright. While admitting that it is the pr i mary duty of parent s to educate their chddren the fact remains, nevertheless, that this duty is, m a vast number of cases, totally ignored. In some cases, such as children left entirely destitute of guardians, and wholly neglected children, the state has to step in and, assuming the guardianship of such, to secure to them the means of qualifying themselves for earning an honest livelihood when grown up. But to how few does this apply. We will not say that the majority of the children of the working class are not suitably provided with the means of acquiring elementary instruction, but it is certain that a vast number are to be found throughout the Colony uncared for by their natural protectors, growing up in ignorance, and paving the way to a life of vice and crime. In Prussia the question has been long settled. There, it is compulsory, that every child of five years shall attend a school, and, in fixiug so tender an

age for its attendance, one advantage is gained that the child has not been already educated. There could not be a worse point at which to begin compulsory education than at a stage, when a few years later, having grown up into street Arabs, they are already educated (though in a mischievous direction) and started in their Arab lite. The little gamin of seven or eight years old is probably more intelligent than any other child of that ago; his intellect is prematurely sharpened, and his cunning and activity are alike percociously developed, and thus it is that, the seeds of vicious habits having been planted early, they take deep root, and their infantile predilections scarcely admit of eradication. There is also this incidental advantage in beginning early, that by doing so you begin at an age, when it is a boon, and not a loss, to parents to send their children to school. The terrible juvenile depravity that has been shown to exist in the neighboring Colonies, and which of a certainty must become developed in" New Zealand, unless some control is exercised over the children, should awaken the country to the necessity of providing for their suitable training by a complete system of national compulsory education.