THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2635, 1 June 1889, Page 2

THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

TO THE KDITOIt. Sin,—There are many stock sayings used in suppoit of the present education system, these sayings are like many more sayings of the same accepted as truths, merely from the fact that they are taken as granted without the other side being enquired into. The stock sayings in favour of the present system, I will tear into tatters. First. It is said that the English artisan must oe educated to enable England to keei> its trade against the foreign artisan. Now, thn saying is pure fudge. It implies in the past that the English artisans were well educated, and that England's great trade was gained hy the education of these artisans, and that in the future the artisans were not going to be educated, and consequently the artisan's ninibleness and cleverness would cease, and that would be the end of England's trade for ever and ever. The very reverse of this is the truth, as in the three great trades which have raised England, cotton, woollen and iron ; the artisans of these trades were almost to a man uneducated ; of course, there were exceptions, but take them in a body, they were fearfully ignorant; I speak from my own knowledge, having come much in contact with them. In Hie future they are not as in the past, going to be allowed to be so, the .State will wisely and justly see that they have education up to a certain point. So much for the, past and the future. But the truth is, edu cation has nothing to do with the rise in the past or fall in the future of England's great trade; that is determined by other factors, the cost of production is what has to do with England retaining or losing her trade. It was England's vast beds of coal and iron all within measurable distance which placed it in a position to defy all competition. But independent of all that, I. deny that education makes a man more nimble with his hands. I can look back upon many years spent amongst artisans, and not at all, do I see that the completly ignorant man, the man who made a cross when signing his name, by no means do I see that this man was more inferior with his hands or fingers then his mate who could both read and write. In truth my observation was the opposite. Mr Editor, your readers are farmers and not so I will bring it home to them. No doubt in the Waikato there are many educated farmers, oven some of them have had the higher education of being trained at an Agricultural College. Do these big bugs delve, reap, sow or plough any better than those who have not been at college? Does the Agricultural College man grow two blades of grass where the cottar's son can only grow one ? It strikes me the cottar's son will grow two and the higher educated man only grow one. I will now como to stock saying No. 2. It is said give the poor man's son a chance with the rich ; and it is supposed the present system does so. Vain delusion ! The present system robs the poor man to favour the rich, and in this fact lies tho whole enmity I have to the lavish system of our education. The sons of our cottars and artisans can accept the lower education, say up to the fourth standard ; but their circumstances places it out of their power to accept the higher education. Consequently they are robbed by having to pay taxes to support this higher education which they cannot receive. I know a town in the Waikato in which there is only one boy who has gained a scholarship, he is the son of a comparatively rich man ; if he had been a po.,r man's son there are nine chances to one he would have had no scholarship, he would not have been able to accept the benefit. I wonder in the Canterbury Agricultural College how many sons of cottars and artisans there are, and how unrtiy sons of well-to-do men there are. 1. will wager a stick of tobacco there are twenty well-to-do mens' sous to one cottar's. Higher education is a luxury, why should the poor man be taxed to give luxuries to the rich? Stock saying No. 3. It will be said education morally raises the receiver of it. I deny this ;I. say it makes skunks of men. There are men educated by the State, educated here in New Zealand by the State; these men are now teachers, and skunks of teachers they are. Would you believe it, these men look with contempt and ridicule on their decent old hard working fathers and mothers because they cannot spell and write like themselves. Education has degraded these men and made them lower than the boasts c.f the field; education in these instances has given the guinea stamp but Hie metal is lUuuiinorruin ; not pure gold but base metal, A man educated up to the fourth standaid and earning his living by honest work and industry, is a noble being in comparison to tho educated mini of vanity and false pride. —Yours very truly. lLvitAi'in, Harapipi, May 2Sth, 1880,