The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, MAY 9, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3078, 9 May 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, MAY 9, 1881.

Prom the various opinions expressed by members of the General Assembly in their recent post-eessional utterances, the vote for educational purposes when the next estimates are under consideration, will not pass without severe criticism. It is very generally felt, that though the colony may be justly proud of its educational Bcheme, there are grave defects in the system. The allocation of the Parliamentary grant will offer a bone of contention ia the discussion of which, it is to be hoped, some better plan will be deviped than division by favor. At present it would seem that the Department, whoever the controlling spirit may ; be, regulates at its own will and pleasure the disposal of the annual vote. Thus, while one district is in sore need of finds for the erection of schools, other districts are revelling in wealth and building stately structures far in advance of present requirements. The allocation of the vote should certainly be solely regulated in accordance with the population of echool Bge. Mr Bumy, in reference to the cost of education, speaking to his Wairarapa constituents, proposed that, until the colony is in a better financial position, the fourth standard in the schools should be made the maximum, and that school fees should he charged for further advancement. This is certainly a reasonable proposal. The duty of the State ceases when provision has been made to teach every child in the country the rudiments of education. A youth well grounded in the " three R's" can, if he desires to do so, continue his studies in any direction the bent of his character may suggest. There are innumerable instances of men who received no extraneous aid becoming acknowledged scholars of their day. It is absurd to suppose that it is the duty of a Government to supply all the educational needs of a population leaving nothing to individual effort. But, perhaps, the strongest argument in favor of some modification of our school system is to be found in the fact that it is actually breaking down with its own costliness. To preserve that which is most valuable in it, pruning must be resorted to, and the question for consideration is which can the country best afford to let go. Dr. Newman, in a letter to the New Zealand Times, amongst other suggestions of not much practicable value, makes the sensible proposal that by the absurd system of teaching infants the cost of education might be very materially reduced. It costs £4 per annum each, or a little more, to teach o;»r children. Much of this money is wasted in teaching infants under five years of age. Some of these babies are just over three years. Fancy the utter absurdity of paying £4 a-year to teach them ! Dr Newman would allow no children in our schools who were under eight, or at lowest under seven. Various authorities, experts in tuition, have stated that between ordinary children who begin .to learn at four and those at eight, there will be at twelve scarcely any difference, and at fifteen or sixteen none at all. In iother words, upon everyehild who goes to school from four till he is eight, there is a loss of over £4 per head for four years—£l7. In this colony there are many thousands such children upon whom money is being utterly wasted. If afew people are anxious to have their babies taught, let them pay some of those poor honest dames whom our system has ruined. There is another question in relation to the maintenance of a State educational system which, we trust, the exigencies of its existence will force consideration. "We allude to the educational reserves in the colony. Provincial institutions have been brushed away, to trie cost of the country at large, but as we are told that it is impossible to return to them, let us be consistent and sweep under a central department all provincial reserves made for provincial purposes. If this were proposed by Ministers we should very soon see, we imagine, whether a provincial party existed or not. The educational reserves of Canterbury and Otago are enormous, and in the course of a few years would be capable with proper administration to eupport throughout the colony the whole system of primary education. The " high schools" would suffer,but fees should be imposed to maintain this branch of the system. We hold, however, that, with the abolition of provincialism the distinctiveness of provincial reserves should be abolished, and all lands set apart for educational purposes be administered so as to provide a common revenue for the support of the State system. We shall of course be told that any such proposal is impossible to carry out, but the only reason why it cannot be given effect to is the strength of provincial feeling still I existing in the provinces. . . I