The Press. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1880.

Press, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4637, 11 June 1880, Page 2

The Press. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1880.

Whatever may be thought of the scheme of the Government for increasing the Ways and Means, there will hardly be two opinions as to the credit that is due to them for the efficiency of their retrenchment. It is thorough, comprehensive, and merciful. It passes over no department of the Public Service. It will not pass by nnexamined the salary of any civil servant. It begins with, and it will operate with, the greatest severity on the salaries of the Ministers themselves. It unshrinkingly cuts down every overgrown department, and every deserving civil servant has a satisfactory assurance that his claim to a retention of his present salary will be considered fairly on its merits. The whole reduction amounts to nearly half a million, and the Government feel themselves able to boast that the efficiency of the Public Service will not be impaired. Against the retrenchment thus effected, amounting in plain figures to £473,000, there are two items of set-off, which reduce the actual saving to £341,000. These items the present Government are unable to limit. One is the sum of £109,000 for interest on loan, the other the sum of the additional amount of the education grant required by the Act. But the fact remains; that besides the £94,000 odd which they had actually saved on the 31st March laet, they have -now bronght forward estimates, which, as compared with those of last year, effect a further reduction of £473,000. It is too early, of course, as yet, to enter into the details of this reduction, interesting as the inquiry would be. But we may note some of the illustrations which fell from the Colonial Treasurer in the course of his statement. Among , the first, everybody will have been desirous to know how far Mr. Bryce has redeemed his pledge in connection with the Native Office. It will be remembered that he promised the House that unless he found himself able to effect most important reductions in this department he would immediately resign Ms post. Well, what has he done P The hist year's estimate for the Native Department alone amounted to no less than £46,900. The department was universally condemned. By common consent it had grown out of all control. Personal rule, and, as an inevitable consequence, unbounded extravagance, were absolutely without check. And it must be said that it. was felt to lead in actual practice to exceedingly painful scandals. Of such an office it could not be denied that it must be easy enongh to effect reductions, if only the will and the courage and the practical knowledge of what was really necessary for its efficiency were not wanting. Happily, Mr. Bryce possessed all these qualifications. He has first reduced the -department to its proper proportions by transferring from it numerous offices which it had attached to itself, but which properly belonged to other departments; He then set himself steadily to reorganise that which . was" left. The result is that the actual saving realised, amounts, as the Colonial Treasurer was able to tell us, to nearly fifty per cent. But the good done is not confined to the actual saving. The Native department will never again be the bugbear of the service. It is now placed upon'a footing in which it will effectually serve the purpose for which it is wanted, and will be at the.same time reduced to its proper position as a merely subordinate department. In place of last year's estimate of £46,900 odd, it is now reduced to £14,262. Even this is not all. The Land Purchase Department, which, as Major Atkinson reminds us, "had grown into a serious excrescence" on the Native office is cut down on mere salaries from £10,000 to £6000 a-year. The above is a sufficient illustration of the spirit and energy with which the Government are carrying out their promises of retrenchment. Our readers will agree with us that Mr. Bryce need not be called upon to resign his office. When the tables are before us we shall be able to examine the general scheme of reduction under greater advantages. But we have seen enough to be able to challenge for it the warm gratitude of the colony. In one year they have bridged over a deficit of nearly a million of money. They have effected reductions to nearly one-half a million, and they have found ways and means to provide for another. A Government which has done this before it has been in office a twelvemonth could afford to disregard censure from opponents,however honest and wellmeaning, when based upon the fact that

The above is a sufficient illustration of the spirit and energy with which the Government are carrying out their promises of retrenchment. Our readers will agree with us that Mr. Bryce need not be called upon to resign his office. When the tables are before us we shall be able to examine the general scheme of reduction under greater advantages. But we have seen enough to be able to challenge for it the warm gratitude of the colony. In one year they have bridged over a deficit of nearly a million of money. They have effected reductions to nearly one-half a million, and they have found ways and means to provide for another. A Government which has done this before it has been in office a twelvemonth could afford to disregard censure from opponents,however honest and wellmeaning, when based upon the fact that

they had not yet succeeded in effecting everything. A deficit still remains to be carriedovertoneztyear,anduponthie,itseems, the organs of the Grey Government are willing to make merry. Their would-be indignant reclamations sound, somewhat out of place. It is much as if ah officer who had been placed in charge of an important undertaking and had all but reduced the concern to bankruptcy by his blundering incapacity, were seriously to put in his claim to be taken back to office on the ground that within a few months his successor had not been able to restore everything to perfect and complete order.

