THE EDUCATION RATE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1030, 13 March 1869, Page 3

THE EDUCATION RATE.

Two meetings have lately been held, having reference to the education rate now being collected — one at Kaikora, reported in the Herald, and one at Waipawa, reported in the columns of our contemporary, to which our attention has only just been directed. The Kaikora people object to pay the rate so long as pecuniary aid is withheld from the school in that locality. In so doing they would, we have no hesitation in saying, be morally justified. The present Rates Act is one of expediency, and is doubtless imperfect in many respects. The original measure provided that a local board should be established for each district in which a common school is situated, which board would have the control of the rates raised within the limits of its jurisdiction, and, generally, the management of the school. And, although this measure was shelved for the time being, its spirit had the entire approval of members of Council, and should be carried out in its integrity by the Government. With regard to the Waipawa meeting, the resolutions passed at which will be found elsewhere, we have to remark of the first, as we have done before, that common schools are for the benefit of the comparatively poor, and not of the land-owners. Nevertheless, several members were quite prepared at the time to vote for a rate according to annual value, but were deterred by the formidable machinery that would be necessary for purposes of valuation, &c, and gave in their support to a uniform rate, as being very simple, without involving, as they thought, any real injustice. With the second resolution we quite agree. As to the third, we are not aware that, before or during the late session of Council, the electors of any part of the province took the trouble to express any views on the subject.