HIGHER EDUCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2654, 16 July 1889, Page 2

HIGHER EDUCATION.

TO THK EDITOR. Sik, —I have waited patiently to see if " W.C,O. " or "Patriot" would answer my letter. "W.C.C. "is a harmless man. It is not likely he has had any hand in bringing this lino country to what it is, nor is it likely he will ever, in the future, do it much harm ; lie will never set the Thames on lire. But it is different with " Patriot." It is the men of his slump who havu brought this beautiful New /■■aland into such a mess, that, it is lowering and , humbling to us to think that we were such iissos. "Patriot" is a sanguine man, of very little observation. If he was walkin? along a hedge of roses he would shout to the people "I Jo, |)lnclc t lio rose ; admire its beautiful colour, and inhale its beautiful fi.ignmcu. " Me could not si>e then) were thorns behind the (lower,and the people would pluck tin; H.iwer and bleed their hands. For twenty years wo have been lilee ling <>nr hands for want of knowing there were thorns. There have been nip.n like iStalford and Gillie* who would have given us the rose without the bleeding hand.-', but tlieie wore tivonly fouls for odd wise man, and the outcome was, instead of wise and prudent Governments, we havo had mad riot, and for which we are now dearly paying the pipor. In this desire of "Patriot" for higher education at the expense of the Siatu ha is giving us the rose without letting us know of the thorns, Ife says I mi retrograde; I am against progress. He does not say I inn old ISeel/.etiub, but, certainly, ho almost infers it. But. Mr Editor, 1 will show your readers that it is he, with his higher education, that would make u.s here in New Zealand retrograde. " Patriot " whhes nil mankind to be highly educated. Now, to say that in the present state of the. world and. its ull'aii's. society could exitt if all men were highly educated, to say this, i.s the wild rhapsody of a fool. It may be that in the distant future one thing will ha\e grown with another, and that all men can be highly educated, but all perfection must come from growth. Men must come to learn th;it slow and sure is the word ; the real well-being of mankind cannot come by leaps and bounds. Mr Kditor, where would the present liberty of England be if Mr Frost, the originator, and then leader, of chartisisiu, had then gained his wish. There would have been a class revolution with all its horrors and atrocities. England, which leads the world in liberty, would have been thrown two hundred years back, and the world would have so suffered ; but the Tories saved us from all this, and by doing so the Tories advanced the liberty of the whole of mankind. I will now come back to education, and I think that "Patriot" must admit that if we here in New Zealand were shut oft" from communication with the rest of the world, we would not progress, but would very much retrograde ; let us all bo highly educated and we would be cut oft from the rest of the world. Can it, for one moment, be believed that highly educated nieu would become seamen with its dog's life. Would highly educated men go into a mine and dig coals. Without seamen and coals we would bo shut off from the rest of the world. There are educated boys who go to set, but every one of them intends to become a captain. Now, "Patriot " being a business man, will say that the laws of supply and demand would compel these educated men to become common seamen. Like "Patriot," I also believe in supply and demand, but in this case supply and demand would be nowhere. All these educated men, that is the whole community, would have votes; does "Patriot" think llie.stj men are of such a Christian disposi-

I tion, and that their higher education would make them so righteously disposed,and would so impress them with the golden rule that they would at once become hewers of wood and drawers of water, Air Editor, if •' Patriot" believes tlii;-, his vi»i«m is much inoi'o liinited than 1 take it to be, alLhoiigh I do not credit hi in with seeing through a .-stonewall. JUr Kditor. will you allow 100 space for a few liner, on another subject-. " I'alriot,' 1 -T know from himstlf not from you, under the other noma de

|,!:uiH! of " Kii'iuiut"' and "Elector" advocated that the State should h.ivn t.ho unearned increment, in ono of my lato letters i stated one o£ my neighbours had lately got fifty acres of swamp, and that hrj boiii^, , a fourth standard man was up to his ii,H:!lf in the water draining it, whorr-as, if ho had been highly educated, ho won! ! ::ot h.ivi' beon so. AVt-1!, sir.c.' the wet weather \t,\" ciiic om, h> , is ;;i' f" lii s neck in the. w.ito.r. ;>'o\v. A 1 :• " l.'atriot, ' or " i;nq;viror,"oi' " Klector," beint,' oin of the State, ha, of oourso, would imubivo his hb.iiß i>l t ; -> ■.unearned ineiv.;.ent which my neighbour ,o now caruiiiK ; J"O.< '' Pat riot" hoiiestly think lie is entitled to the increment my neighbour is nu\v e:unm^?—l iun, yours truly, UakaPU'l.