The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3022, 3 March 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1881.

The Min:3ter of Education of Victoria gave tv interesting account of tbe progress of the scjool system in tbat colony

r "'Ct-sU.<y. lib oaid that for some time back various statements bad been made as to the cost of the system, the expenditure on which had been exaggerated. He thought it only fair to the depart-

ment to show how tbe present system, whereby the State paid the whole cost of education, compared with the cost of the common school system —that in vogue in 1872-3. The average attendance at the common schools in 1872 was 68,436,

and the co?t to the State at that time w„s

£186 240 3s. But the payments were only in part made by the State. The fees paid by the parents were £103,4/7 7s 4d., making a total of £269.717 10 4d. Thsy had at that time, side by side with th? children who paid fees, a class of pauper children, whose parents were too pcor to pay, and they were consequently compelled to make a declaration to that effect. By this difference one child was able to point the finder at another. He, for one, had determined to put an end to this icvidious distinction, and that j whenever children went inside a State school they should all be on one common footing. Heintended before this parenthesis to show them what the former system cost, including State grants and fees. In 1872 the cost of the system was £269,717 10s 4d for an average attendance of 68,436, or £3 18s 9|d per head. Of course there had been a jump up from 1872. During the first two or three years of the Aot, according to tbe present return, it had risen from 68 436 to 114,608, or little short of double the number. The cost of administration was proportionately greater according to tie numbers, but what he particularly wished to point out was that tbe cost was not more per head, as had been represented. Then, again, the burden was more equally distributed. Was it not better that rich and poor ehould contribute alike, all having to pay according to the taxable articles they consumed ? It had been insidiously put to the country that the tax on beer had been imposed to pay tbe cost of education. He thought this wa9 an argument in favor of the action taken ratlier than against it. Education was a necessity, and many men by improvident habits would shirk the necessity to indulge in the luxury. Then surely it was neither unwise nor unfair to extract from a man's vice that proportion of cost he would not pay under a sense of obligation. This system, too, obviated the degradation of children, the offspring of improvident parents, who might otherwise, through do fault of their own, have to go to an industrial school. The cost of educating the 114,604 children, including tue payment of teachers, drills, and all that was necessary, amounted to £440,628 Is Bd, or £3 16s lOfd, or Is lid per head less than the imperfect system previously in vogue. The staff of teachers in the service was most efficient, and they were paid at less rates than the staffs of any of tbe other colonies. We have heard, too, of late years, that the act did not reach tbe gutter children. He denied that the act was made for tbe gutter children, and the sooner th?t idea was dispelled the better. But as a national system tbe census returns showed that the children of the people were being gathered into the schools and taught. In 1876 there were 10,440 children who were not under instruction and in less than three years the non-attersdants were reduced to 6518 or 3922 less than the number of absentees in the year named, showing that tbe statements that the act was not reaching the population was not true. Of the 6518 not attending school, 3001 were not within the prescribed distance, wbieh reduced the number of non-attendants to very email dimensions.