MR GLADSTONE ON FREE EDUCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2092, 3 December 1885, Page 2

MR GLADSTONE ON FREE EDUCATION.

Tn k following extinct fiom Mr Gladstone's manifesto will be read with mtd( st . Tli<> Mil>ji-ct of a gtatmtous j>rim.iry education, to be paid fin fimii sources wholly |nihli(\ in ono "ii winch I desiie to le-ervea final iiidgment. There aio olniou, arguments in f i\Diir of the jil.m, which became fiev aieobuous it isunneeessaiy to repeat; but it .ipiu'iM to mi' to suggest some dirhcultie- which dent, md, ,<t any i it<\ a grave coum leialion. Yielding to the habits of tin- U'lintiy, a cunti ibutimi toward-, the ci--t of tin 1 .utule tends to its being more thonuighly \alued by the recener. It •-(ji ins nectary to consider with care what w ill be the effect of the eh inge on primary education otliei th in that which is supplied by public uithoiitv. The, mle of our policy ii th it nothing should be done by the Stato which cm b> liutter «i ,is> well done by \olunt.uy t iloit ; and [am not aware that eitln i in it-- nun il or »*\i v ii m its literary ,i-i»cct> the work ->f the St ite for education liai .1-. piowd its siiporimity to tho work of the ulij{ii>u« bodie-. or of pfuUn-thrupic-individuals ]]\en the economical coiisi(l(-i ition of materially augmented cost do- not appeal to bo wholly triual. \j,'iin, will time, not be under the new >\ stein an increased jealousy of the introduction into the school-, of any subject not •■tut'fh Midimentfiry? Tliere remains the ielif;ioii-i difficult j r . The nation doe^ not appeal to be di po-ed to confine tho public te ii linijj; 111 tlu [ii mi u y school-, to matters pimly sec.ihi. If this be so, how .ire we, ask thuentn" [i ipulitioti of ('hnrchineii, Xiincoiiifoi,.iist-, ,md lloiu in Catholics to ace |>1 one .nd the .ime i'<li^ioiis scheme , ot u litfioiis liistitictton in despite of their deiiominatioinl ditfeiences, and abo\ealla sclienn- piesen ! nd and limited by the :mt'i 11 it\ of the S-, -te in a country and at <i i l»'iiod when .1 l.ii*,'-' "'' |SS °f o|union has grown up which is totally adverse to the i— c by the Stite of any prescribing and limiting authoiity it ,J1 m relit,'i(<uiinatteisV Then' in ly b>- modes of un-utiiitf all or some of these diiiieulti •-, but until such mode* h ue ben (an fully woujhod and not found w >ntin n ', it would bj premature in me to cnde.unni to piess foiward generally the vihj 'ct of friatuitoiis pi mi iry education. I hive ilua\s piefened the provision-, of tho Scotch Kducition Act, which intimts tho locil coinmnnity with a large discretion H'sjieitiiiK n bgioii t.i liing, 111 1 the more eontiiiud in iii n 'euieut ot tlie Kn^b-*h Act, and a-< a Scottish i.'pusent itne I should bo liic'im d to watch with care for the mamtin me • in full of tlu hbeity which Scotland now enjo\s.

