The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1888.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5263, 5 July 1888, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1888.

Mn Obhond, referring , to tho annual report of the Minister for Education, regretted tho tone in -which it was written. "It appears to mo," he eaid, " that tho report is calculated nnd worded as if it waR intended to bring Education Boards into disrepute. I do not think generally that tho Boards of Education have deserved any treatment of that kind, and I do not think it is desirable, ur long as they form an important part of the administration of education, that they should be subjected to such treatment. I have to comj lain that in that report tho figures aro or a most misleading character, and I am going to give an instanco of that. The instance will show thnt tho figures aro not reliable, and that thoy ought not to , have dependence placed upon them. I complain because it puts the Education Board of which I am Chairman, and ot whoso work I am somewhat proud, in tho position of being one of the most extravagant Boards in tho colony with regard to school buildings. How does the Minister of Education arrive at this ? Ho says, " For convenience sake I will not take the education districts, but the provincial districts." What convenience thero can bo in taking tho provincial districts, which are altogether different from the education districts, I am at a loss to conceive. With regard to Hnwke's Bay, proceeding upon that basis, it is estimated thnt the children attending: tho schools there number 4,400, or theroabouts. Then ho goes into another table, and pays that in the education district the expenditure hns been so-and-so, taking tho whole expenditure that thoro has been in tho provincial district. The difference is this: that in the Hawke's Bay District there is a largo distriit, extending from the East Cape down to near Napier, which belongs to the Province of Auckland, but it is in the Hawko's Bay Education District. That district was almost devoid of schools, and a larjrc expenditure* has taken place in it; and, instead of there bqing 4,000 children attending the schools, there are over 6,000 children attending tho schools in the Hawko's Bay District. The paper goes on to say that, calculating the provincial-district attendance, the cost is near £9 ; whereas it ought to bo about £6 per head. There is an instance that shows that the figures aro entirely unreliable. I am told by other honorable gentlemen that thero are similar errors in the papers all through. At any rate, I have pointed out a gross blunder, and one whioh I think should bo amended before that document is made public property. Ido not want to go further with regard to the education question, except to say this: that I mean, if nobody else means, to see that the question is tested during tho present session, whatever wo may do now in regard to increasing tho taxation."