ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1818, 1 March 1884, Page 3

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

The General Assembly of the Presby terian Church has been considering our present educational system, and the various " fathers and brethren " have expressed somewhat diverse opinions on the subject. Some of them think that the system is incomplete on account of the omission of religious instruction from the curriculum, while others have the sense "to sec that the ordinary schoolmaster, though he may be quite competent to impart instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, classics ond mathematics, may be singularly unfitted to teach religion to the children under his care. I fit inly believe that this is the case, and that religion should be taught by tho&e specially trained and qualified for the puipose. Religion is too sacred a subject to be included in the ordinary eimiculum of a State school. If it were so included, either it would be treated as a subject to be '• crammed " into the childien as mobt of the subjects now are, or it would lie Blurred over as not affecting the status of the school. Religion is a matter of the heart, not of the head, and, if it is considered in any other light, it is placed in a position inferior to that \\ Inch it should hold. One of the membeis said that he believed that few childien in Scotland received good from bible teaching in day schools, and in that belief I am inclined to agree with him. We do not want, and we will not lu\e, a denominational sys tern of education, but, at the same time, I think that it would be well to afford "greater facilities than at present for religious instruction being given by clergymen and others, though it must be admitted that in most cases full advantage is not taken of the opportunities now afforded.

The minsister, who expressed the opinion that few children in Scotland icceived good from Bible teaching in day schools, said that he objected to the present system of education because it was free, and in that I also agiee nith him. People seldom \alue highly that which costs them nothing, and the result of the present system is that many people are compelled to pay to pay their quota towards its maintenance who receive no benefit from it. Of course, it is alleged that it is a national benefit to give every chiM in the colony an education which will fit him and her the better to cam a livelihood. The present syste n does not always do that. The son of a tradesman or artisan goes to school and receives a better education than his father had; he then considers that he is fit for a higher position in the social ecale than his father holds, and instead of becoming an artisan or a tradesman, and using his education to become a better aitisan or tr .desman than his father, he enters an office or a bank. The consequence is that we have to resort to immigration to supply the artisan and tiadesman class, while our oun boys swell the ranks of the already too-large army of clerks. I know that the reason given for the maintenence of the present system of free education is that education is compulsory and must, therefoie, be free. This is all moonshine.

Auckland has obtainsd an unenviable notoriety for the frequency of its iites, but, fortunately, it is but seldom th.it they are attended with loss of life, as was that which occuned in Parnell on the morning of Ash Wednesday. By the way, a hicnrl of mine, who did not know of the loss of life which had occurred at the lire, made a veiy good pun while watching the conflagiation, remarking. " Well ' this is a sad Ash Wednesday for somebody/ A disgraceful affair occuned at the fiie, for which the insurance companies weie mainly, if not solely, to blame. Our fiie brigade, whijh is maintained at the eK pense of the coi potation, went to a fiie near Mount Eden some time ago, and succeeded in extinguishing it. As it was outsi le tiie boundaries ot the city application was made to the insutaticc companies to lefund to the city the expense incurred on that occasion. The applica tion was lefused, so the Inspector of the Fire Biigade was instructed that lip was not to assist in extinguishing dies beyond the city limits. On U'ednesday morning when the alaim was given the biigade started under the supposition that the fire was in Stanley-stieet. Finding that it was in Painell they went thither, but refused to render assistance, which would have resulted in confining its limits. Of course the inspector was bound to act according to his instructions, but it does seem disgraceful that innocent people should be rendeied homeless on account of the ill-jndppd pat simony of the insuiance companies. It is to he hoped that companies will see the result of their penny wise aud pound foolish policy, and make some equitable arrangement with the corporation.

The Grammar School governors have determined to make another effort to ob tain a portion of the paddock between Government House grounds and the Choral Hall as a site for a boarding-house in connection with the school. It is certainly an excellent site for the purpose, and as it is now used for nothing except in the winter for a football field, I do not Bee any good iea&on w liy it should not be utilised for the puipnsc for which the Governors wish it. It is a standing disgrace to Auckland that it has not got a first-class boarding-school, in consequence of which those who wish to send their Bons to boai ding-schools ha\e to send them to Nelson, Wellington, Christchurch, Oamaru and other places down South. Had we a first-class establishment of the kind here, we would not only be enable to retain our own boys, but we would get a number fiom the South, the state of whose health requites a change to a moie genial climate. Of course, the latter is a phase of the subject which does not affect us so closely as the former. There are, I believe, many people in Waikato who would wish their boys to have the benefit of the education obtainable at the Auckland Giamniar School, but arc debairel by the want of a boarding- house attached to it. That ■want should be supplier 1 ., and Ido not think it could be done in a better inannei than by erecting the house on the site indicated, which is close to the school and in an exceptionally healthy position, having Government House grounds on one side of it, the Albert Park behind it, and the Domain, almost within a stone's throw, in front of it, so I hope the efforts of the Grammar School Go\ernors will be crowned with Buecess.

