The Press. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1863. EDUCATION COMMISSIONERS' REPORT.

Press, Volume III, Issue 336, 27 November 1863, Page 2

The Press. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1863. EDUCATION COMMISSIONERS' REPORT.

With reference to local administration in educa* tioual matters the Commissioners remark that heretofore there hare existed, properly speaking, no local organisations at all: of the existing local committees none are connected primarily with any particular locality.

Their sphere of action is not local, but denominational. The property which they administer is held not so much for the benefit of any given locality, as for that of a certain section of the community resident iv that locality ; and thus the local committees, as now existing, may be considered as the representatives not so much of local wants as of denominational interests.

It is proposed that this principle should, in the establishment of future local committees, be reversed, and that the limits of their jurisdiction should be determined by divisions of territory rather than by distinctions of creed.

The Commissioners however do not appear to meditate auy interference with the local committees already in existence ; their proposals arc prospective, and only refer to schools which arc hereafter be founded. They recommend that in future the basis of local administration shall be territorial and not denominational, and accordingly that the province ought, ac soon as possible, to bo divided into educational districts, and that each should hare its own local committee, situated within its own boundaries. How far these boundaries shall extend, and whether they shall embrace more than a single, school or no, is a matter of detail, and we are left rather in the dark as to the opinion of the Commissioners: they seem to prefer that the matter should be left to the Executive, for that body to arrange according to circumstances as shall in each case appear expedient. But the question of how the local committee shall be constituted, and what functions it shall discharge, they regard as a matter of more serious importance. They seem to augur considerable difficulty in this matter, and point out the dangers that would arise from either neglect or unwise interference on the part of the local committees, and at the saino time argue the necessity of leaving considerable power in their hands. The three desiderata they declare to be the following:—l. That there should be some security for the appoint meat of lit persons. 2. That their functions and powers should be of such a nature as to afford a stiunilu; to activity without encouraging mis-

cliievoue interference. 3. Tlwt there should be order and regularity in the conduct of business. It is no easy problem, they remark, to secure these desiderata : the Commissioners accordingly speak very guardedly, and somewhat indefinitely upon the subject: they recommend, however—

That for the present no formal provision should be made for exactly defining either the mode of appointing local committees, or their functions and powers when appointed, but that until this can be done in a manner calculated to secure good results, a certain discretior should be left to the Central Board, in the organisation of local bodies, on the single condition that they are so constituted as most effectually to represent local interest.

One suggestion they indulge in concerning the constitution of tho local committees, from which we are inclined to dissent; they would " make the selection of the local committee more especially the work of the parents of the children at the school, or at least give a certain weight and influence to these, without, however, excluding the voice of the general public. ,. The salvo at the end of this sentence appears to us to be hardly a salvo at all. It has been represented to us by one who has long considered the subject of education, that the parents are, perhaps, the very worst people to have anything to do with the management of the school. We do not think it necessary to point out how many parents are completely ruled by their children, as regards their complaints cither of school or schoolmaster ; nor how many would regard their own immediate pounds shillings and pence gain in preference to the general welfare of the school, and tho ultimate good which would in some cases ensue from the adoption of the more costly of two methods of procedure. The judicious reader will form his own opinion; for our part wo dissent entirely from this suggestion of the Commissioners. We observe, however, that they attempt to protect the master from being made tho victim of party strife, or from being at the mercy of parents, which parents may be in these matters at the mercy of their children, by requiring that the sanction of the Board should be obtained before a master be removed, or before any alteration be made in his salary.

On the question of finance, the Commissioners point out the absolute necessity of obtaining the fund? by which education shall be supported from fixed eourcea. The income of the province may 11 actuate, and it may well happen that in some years there might be a falling off in the amount which was disposable for educational purposes. This the Commissioners point out cannot be endured, inasmuch as any cessation in the work of education involves also retrogression, and the throwing away of a great deal of money that has already been spent. Jack goes to school for a year, and the next year the school is shut up for want of funds. Jack soon forgets his year's schooling, and not only does he grow up ill educated, but the money spent upon him already is in great measure thrown away. It becomes therefore necessary to hare a fixed source of income, and one also which shall grow with the growing educational requirements of the place, or fall in equal ratio with the demand for education. Accordingly the Commissioners pitch upon houses, and propose to levy a rate of ten shillings per house per annum; also they suggest laying their hands upon the twentieth part of the customs revenue ; the income derived from these two sources they estimate at about £3800, aud seem to think that it will suffice them when the school fees are superadded. How then shall the money so derived be distributed ? Shall most be giveu to those who will help themselves most, or most to those who help themselves least, on the score of its being most necessary to bring these parties to a right mind by education? The Commissioners here seem to consider that there is something to be said on both sides. They write, In considering these conflicting principles the Commission cannot but recognise that each contains a certain clement of truth, and that in devising a plan for the distribution of funds both should be taken into account —that neither should be made the rule to the absolute exclusion of the other—that wealthy districts or those more keenly alive to the value of education should be encouraged, but that poorer districts or those where education is less regarded, should not be condemned altogether and allowed to grow up in hopeless ignorance. We express our opinion that where there is unwillingness to contribute but not inability to on the part of any locality there should be no sort of assistance whatever from Government. And we nre surprised that the Commissioners should commit themselves to the following:— ' On the other hand it may be maintained, not without some reason, that inability or unwillingness on the part of any locality to contribute to the support of ite schools is the very case in which State aid becomes most imperatively necessary, because that inability or uuwillingness betrays a condition which it is the State's greatest interest to see remedied. In the first place unwillingness to contribute where the ability to do so exists, is a sign of that very want of power to appreciate the benefits of education which arises solely from ignorance, and which can only be counteracted by means of efforts from without. We fear that in the present condition of human nature assistance given to those who can help themselves and will not do so it only a signal for au increased amount of disinclination to self reliance on the part of others. The example of districts refusing to contribute and being accordingly furnished with schools gratis, in order that their morals may be improved, and tfeat they may be brought up to the level of the surrounding districts would, we fear, do far more to demoralise the surrounding districts, than to elevate the recusant one. The Commiseioners consider that Ihe principles which should regulate the distribution of the fond* are of the following nature. The system of finance proposed by the Commission contemplates the raising of a revenue from three sources —the Customs revenue, the educational rate, and the fees received from the children. The first is contributed by the province. Considered as a whole, thie would therefore be

