The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3547, 21 November 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1882.

The several school Committees within the Hawke's Bay educational district are invited to elect one of three gentlemen nominated for the vacant seat at the Education Board caused by the resignation of Mr R. Dobson. The three nominated candidates are the Rev. De Berdt Hovell, the Rev. W. Shirriffs, and Mr W. White. There should be little difficulty in coming to a decision as to which of the three would be the most useful member of the Board. It should be borne constantly in mind that the educational system adopted by the colony is secular, and it is free. It was made secular in order to avoid the religious difficulty; it was made free to make it compulsory. The Board should consist of members who are friendly towards this system, of men who wish to work it as efficiently as the means at their disposal will allow. To avoid discordant element within the administrative body should be the aim of all well-wishers of the system. The colonies of New Zealand and Victoria are in accord on this question of national education. A Melbourne paper says :-—" We made education free in order that we might be able to make it compulsory and universal; in order that a small portion of negligent or profligate parents might not keep tbeir children at home under the pretext of poverty ; in order that children specially paid for might not be branded as charity children, and not because the mass of our population are paupers. Since the system was introduced the incidence of direct taxation has been so largely increased that the average parent pays a fair proportion of his school fees ; and if the childless, the rich or the priest-ridden parent gets no immediate return for his share in the education vote, even he gains by the increased morality and intelligence of bis neighbors, and is no worse treated than the healthy or rich man who contributes to the amount that the State spends upon hospitals." Of the three candidates for the vacant seat the Eev. De Berdt Hovell is an avowed opponent of our secular system of education, and a pronounced advosate for the Bible in schools. The Rev. W. Shirriffs is a Presbyterian clergyman, and the religious persuasion to which he belongs is already powerfully represented on the Board by the Rev. D. Sidey. _ We believe it harmonises with public opinion when we say it is generally thought that it would not be advisable to increase the clerical element on the Board. We have, therefore, remaining only Mr White. That gentleman takes a lively interestin educational matters, has been an active member of his district School Committee, and would no doubt be the most useful successor to Mr Dobson that could be selected from the three candidates. The several School Committees have to forward their returns to the secretary of the Education Board, setting forth the name of their selected candidate, not later than December 2, and the Board will determine the election at its meeting on the 19tb of that month.