All is well that ends well, and the point of the proverb has its application. It is now applied to the students of the New Zealand University. The long-looked for results of the late examination have at length been published, and if the patience of the candidates has been tried to the utmost by the delay, it can at least be said that the upshot is satisfactory. The results were worth waiting for. Six persons have now successfully passed their final examination, and some twentyfive others have passed the first section for their B.A. degree.

To those connected with Canterbury College, the pass-list must be eminently satisfactory. Five out of the six degree men are from that institution, and at least-one third of those who have passed the first section of their degree are from the same College. Moreover, by comparing the list of students in the University Calendar with those who have passed under "Teachers' Regulations" it will be seen that most of these gentlemen have also been trained at the same institution. There is thus ample and unimpeachable proof of the good which is being done in our midst by the staff of Professors attached to Canterbury College. It is abundantly clear that the English, classical, and mathematical subjects have been adequately handled. To have prepared their students well enough to pass what is equivalent to a London University examination is no slight credit to the Canterbury professorial staff. And it should not be forgotten that till March last the Classical and English chairs were united. On the senior professor, therefore, fell a double Bhare of work. The reward of his laborious thoroughness is seen in the Registrar's class-list.

Of course, to obtain educational successes of this kind, the energetic application of the student is as necessary as the ability of the Professor. The power to assimilate is as important as the power to elucidate. There is an art of learning quite as much as an art of teaching. And therefore credit is due to those students who have submitted to the discipline necessary to ~ gain the University's imprimatur on their attainments. It may be presumed that in many cases these persons have been engaged for some portion ef the day in other avocations. The time given to university study has probably been their hard-earned leisure. They chose to run in the prescribed groove, to read the appointed subjects and to attend such lectures as their other engagements permitted. They now have their richly deserved reward, not only *in mental power, and fuller, exactor knowledge, but also in the tangible possession of a valuable University degree. Their praiseworthy example is sufficient to bid others go and do likewise. The general influence of the rising University Colleges on the community must be obvious on the slightest reflection. Where their work is thoroughly done they must raise the tone of culture and quicken and deepen a love for elevating literature. But it is in looking at the special influence they exert on private teaching and on the public school system that their utility is most apparent. The private school cannot any longer ignore the University professor. Even if the private pupils do not look forward to becoming University students, they must at least be educated so as to compare favorably with those who are or shall be so privileged. The University Colleges will therefore inevita. bly tend to raise the educational standard —even in private establishments —to their own level. On the public schools the University influence will be still more distinct and powerful. For, first, the diligent [scholar has the road already made clear to him. If successful in the appointed examinations' his University education will be almost, if not entirely free. In this way, natural aptitude and voluntary energy are thus fostered, encouraged, and rewarded. As to teachers, they are surely fully alive to the advantages which a University course has for them. It is conceded that the possession of a degree does not necessarily imply teaching power. The true teacher is as much born as made, and so far as he is made it is only by practice under judicious guidance. But, other things being equal, the University man should, and will, have the advantage over his less favoured fellow - workers. And it should be borne in mind that those engaged in the teaching profession have certain privileges given to them under the teachers' regulations, and the Education Board has lately sanctioned the intermission of teaching for six months previous to the annual examination. Every inducement is, therefore, held out to attract the public school teacher into a university career. The lines in Canterbury, at least, have fallen upon him in pleasant places, and he would do well to follow those who have braved the ordeal and have' won their reward. . -