THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume 2641, Issue 2641, 15 June 1889, Page 3

THE EDUCATION QUESTION.

TO THK EDITOR. g,l, " R," in his letter says, "I do not say'why education curbs a man down so that he is not so Rood a labourer as those who havo only passed the fourth standard. The sixtli standard man will oe more discontented ; content is curbed down to discontent ; I think "R" will admit this. I have now to come to "Patriot;" and, Mr Editor, before we come to the real practical r- '.estion of whether this higher education j the present circumstances of New Zealand is for its good, I do not refer wholly to the money point of view, allow me to romind " Patriot" that he is juiupiiiK away from the main points at issue and replying to them by truisms and generalities and sayings of p-cat writers and philosophers. If' these truisms are applied to points at issue where they are quite foreign to the subject, tlipy are in that case mere repetitions which any parrot could repeat. "Patriot's" first letter was in reply to your leader advocating a reduction in the lavishness of the present system. Well! he " Patriot " wished to close you up, not by practical facts but by quotinc Professor Huxley as saying, "He who injures one man 'injures tha whole State, and he who injures the State injures every single individual in it." Now, this is very grand talk and of such an emotional kind that one, if any way parroty inclined, might, in repeating these sayings, be so led away as to believe ho himself was Professor Huxley whereas he is only his parrot. But I want to know what on earth has all this tall talk to do with the real question? Again, in replying to my letters he almost always shirks the practical points, and lays his whole strength into what I am and what I wish. " I wi«h this, I wish that, I wish the whole body of the people to be poor and to bo sacrificed to a few rich." Now. I want to know that if-I say if—thus is all true, what on earth have my wishes got to do with whether we should have higher education at the expense of primary education? Quite independent of my wishes, tho question at stake is either right or wrong. In this question of higher education, ' latrint " assumes that he is fighting the question of the poor man, and that he is keepin" him fn>m being robbed of his just inheritance. In this I will show that he, tho friend of tho poor, and I, their oppressor, will completely clwngn places. Here in New Zealand when any body of men >vish to get some measure carrind or kept on, measures which are personally for their own benefit and not for the benefit of the poor, their stronc , card is to befool the poor man and show black to bo white. In the past [ have exposed the roguery, and as long as I live I will do so. I will expose this saying that our education system places the poor and rich on equal terms; I will show that the poor are robbed by the present system, they havintf to pay taxes for the support of higher education, which their circumstances preclude them from accepting, and which only tho children of the well-to-do can accept. All are ablo to accept up to the fourth standard ; beyond that it is only the well-to-do who can accept. It will be brought forward in contradiction to me some single isolated case where some poor man's child lias accepted the higher education. No doubt it is a good thing for this younf, person, but what about the fifty poor who had to pay for this fortunate one, and the thirty who were well-to-do? One poor and thirty rich is about the proportion. What do you say to that, ye bombast bogus friends of the "poor! Ye are clap-traps, every one of yon ! In this Waikato there are districts in which there are eight, ton or twelve children growing tip without knowing their A. B.C. It will bo said the country cannot be expected to provide a schoolmaster for so few : this will be said by those who, like " Patriot," are receiving the benefits of the higher education. Rogues that ye are ! Is it right that fat upon fat, in an educational point of view, should be piled upon your children, and those in the sparser districts go wholly without education ? Ye are robbers, every one of you ! Hulwtract, snbstract, snbstract from the higher education, and give it to those who arc getting none. The education system in its lirst entirety was upon the understanding that cv'srv child i" the colony should be educated. Ye of the middle class, who are in a position to accept and won't give to the others, arc committing a crime of the deepest dye to those who are getting none. And how beautifully yon five us philosophers' truisms abniit the Rights of M.vn ! To the devil, I say, with all such bogus defenders of the poor man's rights.—l am, &c, lIAUAIMI'I. Hanpipi, Juno Bth, IW.SiI.