The Press. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1880.

Press, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4787, 6 December 1880, Page 2

The Press. MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1880.

In counting the cost, or forming a judgment upon, the amount o£ money spent on education in the colony, it is absolutely necessary to discriminate between what ia spent by the Government and what is spent from other sources. By this we mean funds at the disposal of some local body, funds which were originally appropriated for local purposes, funds which have never been in the posr session of the Government of the colony, There is, we have discovered, an inclination amongst those who have not the time to lootinto the matter closely, to regard allour educational institutions as drawing their support, directly or indireoiily, from Government. Upon this assumption many persons do not hesitate to criticiee in no measured terms what they regard as a too lavish outlay of money at a time when a very close fist should be held round the public puree.; ■ In the district of Canterbury we have existing side by side educational institutions provided for out of a local land endowment, and institutions supported by the Government as. part of a colonial system of education. Canterbury College, the new Boys' High ; School, the Girls' High School, the Agrii cultural College, and the proposed School ;of Arts are not Government institutions, i They are not supported directly or indirectly by the Government. They are the property of the district of Canterbury, supported by rents from land which was ; set apart for their maintenance years ago. To the Canterbury College Gsvernora, who manage these institutions, the very name of Government is a terror. They strive to avoid it. They ask for no favors. They keep quiet lest by any sad mischance the Colonial Parliament should lay unholy hands upon what they possess.

What the Government' really i does fonush for this district and for the whole colony is the cost of elementary education. The primary schools derive their support from. Government, and, like every other part of the Government■ service, they have been subjected to substantial reductions. It is the Beard of Education, which holds its meetings in the Normal School buildings/ that die- ' pensee Government funds for educational purposes throughout the whole of the Canterbury district, except a few schools in and around Tkaaru. If the funds disbursed by that body represented the sum total of education expenditure in this district, we do not think that there would be found many to complain of lavish expenditure, or o£ the danger of saddling the country with a system too large and too expensive for our present wants. At the present moment the : school accommodation and the teaching power provided for the population of this district are rather under than over its requirements, and the money granted to the Board of Education by the Government is barely sufficient to make both ends meet. To get a clear idea of what the Colonial Government alone is doing for education we must turn our eyes to those parts of the colony which have very little beyond Govenunentaid to rely upon. In the Korth Island, partly through the want of foresight, and partly through the neglect of the old Provincial Governments, insufficient school accommodation and an insufficient number of teachers were provided for the elementary schools, and scarcely any provision at all was made for higher education. It is in Auckland, Wellington, ISapier, and the other districts of the North Island that we can see clearly how far the present sum voted by Parliament provides for the education of the population. "Wβ think few wUI venture to say that the institutions of these places are planned on too large a scale with respect to buildings, or that ihere is in them too extravagant an expenditure with respect to maintenance of teaching power. There is not a College in the North Island. Such an institution aa Canterbury ttnivefiiUy College —an institution housed in buildings worthy of being etjrled collegiate, and officered by a properly cpu&fiei staff of professors and leetarers-iis not to l»e found in he North. The present by Pariiameut for education barely covers the espsnsea of elementary educa.

tion in the North Island, and since that part of the colony made but little local effort in days gone by to secure a sufficient land endowment for higher education, it is now largely dependent on the Government. Thereeultof that dependence is that neither Auckland nor Wellington willhave for many years to come such a system of higher education as we have got at the present time in this district, a system which is purely local and paid for by endowments created years ago by the Provincial Government.

A moment's reflection will be sufficient to carry the conviction that it wonld require the money voted by Government to be trebled if every part of the colony is to be as rich in educational institutions as Christchurch. Colleges and secondary schools can receive but little support from the sum annually granted by Parliament for education. Wβ can see, in the work of the Board of Education, to what a small distance our share of the Government grant goes. It does not suffice to pay the teachers of elementary schools more than very moderate salaries, and it scarcely allows enough to maintain in decent order and repair the elementary school buildings and masters' houses which the province handed over to the General Government. The sum voted by the Government is just barely sufficient to keep together the body and soul of an elementary education system. If that sum be lessened, as far as Canterbury is concerned, we shall have the anomaly of a well-endowed and efficient system of higher education, with which we have provided ourselves, existing side by side with an impoverished and scantilyequipped system of elementary education provided from Government revenue. If next year the Parliament should see fit still further to reduce the education vote we shall' have to retire amongst that j unenviable class of colonies which come before the Home readers in text books of geography, books of travel, and almanacs, as " coloniee in which education is greatly neglected." In the city of Christchurch we may with pride say that we are not behind any colonial city in her Majesty's dominions in the matter of higher education, but we must not close our eyes to the fact that we are an exception to the rest of the colony. Luckily for us, that which supports our University College, High Schools, Agricultural College, and other institutions for higher education, is for the present, at least, out of the reach of the Government. We say for the present out of the reach of the Government, because there are not wanting signs that those parts of the colony which have only the Government allowance to depend on, and which feel the bitter pinch of making that allowance provide for their wants, will clamour for their share of our local education endowments. The day may yet come when the people of this district may have the felicity of seeing rents from lands, set apart for higher education here, devoted to the support of elementary education, all over the colony. It only wants a little more squeezing, and a little more cutting down of the education grant, for the whole of the rest of New Zealand to awaken to the fact that we, who dwell on the Canterbury plains, are exceptionally well off in education matters. In the whole, of the North Island higher education has been shamefully neglected, and the present Government grant hardly covers the expenses of the elementary schools. If that grant is even still further reduced, Wβ can scarcely wonder if a cry is raised that all local endowments for higher education should be placed in a common pot, and need for colonial purposes. If that cry brings forth action, there will be no more tall: in this part of the colony about an extravagant provision for education. We shall see the produce of our higher education estates thinly spread over the whole colony from Russell to InvercargilL

The retirement of Br. Coward from the office of Coroner for this district places the Government in. a somewhat awkward position. They are called onto select a successor, and no' matter to whom the appointment is given, dissatisfaction will in aU probability be created. Owing to the peculiar relations which exist among the medical profession in Christchnrch, the appointment; of anyone of their number to the office of Coroner is almost quite sure, to lead to unpleasant consequences. Those of our readers who have taken any notice of the medical squabbles which periodically break out amongst us, will have no difficulty in agreeing with us in this view of the case. Such being the almost certain result if a medical gentleman is made Coroner, the question arises, is it necessary* that the office shonld be filled by a doctor? As far as we are able to judge, there is no necessity for it whatever. Indeed, even if there were no local reasons why the office should not be held by a medical gentleman, we would still be of opinion that the Government wonld act wisely, when appointing a successor to Dr. Coward, in departing from what appears to have been the enstom hitherto. It has been suggested that the duties of Coroner should be added to those of Resident Magistrate. If there is no practical difficulty in the way, we regard the suggestion as a good one, and we hope it will be adopted.