The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, SEPT. 10, 1889.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2678, 10 September 1889, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 10, 1889.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

There are many serious faults to be found with the education system of New Zealand. People who have watched the operation of the system since its initiation pronounce the results of the costly expenditure as barren and productive of much evil to the future well-being of the colony. It has been frequently demonstrated that the tendency of the course of instruction adopted in the State schools is to unlit the youth for specific callings in life. The uniform nature of the syllabus is a mistako. It is doubtful whether it would be fitted to the circumstances of any country ; but thero is no denying the fact that it is unsuited to the conditions of a young country where settlement is the greatest economic necessity. The colonial system of education has completely ignored this important feature, for, to what extent can it be credited with preparing the young of either sex for the serious work of settling the couritry and occupying the land? When we come to consider this question it must become obvious that there should be an appreciable difference in the characters of city and country schools, and both should be established on widely di tie rent principles to what is at present the case. J-hc beautiful similarity of the syllabus, identical in town and country schools, is in no way beneficial to either. It is remarkable only for

its forcing process and the production of plants of an unnatural find precocious growth, which is not of that enduring character that tlio, judicious trainingof theyoungshould lie. City schools turn out hordes of young pfiople educated with false notions of tho spheres they should till in the world, and who seek only to secure, genteel sedentary occupations. Tho dignity of labour is beyond their eomprehansion, and manual work is the darnicr resort to which the bulk are driven by necessity and the competition which encompasses the limited circle of office or shop life. Ihe streets of towns are filled with Stateeducated larrikins and intelligent criminals, who, under a wiser system, would be drafted into the country districts to swell the ranks of industrious wealth-producers and lead useful lives. State education can be of no true worth, on the contrary, it developes into a positive danger, to society, unless technical instruction is largely included in the system. So tar it is in a great measure theoretical and experimental. The practical element is wanting, and to give it that feature we have the experience of other countries to convince us of its wisdom and desirability. Technical education would remove the system from its experimental nature, and yield us better results for an extravagant expenditure which has continued quite long enough for the colony to bear with equanimity. The State, in its paternal assumption of giving education to the young, has only the duty of imparting sufficient elementary knowledge to create intelligent, law-abiding citizens. In addition to this the course of training should be of the utilizablo, technical kind sufficient to qualify the young to engage in such trade or productive occupations as each may be inclined for oy predeliction or capacity. The State has to study every point that bears on the prosperity of the industries of the nation, and it should be a matter of the first importance to have a care that the supply of skilled, intelligent young labourers are forthcoming with each generation to carry on these industries. This would be the application of the protective principle to the home-born labour. Education in the country districts should comprehend a course of instruction adapted to the staple industries of the localities. It should imbue the minds of the youth with ambition to lead active lives in the great pursuits amongst which they have been born. In agricultural and pastoral districts the syllabus siioulu be stripped of much of the useless floral adornments it possesses that serve the pupils in after life no practical purpose, for sound technical grounding in agricultural science and chemistry, the study of live stock, dairy, and other branches of rural industry. Teachers, with the qualification for conductingschoolson that plan would, of course, be necessary and should be carefully selected. Instruction of this description could begin with the third standard and terminate with standard V and the gain of appropriate scholarships. In the same way would we advocate that the syllabus of schools in mining districts should be framed so as to recognise the value of local industry, and should include instruction in the knowledge of geology, the natural history of minerals, the chemistry of acids and the treatment of ores, engineering, hydrology, pneumatics, and such lessons of a technical nature useful to the practical life of the gold or coal miner. So .also with other districts with distinctive industries, the local schools should embrace a class of education enabled to tit the youth of the place to take alastiug interest in, and to continue the work of prosecuting, the industries developed by their fathers before them. Thus, we think, would the public svsteui of education be made valuable to the nation, and aid materially in moulding a strong, healthy and wholly productive people.