I was sorry to learn that the National Liberal Reform League at Adelaide have carried a motion in favour of the payment of members. I will be still more Borry if they succeed in getting the South Australian Parliament to carry a similar motion and to ghe effect to it. We know by bitter experience the effect on our own Parliament of the payment of members. Instead of the cultured gentlemen who gave their time for the good of the colony, we have now got a number of professional politicians who seek election for the sake of what they can make. I do not say that all our members are or that class, but so many of them are that they have succeeded in lowering the tone of the House both morally and socially, and what has occurred in New Zealand will surely occur in South Australia in similar circumstances, so it is to be hoped that the .efforts of the National Reform League will prove futile.

■it The Onehunga Chamber of Commerce has shown its sense of the benefits conferred on that town by the railway, as at present mismanaged, by instructing its lecretary to write to the directors of the Auckland Tramway Company, enquiring if there is any probability of the tramway being extended to Onehunga. The result of the enquiry is a foregone conclusion. The directors have already undertaken to construct as much tramway as they can manage to pay for, so I would advise the Onehunga people to float ft company to make a tramway to

connect with the Auckland company's line at Newmarket. On account of the way in which the railway in mismanaged, there are more omnibuses than ever plying on the Onehunga Koad, and, as that road is almost level from Newmaiket, a tramway on it would cost little to work and would be a certain financial success. So certain am I of this that, if a company were formed for the purpose of making the line, I would take shares in it myself to the value of a shilling or eighteenpence. St. Mungo.

Said Fitzsmythe, smarting under the hands of the barber, "I wish you were like your razor." — " How is that?"' asked the ton«orial artist. — "Underground." leplied Fitzsmythe, with a snap. A max always looks through his pockets four times before handing his coat to his wife to have a button sewed on, and even thed he is filled with a nameless fear until the job is completed. Si'Eakixg recently at the office of the Lanterne newspaper in Paiis. Mr Brad laugh made a few valuable remarks. From him we learn what is the ideal of advanced English Radicals set before their minds. The inemberforNorthainption has dipped into the future as far as human eye can sco, and he is able to say that the French Republic " will grow strong in avoiding dissensions and wars." It is well to be told this on good authoiity, because to the superficial obseever it has not seemed that the Thud Republic has been entiiely successful in keeping cle.tr either of war or " dissension." And Mr Bradlaugh's prophetic gaze has been fixed on England also. Our Republic, according to this observer, will come slowly, but it, too, will come; and one day in the far future, after mnny thioes, the reons will be delivered of their burden, and the PJnglish Republic one and indivisible will do — " what you did ninety years." Ninety years ago —December, 1793 !It is woith while placing this opinion of an eminent Radical on recoid. It we only go on in the right path long and steadily enough, this country will in the fulness of time anive at the peaceful, happy, contented, and satisfactory position of Fiance in the year 179(5. — St. James's Gazette. Tut Valu*, ok Highland Property. — In noticing the sale of Meg<reune Castle, the Echo says :— On Thursday the estate of Mepgeinie, in Glenlyon, coveting au aiea of fifty s^uaie miles, was offeted for sale, and fell to an Accrington cotton manufacturer at sixty-four shillings an acie ; and yet Meggeinie is one of the most lovely propeities in the Highlands. Glenlyon is famous for the nchness of its pastnies, and the liver Eyon for the wildness of its course and the attractions of sport. The hills rise grandly on either side, the river i caches afford an endless variety of landscape surprises, and from a dozen points of \ lew on the estate a pauoiama is presented such as few Highland glens can bo.ist of. To buy the glen was to enter the charmed circle of the great land owneib, for its acn age is i53'2,1'29 its annual value is i'4ooo, and its baiomal castle is lich in tiaditions of the chieftain days. But bidding stopped at 103,000. fen yeais ago ~£150,000 might ha\e been got for it with ease, if not moie. Befoie long another gieat Highland sporting estate, that of Kinloch Rauuoch, also in Peithshiie, will be bi ought to the hammer, and it will bo intei estuiii to notice whether the pi ice leceived for it will bear out the lesson taught by the pui chase of Meggernie. Tjic Paris Temps comes to the following conclusion as to the causes of the hesitation of the Gladstone Cabinet : — Mi Gladstone and the Cabinet over which he presides are perplexed both by the division of opinion of their own political fiiends. and by their own scruples. The Libeial paity is to a considerable extent, swayed by a kind of huiiianitaiian and cosmopolitan Radicalism, which preoccupies itself with the rights of nationalities, the hbei ties of peoples, and utterly indi/leient to the tiaditions of England's greatness. It is a paity which entet tains dout as to whethei the possession of Gibralter and India be legitimate, and which feels the utmost lepugnnnce against a policy of conquest. Mi Gladstone himself, by eveiy tendency of his mind, by the abstiact chaiacterof his conceptions, as well as by the pinity and genciosity of his. soul, belongs to the party whose opinions we have just descubed. In addition, we are hound to take into account the engagements forced upon him by his viiulent denunciations of the eouqupiinn tendencies of Loid Beaconsfield. Hence a repugnance to entangle himself further in Egyptian allahs. The Biitish Premier feels shat he is acting in contradiction to his own professions and principles, and that lie runs the risk of wounding the secict sympathies of a notable portion of his supporters. But, after all, he should have thought of ah this before bombaiding Alexandria, and sending Lord Wolseley to Egypt. Mr Gladstone is no longer fiee to stop in the path on which he has entered, or to letrace his steps He is bound to organise Egypt, e\ en more directly than we have organised Tunis.