The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1901. THE COMING ELECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 90, 17 April 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1901. THE COMING ELECTIONS.

For the causg that lacks assistance, Tor the -wrong that needs resistance, Por the future In the distanoe, jnd the good that we can do.

We are. on the eve of two important elections, together involving, in a considerable degree, the exercise of those powers of local government vested in us as citizens. On Monday the householders in the various districts will elect the members of the different School Committees, and on Wednesday the municipal elections will be held. In neither case is the elector distracted by having to choose between different programmes and policies. What he has to decide

is which is likely to prove the best man in the position to which he aspires, and to vote for that man. Our loc&l elections have not yet got merged in the political game, nor are they subordinate to the system of parties whicli, in New York for instance, has brought untold corruption in its train. But, while they present none of these unfortunate features, we have periodically to regret, especially in the case of the municipal elections, that there is no very pronounced desire on the part of the people as a whole to give their services, no lively interest manifested in the class of citizens elected. Li Hung Chang once asked a Glasgow Councillor, "Where did you get that scarf-pin?" being under the impression tljat the .trinket was something of a, bribe; for to the Eastern mind it was incredible that the members of the corporation- should carry on the government of the city for nothing. Perhaps the astute Chinaman might find a reason for the apathy of our leading men with regard to local politics in the fact that there is no payment attached to tlie onerous duties of the position. While we know that such is very far from the case in the sense he would understand.it, it would be impossible to ignore the suggestion that the unremunerated character of certain public offices may be a factor in keeping busy men out of them. Taken in conjunction with the frequent complaints which have been levelled at our City Council, it is rather significant that in two of the wards of the city there should be no election this year, and that in the others the names of the candidates are those that have been long associated in our ears with the City Council. We cast no reflection on the fitness of any of these gentlemen to do the work before them, or to command the confidence of the citizens, but it is remarkable that the contest for the civic chairs should be confined to such a narrow circle. Would it not have suggested a healthier interest in public affairs if there had been a few new and prominent names mixed with the old.

The school committee elections are not less important in our eyes than those for the city and borough councils. The efficient management of our schools may depend enormously on the character of the committees;., and though the latter only occupy .a subordinate position in our; scheme of education, we are sure that, given they are composed of the most enlightened and energetic men in the community, their influence on the whole course of public instruction will be felt throughout the colony. A short time ago we directed attention to tii& remarks contained in. the report of. the Chief Inspector. It would be well at this stage to reconsider many of the suggestions of the Inspector with regard to the overcrowding of the syllabus and other matters. For years and yeats the glamour of the examination system has stood in the way of true education, and heen responsible for the craimming that has been in vogue. The patents

have probably been as much to blame as the purblind educationalists for thlss condition of things.*" But a change is j gradually coming about, and evidences

of it are to be found in the new pass system now in 'vogue here, and in the opinions of such men as the Chief Inspector. And the reform will be greatly accelerated by the presence, on our committees of broad minded men who recognise, with Dr. Lodge, the first principal of the Birmingham Uuiversitj', that "real education is not an affair of the memory onlj', the mind being a live thing which not only receives and incorporates, but by brooding and experience, enlarges and increases the store of facts, and recognises or forges links which connect them with each other." That our education is carried on as much in our hours of apparent idleness and rest as in the periods of actual acquisition of knowledge, is a theory which most (men who 'have thought about the matter will readily admit. It is a theory which should have a' much wider currency than it has. Perhaps the fear that it might be seized on by tbe idle pupil as a plea for neglecting his studies, is an argument against its general diffusion, but there is little danger that those who have fhe direction of the pupils' work would err in that way.