OUR SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 122, 25 May 1932, Page 5

OUR SCHOOLS.

EFFECTS OF LEGISLATION beginnings of the system. THE DAYS OF THE PROVINCES. COMPARISONS OF COST. (By HAUTUEU.) No. 1. The New Zealander is justly proud of the fine education system which his young land has built up, yet the storv 'of this system, with its benefits and its burdens, is grasped by all too few of those who rush in with criticism in these times when education is upon the operating table. The expert, viewing the subject from his own angle, delivers a weighty and often a convincing dictum. The public, still subconsciously affectcd by the influence of bygone school days, accepts the statement with almost the reverence accorded to the verdict of a medical man. It knows our education system only through a more or less distant personal contact, or through the perspective of its own children. A sketch of the manner 111 which the training of the young has grown from small private enterprises of the early days to the vast state business of to-day may give citizens a better idea of the responsibilities they have undertaken and the financial burdens they have shouldered for the sake of the young generation. _ It may hell) them, too, in arriving at individual conclusions regarding the extent which State expenditure is justified in the multifarious channels of the system. Such is the object of these articles, which perforce, must touch but briefly upon main topics, and must present them, not for the educationist, but for the whole community. Our First Schools. The early days pass in brief review. Education in New Zealand is older than New Zealand as a colony. Missionary schools for Maoris came into being soon after Marsden's landing in 1814. The first school for European children was established at Paihia, Bay of Islands. 101 years ago. As in many other lands, the Church was the pioneer, and durina the early days Church influence dominated what the missionaries had commenced. A zeal for education flamed among the first settlers of the provinces, On many of the immigrant ships school was a regular institution, and the founders of the settlements showed their consideration for posterity in the handsome land endowments for education which they set aside. Particularly was this so in Otago and Canterbury; in Wellington district the neglect of this provision was in marked contrast, leav- ■ ing the early settlement poorer in consequence. Aucklanders owe much t< Bishops Sehvyn and Pompallier, thi pioneers of the Wcsleyan faith, and S'.i George Grey for the educational endowments of their own province. In the Provincial Days. Many still living can recall theii childhood days in the times of privati and "endowed" schools which were thi foundations of learning in the times o: t the provincial councils. Weekly pay ; ments for the privilege of attending ! school were then general. "Superior' l schools, the forerunners of our secondary 1 institutions, came into being, and tlicii J surviving pupils take pride in recalling 1 the small beginnings to which the\ were contributory units. So, too, d( many others remember the beardet "tyrants" under whose rods they re ceivcd limited but undoubtedly definit. ' instruction —very superior beings indesi. , to the child of 'fifty or more years age j W ere such as "Boss" Worthington, oi ; Auckland, and "Hoppy" Stewart, _oi " Dunedin. The accounts of the provin cial councils show varying sums votec < for education in the different districts 2 but these were relatively small amounts though it is worthy of note that, judge; on a money value standard, some head o masters, particularly in Otago, wen better paid than the heads of similai schools are to-day. Compulsory Education. The story of our New Zealand systen 3 really begins with the coming intc - operation of the Education Act of IS* 7 • Nrit without much opposition am: criticism did this, one of the most im '• portant of our statutes, pass tlirougl " Parliament, wherein provincial feeling e from the recently disestablished pre '* vinces was still strong. The bill, as piloted by Charles Bowen, really aimer at a considerable amount of centralisa tion. It emerged as an Act givinj almost complete control of education t( boards and school committees. Thi Government was empowered to pay t< each of the twelve boards established : capitation allowance of £3 15/ a yea: per unit of average attendance for thi running of schools and payment o teachers. Other grants for school build ings, etc., were also allowed from thi Consolidated Fund. The real finanein; nf education became a matter for thi hoards themselves. Some had wealth;, endowments; others had none. Endow ment revenue was paid to boards, bui the amount of it was deducted fron the Government grants. Thus the whole Dominion benefited from the foresigln of the pioneers of districts where widt provision had been made for the sup port of primary education.

The first years of a national system gave the clannish communities of those flays something they much clesired —a full measure of local control. It also produced several anomalies. The more closely-settled provinces held a distinct advantage. It was cheaper to run big schools than small ones. Better salaries were possible in the more favoured areas, and the same tasks were under-

taken in different districts at widelydivergent rates of pay for teachers, seeing that each board devised its own salaries scheme and appointed its own inspectors. For years the central department which the Act of 1877 constituted cost a mere £2000 for annual maintenance, a mere fragment of its cost to-day. It prescribed the syllabus of instruction, with its basis of the three It's," it supervised the payment of grants to boards, and it took over the control of native education and of industrial schools: From it also came the instruction that each school had to adopt the classification of children into an infant department and six standards. Before a child could pass from one standard to another, he had to be examined in every subject by an inspector. Many can recall the dread of those old inspectorial visits, with their quick bur, searching examination of every pupil, and the awaited pronouncement of "pass" or "fail." The old certificates with each year's record are still cherished, despite their faded ink. The Old Inspection. Those days of rigidly examining every child, a stupendous task for hardworking inspectors, have gone. Yet they served their purpose well. They made our system sound, if constrained; they encouraged, if they did not even enforce, dogged persistence in the youth of a budding nation; they taught a regard for discipline of an unrelenting type. They were hard days, yet who will say that they did not mould a generation to eomparc' favourably with that which our modern system has still to produce? And tliey did this at t. cost that was within the means of the community. In the 'nineties of last , century our population was approximately half of what it is now. The ■ total Government expenditure on educa- . tion wa# slightly over half a million . (£f>So,ooo) per annum, or at the rate 1 of 15/2 per head of population, accord- . ing to Mr. A. G. Butchers, in his comt prehensive work on "Education in New , Zealand." In thirty years, while the population barely doubled, the cost rosj i nearly eightfold to £4,000,000. Allow- . ing that money values themselves have. ; doubled during the period, it will be . seen that the cost of education to the State should have been in 1928 four times what it was in 1898, were the same facilities as then existed still pro- . vided at the same comparative rates 1 of expenditure. To what extent the r increased facilities have justTlied the 1 big growth of expenditure may be judged 2 as the review proceeds.