TOWN VERSUS COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 36, 12 February 1892, Page 2

TOWN VERSUS COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

We very much regret that in connection with tho election of three members for the Education Board, there is a disposition to ra'so the mischievous cry of town versus country, and to array tho one against the other. Every sinceie woll-wisher of bhe education system will dcploro this for many reasons. Every man who knows anything ab all aboub our national school system and its pasb working in tho Auckland educational district is aware that any appeal based upon bhe supposed favouritism of the Board of Education to the town ab the expense of tho country relies upon tho ignorance of the persons to whom the appeal is made. The very opposite is the truth—schools have been created and supported in isolated districts, with capitation drawn for children attending city schools. And this is true in a much greater degree of the Auckland Education District than of any other in the colony, as an examination of the educational statistics of the colony will satisfy any dispassionate man.

In the Auckland district there were in operation at tho end of 1890 no fewer than 246 schools to provide for an aggregate attendance of 22,379 children, while in Otago, with a slightly larger average attendance (22,780), there were only 193 schools, and Canterbury, with 21,240 in average attendance, accommodated them in 163 schools. The reason for this is simply that the Auckland Board of Education has systematically endeavoured to erect a school wherever a dozen children could bo collected together. The salaries of the teachers havo suiferod in consequence, and are now considerably lower on the average than in any other part of the colony, but tho wants of the country havo been well supplied. A recent return laid before Parliament gives some interesting information with regard to tho relative cost of large and small schools. From this it appears that four of our largest schools, containing 2,871 pupils in average attendance, cose £6,794 6a lOd for one year, or at tho rate of £2 7s 3d per head. Seven small schools, containing 141 pupils, cost for the samo period £660 lis 7d, or at the rato of £4 13s Sd per head. Chairmen of country school committees who assert that their schools havo been neglected iti the past have not studied these returns, or they would nob make such groundless assertions. The four schools quoted above furnished no less a surplus than £3,927 19s 3d, which was spent mainly in keeping the country schools going.

As wo pointed out on a previous occasion, this struggle betweon town and country, if persisted in, can only have one ending—an irresistible demand by the towns for the creabion of separate school districts, as proposed under the Bill introduced by Mr Fisher when holding the portfolio of Education. The ellecb of such a subdivision of funds would inevitably be the closing of a number of the smaller country schools. We opposed Mr Fisher's Bill very strongly on this ground, but we are bound to confess that if antagonism between town and country is created, so that harmonious working is no longer possible, some change in the direction indicated will be inevitable.