The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening Nems,Morning Nems and The Echo. THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1910. EDUCATION AND LOCAL RATES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 171, 21 July 1910, Page 4

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

THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1910. EDUCATION AND LOCAL RATES.

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One of the most interesting measures that the Premier has promised for the session is a Local Government Bill which is to abolish some of our local bodies, establish others to take their place, and redefine the areas under their control. But it was not generally understood when this project was first mooted, that the bill was to deal in any way with education; and we have no doubt that the great majority of the general public share our surprise on learning that this bill proposes to set up " councils" and

" divisional committees" to take over the duties at present discharged by the Education Boards. But an even more serious change than this is contemplated in the existing education system; for the Premier told us in his Budget speech that he intends to throw the maintenance of education in future chiefly upon the local bodies. What we have to expect, therefore, in regard to the education system is that an attempt is to be made to centralise the administration of our primary schools by doing away with the district boards, and that the educational funds are to be supplied, not as heretofore, by State grants, but by local rating. We believe that public feeling throughout the colony will be stronglyopposed to both these changes, and our own opinion is that they are open to very grave objections which entirely outweigh any conceivable merits that can be claimed for them.

As regards the powers and -functions of the Education Boards, we agree with the remarks made by the Chairman of the Auckland Board yesterday to the effect that a great deal might be done to render the system more efficient hy a readjustment of the district boundaries, and possibly by the abolition of some oi the smaller boards. But though the terms in which the Premier referred to the details of the forthcoming bill were decidedly vague, and we are still in the dark as to the precise duties and powers which are to be conferred on the new "councils" and "divisional committees" it certainly looks as if Government's intention is that the authority now vested in the local boards should be transferred to some central body located presumably at Wellington. We hope that no attempt will be made in this direction, for we would regard such a

scheme as entirely inimical to the interests of education throughout the Dominion. We have always been firmly convinced of the value of local self-gov-ernment in regard to education, as contrasted with a centralised bureaucratic system, and in a country only half settled with districts varying so widely in regard to development and in local characteristics, it seems to us that no central authority could possibly discharge with success the functions now delegated by the Department to the existing boards. On several occasions we Have had reason to notice the prevailing tendency toward creating a monopoly of political and administrative authority at the seat of government; and assuming that the changes indicated by the Premier would have the effect of thus centralising the management of the system, we consider that they would be inevitably pernicious to local interests and to the cause of education throughout the country.

But there is a great deal more than this behind the Premier's proposals, ana we are entirely in accord with the protest made yesterday by the chairman of the Education Board against any attempt to throw a portion of the burden of education upon the local rates. For such a step would be utterly inconsistent with the fundamental principles on which our education system is based. In all the most progressive countries in the world to-day, the duty of providing education for the people is recognised as one of the primary functions of the State. _<ow Zealand is justly proud of its system of State education, and it would surely be a retrograde step for us to legislate at this hour of the day in a way that even remotely suggests a reversion to a system now generally discredited, and from our standpoint obsolete. We are aware that Mr Hogben, Inspector-General, in the report which he published some time ago on his educational experiences abroad, laid great stress upon the fact that a certain proportion of the money spent in some countries on education is raised by the local authorities for then- own districts; and the Minister for Education last year indicated that possibly some modification of this system might be tried here. But we have not yet come across any argument that could establish the superiority of the system of local rating over State grants as a means of providing education for the masses, and in any case the idea is utterly opposed to the principles underlying our justly-prize-system of State education. In the words of the resolution adopted by the Auckland Education Board yesterday, education here is "it State, and not a local concern "; and we do not believe that the country as a whole will have the slightest sympathy with any proposal that strikes at the very root oi a system which has served our purposes admirably, and which has justified itself completely by its general and uniform. _uccea_,