Thi- wages of Ah Hm h fifty cents a do/.!i'l. A 15 \u i-.fi i>l.ice wheiu water is scarce vi.l d m K . i ii.Mi. A Xni!in\UM' editor declines to marry Ic'CiUi-c gieat men -i -on-> hardly e\er •unoiint tn anything. i»\un\ Woiuh, tlir man milliner, knows nioie ,ih 'lit the Kieiich beet crop than any in in it) I*.<i i-. Ki\(, Ai.ion-o i-- to he afflicted with ntkit-. He may have caught the malady fi mi In- tin on.'. TllK Pnutan is said to boa good pea boat, but tlu-ie is -aid to bo a gieatde.il of Plymouth nek to her. Cm elections should be held every six month-. It t.ikf- about tii.it much time for a lefoiin council to bocuine coirupt. A Cosnk I'K'Li' watch company m ikes 300,000 watches a year. It \\<>uld take a big tiling to w ind up that cmici'in. " Tir . o ily way 111 1 tell a good cig.ir is to Mil >k'i it." Tils pinper way t-i tell a bad fig 1 1 i- to got :i fiii'iid to smoke it for you. 11l Mini win -> £12,000 "(iihier " is to be «.ho\\n in a New York gallery this autumn. Slnou Xo\ i noS statue of (ieu Juarez was un\ tilled .it Oaxaca, Mexico, September irth. Whi-n a pel -on begins to lia about his age it doi>Mi't -ei>ii to take o\er ten years to lump him fiom (><i to 102. Till" unoiint „nnu. illy pud to the teachers of the I'liite-l Stites is £ 1 2, 000, 000, an aveiago of about tNOt N 0 apiec\ Mil ]>\u. the American sculptor, is woikmg in Violence on the clay model of hi- colo-.-..d -titu;of IHniel Web-tor. Tnr\ still ln\o .ibundance of water on tho Khi-i.i hill-, in A"-am, wheie the .innii.il rainfall i^ from 100 to 000 inches. The penalty foi selling a, cigarette to a, boy oi trirl unik'i sixteen yeais of sige in Nc.v Hampshire ha- been made >25 for each offence. A Rn.ii or Qtki \" Kuz\bbth.— There 13 now on view -it Mr Edward Joseph's galleiy in Bond-street a very curious and, it would seem, genuine relic of Queen Eh/J>etii. This is a sninll prayerbook, Itin, by - , in which the Queen has w ntten in <i very neat hand, on Go leaves of \ elluiii, prayers in English, Greek, L'ltin, Fiench, ami Italian. The inside of the shagieen case, which it adorned with hi by chaps, contains a pnir of miniatures of the Queen and the Due d'Alen(jon, painted by Nicholas Hillard, and the book is e\ ulently a gage (Tumour pre[•aied by tiie Queen for her suitor, pro')al»ly about 1381, when, as reader* of Mi Fioudc will leinemher, slit- announced to hei (Joint that bhe had accepted him for her htishind. The pr.iyers are \cry autobioptaplucal. The writer speaks of hersi-lf as "diguing my blood fiom kings" and thanks God for " passing me finm a piison to a palace," and " placing me a Somciaigiie I lincc over tlio people of England." The hi .tory of the book can lie ttaced from James 11., who gave it to the Duke of Ikiwick, whence it passed to Horace Walpole, and afterw ,\rds to the Duchess of Portland. At her sale in 178H, it was bought for Queen Ch.ulotte foi 101 guneas. She left it to one of her lailici in-waiting", from whom it was acquired by the late Duchess of Leeds; tlunce it parsed into the late owner's hand*. It is described in Walpole'- "Anecdotes of Painting," in his account of the famous miniaturist Nicholas Hilliaid. Win \ an enemy deprecates his powers of ollence, bays a w liter in the "European Mail " (on Russia in the Pacific), one ia apt to injection his sincerity. I am told th it the Ru— ian authorities are iiiulli dissatisfied with the present character and composition oi the'r existing foicc in the Pacilic. It sccim, if we may credit Ru-sian reports, tnat the entire Sibciian flotilla now consists of but seven \ es-els of old pattern, and this is supplemented by only a single ironclad fiom Ivionstadt. It is contemplated, however, to have in future, not a Pacific sijuadion, but a ital fleet, and the head(juuteis aie tobe.it Vladivostock. If the statement be leally tine that the existing foicc of Russian war \esscls is leaily very insignificant, well and good, and no doubt our colonies will take care to icmaiii far ahead of Muscovite power in this paiticular ; but one is incliued to bu sceptical w hen the Russians themselves, through a Pi ess organ of its own, elect to siug very small, and to proclaim that the supposed eagles of war are nriltl sucking doves, incapable of harming anybody veiy much. But who can credit w hat is put into a Russian organ ? Is the United States the prohibition movement is making much headway in the South. The Washington correspondent of the Melbourne "Argus"' says that in the State of Georgia two-thirds of the counties have voted against any licenses for the sale of liquor. At this point, the Prohibitionists took the bold step of intioduciug in the Lower House a Bill piowding that an election should be held each year until a vote of no license should be given ; after that the v otes on the question should cease, and the v erdict of the people should stand unchanged. This was a little too strong foi the moic cautious State Senate, ana the Bill w is amended so that no vote on the question of license cm be given unless one tenth of the voteis of the countiy ieque=t it in wiitmg. In this foi in the Bill was passed, and has be* come a law. A vote obtained in this way adverse to license is still to be final until fmther action by the Legislature. It is said that the requirement will be complied with in about fifty counties of the State this fall, and the Prohibitionists expect to cany them all. In Texas, where whiskey diiuking has been as common as eating, if not a little more so, the temperance movement is spreading, ami the domination of the Democratic paity, which has been unshaken for yeais there, is seiiously thioatened by it. How permanent the change will be cannot now be said, but there will doubtless be some reaction, followed however, by a Instiug gain,