properly applied in promoting those object* which would benefit the province as a whole. -Uie second is contributed by the district, and should therefore be employed in the support of schools situated in that district. The third is contributed by parents who «end their children to school, ami should be used for their exclusive bencSt. Jt may probably be assumed that this last source of revenue"should be applied to the support of the schools where it arises. As regards the second, though not perhaps actually unfair, stUl it would wear the appearance of unfairness, to divert the funds derived directly from one district to the benefit of another ; but the Customs revenue being the property of the whole province, without distinction of localities or districts, might fairly be employed for purposes in which the whole province is interested. Now, it can scarcely be denied that the province as such will be benefitted in proportion to the spread of education in the districts which need it most. That it is to the benefit of all its inhabitants that they should live in a community elevated and refined by the general diffusion of education, rather than in one which enjoys these advantages only partially and unevenly. "It is not, as it appears to the Commission, either the duty or interest of the community, as a whole, to create or to foster strong contrasts, to leave one portion of the people sunk in ignorance and to devote all its efforts towards the cultivation of the intelligence of another, perhaps smaller portion; if this is so, it follows that the State, if true to its own functions, would assist and stimulate education, not according to merits or short-comings, but according as assistance or stimulus was required ; not dealing out its funds to those who wanted least, but to those who wanted most.

We Lave given this extract so fully because we confess that we feel very doubtful about the latter part of it, for the same reasons that we stated above, but we entirely agree with the principle laid down by the Commissioners of reserving that portion of the Educational revenue which is equally the property of the whole province for provincial rather than local purposes; the Commissioners add that — Upon the principles here enunciated, the following would be the mode of apportioning the funds available for education which the Commissioners recommend :— Ist. The echool-fees should be strictly confined' to the benefit of the school from which they are derived. 2nd. The rate should be returned to the district in which it arises. 3rd. The proposition (?) of the Customs' Revenue should be at the disposal of the Board, subject to an annual appropriation by the Provincial Council for the assistance of such schools as appear most to need assistance, beyond that derived from the funds raised within the district. As regards the principle we agree with the Commissioners, but we disagree with them in the application, if by the word " need" they mean anything more than " stand in need of through the sheer and absolute necessi .ies of (he case." The funds, to be derived and expended as abovementioned, are deemed to be permanent expenditure, they will increase from year to year, and cannot iall short without affording an unmistakable symptom that the educational requirements of the province are falling off also; but besides this annual expenditure on teachers and so forth, there will be new schools continually wauted, and of course money will be required for these also. The Commissioners consider that suck monies may be voted in the ordinary way by the Council, inasmuch as any fluctuation in the sums annually voted would be of comparatively small moment; no past expenditure would be wasted, and the delay would probably be the only loss occasioned. The funds being thus collected, and to be thus apportioned, are to be dealt with as follows:— As regards the control of the funds it is suggested that the local committees should have fidl power over the expenditure of those allotted to their respective districts—that all payments should be made direct to the person performing the services out of the Provincial Treasury on a requisition from the local committee countersigned by the Board. This latter provision seems necessary, in order to enable the Board to see that al! engagements of which it is cognisant made by the local committees, such as the payment* <of the salary of a teacher, are faithfully carried out. Ex ieting engagements once satisfied, any requisition bj a local committee should be passed as a matter oi course, the Board not being allowed any contro beyond the enforcement of this necessary condition over funds once dedicated to the services of c particular district. A scheme of finance basct! upon the principles here sketched out would, it is conceived, wherever the ground is not yet occupied, be the one best calculated to place the education of the province on a sure and permanent footing, it would regulate the distribution of the funds, for the most part according to well-defined and well-understood rules, while that portion th< mode of distribution of which was not prescribed beforehand, would not be distributed at the caprice of the Bonrd, but by a formal vote of the Provincial Council, on a full consideration by that body of the claims of the different districts. The Report goes on to consider how far the existing arrangements, and the schools of ade nominatioual character at present existing, and which are to continue pretty muck on their present footing, will interfere with the plans which they propose, and winds up their chapter on finance with the following :— The Commission are fully conscious in making these recommendations for the regulation of matters relating to finance, that the plan here proposed cotdd not be brought into operation immediately many preliminary details will require to be entered into, in order to eet the machinery in motion, but whatever the length of time may be before this can be done, it is important that no administrative act should be performed at all calculated to place obstacles in the way, which do not now exist. In order to pave the way to the attainment of the objects here pointed out, it is of all things most important, rigidly to adhere to the rule of making every future school entirely the creature of the Legislative of the province. That Uβ whole organization should be the result of principles approved by the whole people through its Representatives, and as a means of ensuring this, that no new school be established by the help of public funds, the site of which is not Tested in the Superintendent of the province.

With which extract we will also wind up our own article.