NIGHT SCHOOL EDUCATION. TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume XXIII, Issue 60, 14 March 1882, Page 2

NIGHT SCHOOL EDUCATION. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir -I beg to assure '• Anxiou* Inquirer ' and " Inquirers" generally, who may be no more than placidly interested in the object regarding whioh he is " anxious," that I have not given up the idea of the night school, and have no intention of doing bo. Few things would be more useful^ not only in aa educational but a social point of view to numbers of promising lads amongst us, who, for lack of counsel and something better to do, often loiter about the street comers in the evenings, and are too apt to fall into heedlessness if not mischief. " Thou reproveat mo for a very little thing," Biid a sharp larrikin to the Greek philosopher — I BUBpecfc there were larrikins B c, 400, as wcli as now. " Ah," replied Plato, ' custom is not a little thing." And so we require, having started the necessary classes (a beginning is easy enough), to make such a-rangeznents as wilt beget wise custom, and render these classes in n nortn.it! unm otfi*»n««r« mJ ;n; n «_„__'

sense permanent. Such arrangements, however, are not easy, rathor the reverse. There arc difficulties of various kinds to contend against, among whioh I am reluctantly compelled to inolude tho apathy of the Education Department. " Thou hast no speculation in those eyes." Our Minister of Education is a worthy gentleman, for whom it is impossible not to entertain a largo measure of respeot, but he must excuse me for saying that he appears to be about as much or as little interested in the present eyatem of education as in Chinese fan-tan, or other tricks that are vain. Ho sits in a serene altitude, far away from the difficulties and obstructions which have to bo grapled with, and when appealed to there is neither sympathy nor advice. He consults his officers; they say the Act is eilent— the thing is not mentioned in the bond — and a happy despatch follows. They manage things differently and, I fancy, so much better elsewhere. Earl Spencer and Mr. Mundella regard no care or pains as too muoh in the furtherance of education in England. Not only is every opportunity that ooonrs taken advantage of to talk over the various subjeots of education with those interested in it, but opportunities are sometimes made for the purpose, and the publio have come to know that the Government aro most deeply concerned in its progress. This, however, is by the way, although it indicates where in our case the chief hitch lies. Of the special snbjeot itself, I hope to havo something more to say shortly. I am, &c, William Hutchison. Uth Maroh.