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Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2494, 5 July 1888, Page 2

Thb ultra-educational party accuse those who advocate reducing the cost of the State system of edneation in this colony, of seeking its destruction. They adopt that ever-ready but wretched argument, of "injustice to the masses;" they put up the " working mail," then clasp their arms aronnd him to display their disinterested devotion to him against the supposed attacks of those whose opinions are not in accord with their own. This is the sort ot thin? that wius over the majority. In every effort made by the most siucere reformer and lover of the country, who may strive to shield it from great perils, the " working man" will be the stumbling block brought forward by antagonists in order to neutralise their actions. Perhaps to no one is the species of claptrap so frequently indulged in more distasteful than to the intelligent genuine working-man himself. It has been our good fortune to have devoted time and study in familiar intercourse with industrial political associations in this colony, and therefore have some insight into questions that alieet the classes. In so far as the masses are concerned in respect to State education, it is not correct that free public instruction for their children is all the benefit they have gained from the Public Works expenditure. Those who make this assertion either wilfully

misrepresent, or forget that with the progress of the scheme of Public Work s [pillions have gone into the pockets of workers as wages; that these wages have increased to the 8s per day standard; that they have acquired political power which few, if any other, people in any country possess; and that whilst all other sections of the population, especially those who own property above rive hundred pounds in value, are crushed by taxation, the masses, so called, are the greatest contributors to the accumulations of the Savings Banks, and patrons of the Building Societies. In speaking of the masses we must be understood as referring to the large cities, for they only, as we have declared before now, have reaped the entire harvest of the expenditure of borrowed millions. We yield to none in applying all our thouulits and energies to tlie promotion of the welfare of this country and its people as a whole. Its difficulties fill ua with the deepest anxiety, and we conceive it to bo our first duty to lend every possible assistance to ameliorate the troubles that surround us, in order that the colony may once more occupy a place of safety and re-enter a career of prosperity. We wish to prusene its best institutions, not demolish them, and we agree that the wisest course to take, under the pressure of existing circumstances, is to project them from themselves. Thus the system of education is threatened by a danger within itself, its own excessive costliness. The demand is, "excise all luxuries from our national economy, in order that we may live within our means." If the people are not prepared to make every sacrifice, all labour in that direction will be vain. It may be unpleasant, it will be a sacrifice, but there is no escape from the fact that we pay far more than our means permit for public education. Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the duty of the State in the matter of Education, we maintain that if the State provides free education for children from seven to fourteen years of age and insists that they become perfectly grounded in all the subjects comprised in the four standards, it willbe performing all that can reasonably be expected of it. The curriculum may be revised and the standard enlarged soas to admit of subjectsfroni the fifth and fourth standards being merged into the fourth and third standards, together with the addition of technical subjects. The present system is essentially a cramming and a forcing system to obtain rapid results that are an unnatural strain on the intellects and brain power of young children. Teachers strive to secure the best percentage of passes, and the minds of the young are prematurely developed, with the consequeune so universally seen that, in a few years after leaving the schools, the children forget the greater part of what they were taught. There is not a permanent and life-long benefit bestowed. The moral and reverential aspect of the question wo will not here refer to again. We wish to show that economy is not only possible in the system without impairing its efficiency, but that it must be effected to secure its own preservation.