THE EDUCATIONAL RATE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 976, 8 September 1868, Page 2

THE EDUCATIONAL RATE.

Sir, —ln the Herald of this morning you inform your readers, that '•' steps are being taken for the appointment of a Collector, of the Educational Kates." I am sorry to hear this. I had hoped that the mess the Government of a neighbouring Province has just got into, in endeavoring to enforce a similar unjust rate, would have proved a warning. —I beg to offer a few remarks on the subject. It seems strange that neither you nor "your contemporary have said a word to the people of Hawke's Bay as to the iniquity of this so-called Education Rate, when both of you have told us so very much about the obnoxiousness of the Auckland Poll-tax one. As I view it, the obnoxious principle is exactly the same in the one as in the other. Is it not at Auckland, because every man, great or small, rich or poor, is made to pay a like sum ? and is it not so here, when every house, little or big, is rated alike ?" Indeed, here it is worse: the principle of our new Educational Rate Act is actually worse (in degree) than that of the Auckland Poll-tax one. There, a man in business, earning his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, having a detached shop (as some of our townsmen on the "White Road and elsewhere), would only have to pay a stixgle rate; while here, such hardworking men with a detached shop, however small, will have to pay a double rate ! while yourself, Sir, and your neighbour Mr. Tiffen, Bishop Williams, and His Honor the Superintendent, —with all your 1 large establishments around you —will only have to pay a single rate ! Again, under the Auckland Act, if a man is so poor as not to be able to pay it, he can legally be relieved therefrom by the written testimony of two others ; but in the Hawke's Bay Act there is no merciful provision whatever of this kind ! And so the Hawke's Bay Government advertisement of this day, in pointing out the duties of the Collector, wisely forecasts that a principal one will be-1-" to attend at Magistrates' Courts whenever required to give evidence." Further, the Auckland Act is only for one year; this (if Hawke's Bay people don't look out) will be perennial. Sir, hitherto, wherever and whenever Rates have been made for whatsoever purpose, they have been levied fairly; this, indeed, is essential to a Rate ; without it, a sum demanded is not a rate but a tax. This great principle 3 rou yourself (in some measure) upheld at the Meeting about the Conservation of the River held at Meanee last week. The principle of this Educational Rate Act is not so, and is therefore plainly unjust. !Nor is it unjust only ; it is also excessive; far, very far, beyond what is actually required. This I will also shew. But first let me briefly state my belief as to Education. —l. I hold that the State should educate the child : that is (as we now are) those children whose parents cannot do so, and who will allow them to be taught. —2. That State Education must be wholly secular, and confined for the present (as far as this Province is concerned,) to Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. (If there should happen to be any gifted lads among the lot so taught at the expense of the' State, such lads will, not remsn content with such teaching, and will easily find their way to higher.)— 3. JSTo general Rate should ever be levied in this Colony to sustain sectarian teaching.. Now what is the real state of the case ? Here, in Napier, we have a known number of boys and girls between the ages of five and fourteen. —lst, take from them all those whose parents can afford to pay for their schooling (as such would certainly not like to have their children educated as paupers; and, I should suppose, would just as much resent anyone's offering them a few shillings towards their Education, as they would their offering them a pair of shoes or a loaf of bread for their children): —2ndly, take also those, who, for various well-known reasons, will not be allowed by their parents to go to any school; 3rdly, further take all those unfortunates, who, from narrow priestly or ministerial influence, would not be permitted to attend a Government secular school: —then, 4thly, the residue are all we have to provide for; a small number indeed, just sufficient to employ one fit schoolmaster and one schoolmistress. And is it for these few that this heavy Educational tax is now to be imposed upon us ? I shall, perhaps, be told, that the Hawke's Bay Government has determined (for the time at least) to keep up sectarian scliool teaching. Such may be; but I feel assured they will never collect a tax sufficient to do it. The time is for ever gone by —even in the Old Country —for taxing the public to maintain teachers purposely to teach harsh dogmas and sectarian catechisms. Here in Hawke's Bay, just now, it is indeed an evil hour for the Government to attempt such a thing. The signs of the colonial times, in the matter of taxation, are portentous. We have no money to throw away. Not that a proper Rate fairly levied for proper Education can ever 'be thrown, away; but proper Education and true Religion has nothing whatever to do with the differences of sectarianism of any kind or name. Sir, you tell us, truly enough I believe, (in your leading article of this day.) that " unfortunately the (Colonial) Government does not see its way to any reduction in taxation ;" and, " that direct taxation must be the means whereby the Provinces will obtain their future revenues. So that the colonists of New Zealand have before them the pleasant prospect of paying high Customs duties, stamps, &c, and of also being called upon to contribute directly in aid of the treasury of the particular locality in which they happen to reside. This, too, in addition to tolls and road rates, already, in some cases, falling heavily upon struggling settlers." Such being the case, is this (I would once more ask) the time for the Hawke's Bay Government to endeavour to collect such an unjust and heavy Education tax ? Sir, I have not yet qtiite made up my mind as to whether I shall pay it or not; for quietness sake, and to save time, I may do so ; but, as a great principle is involved and as further Provincial taxation is not far off", I do not think I shall, save by compulsion; and to this conclusion I am obliged to come, through the unjustness and excessiveness of the said tax and its being imposed to uphold sectarian teaching. I sincerely hope the people of JN Tapier will timely arouse themselves and imitate the people of Auckland.' —l am, Sir, yours, &c, William Colenso. Saturday night, Sept. 5, 1868.