The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1898.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11558, 20 April 1898, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1898 .

Notwithstanding pressure by President M’Kinlcy, the United States House of Representatives concurred with the resolution of the Senate on the Cuban question, only omitting recognition of a Republic.. The

Senate refused to concur with this amendment, but a conference between the two Chambers resulted in the recognition of the independence of Cuba. Spain has abandoned all hope of peace. The American Press recognises that the friendship of Great Britain towards the United States is the chief obstacle to a European alliance in favour of Spain. One result of this feeling is a striking change ol attitude towards Canada in connection with the scaling question. . . i There is an impression that Spain is endeavouring ■ to lure the United States navy into European waters, so as to avoid the difficulty of coaling the Spanish warships in the West Indies. Wheat at Mark Lane shows an advance of from Is to 2s on the prices ruling a week ago. America is massing troops in Florida. This step is taken to mean that Cuba will lie invaded as soon as wai is declared. Official reports presented to the Spanish Government deny that any mines were exploded beneath the Maine, and further state that the expert evidence of the divers shows mat the explosion was internal. Sir H. Kitchener has suspended operations against the Dervishes until the end of July. It is officially reported that Japan will take two mdlioas of the Chinese ban. The foreign ambassadors in Constantinople have given notice to the Sultan that the Turkish troops must evacuate Thessaly within a month. In the course of a speech the French Premier said that the’ Russian Alliance opened out to France an infinite horizon, and gave to the French a foreign policy of incomparable security and force in thccouncils of Europe. The Hon G. F. Richardson has resigned Ids seat for Mataura in the House of Representatives. The Police Commission was occupied yesterday in investigating a charge preferred by Mr T. E. Taylor against Constables Barrett and M’Kcnaic of Laving gone into the Cafe de Paris while on duty about midnight on August 12 last. A considerable amount of evidence was heard in support of and against the charge. Constables Stanton’ and Kelso gave evidence in support of complaints as to tl-eir own private grievances. At 4.45 p.ra. the Commission adjourned to 10 a. in. today. The Hon C. C. Bowen has been chosen to represent the subscribers to the Samaritan Home on the Commission of Inquiry to be held to determine whether or not there are valid grounds for forming thg home into a separate institution under the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act. In consequence of the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Brunner explosion cases, steps have already been taken by the debenture-holders concerned to protect their interest. The Greymouth-Point Elizabeth Company’s capital is chiefly debenture capital secured by first mortgage on the property. AN EDUCATIONAL CRITIC. It may be hoped that the days of fetishism in the matter of our excellent system of public instruction are now dead, and that a frank recognition of a few flaws and defects will enable a rational effort to be made to amend the Education Act. “The great blot on our system/’ in the words of Mr 0. S. Howard, the ex President of the North Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute, “ is the pass examination method as at present carried out.” We are so fully in accord with this conclusion, as stated and explained in the paper recently read by Mr Howard, that we regret to find a teacher so experienced and a critic so able defending the school syllabus, practically as it stands, and objecting to an extension of manual training. Our firm conviction is that the time devoted to history and grammar might be largely curtailed without any detriment to the “ thinking powers ” of the pupils, and without running any risk of making the children mere machines. The chief danger of crushing out the power of independent thought lies in the examination system, which has led to “ routine and cram,” as Mr Howard very plainly perceives. The result of the individual “pass” system is that individuality has been stamped out in the master and in the pupil alike. Mr Howard’s suggestion for reform is to return to the methods of examination that prevailed under the Canterbury provincial system. Under that system, the teacher had full freedom of classification, and there was no temptation to force or “cram” children, as no individual “ pass ” was required, but if the majority of the children were shown fit to pass in the specified subjects the inspector was satisfied. This is very nearly identical with the method pursued in England to-day. Reading, writing and arithmetic are the only obligatory subjects, and even in these the examination may be by sample, only part ‘ of each class being examined. There is a long list of optional subjects, in which the examination may be by classes. After the examination, teachers in England have absolute freedom of classification of their pupils, in contradistinction to the New Zealand system, which demands that dull pupils who may have passed by the merest good luck, or bright pupils who may have failed through nervousness, shall be put into a higher standard or kept back by a caat-iron rule, altogether independent, of what the teacher may know of their respective capacity and fitness for advancement. The advantage, is evidently all with the English method, that is, if the true aim of education is kept in view, and the object pursued is cue drawing out of the powers of the pupil, not the cramming of facts and figures and rules into his head. There is much to be said for Mr Howard’s general conclusions, which are that “ our system would be greatly improved if wo were to distribute the work of the present six standards over seven ; to reduce the pass subjects to three, or at the most four; to raise the standard of education to the Fifth, and to do away with individual passes below the Fifth, and thus leave the teacher complete freedom of classification below that standard.” These’ are changes which could be made without the least risk of the ba-us of our education system being affected, and most of the alterations suggested would tend to greater efficiency and better results. They would in a measure enable our youth to be taught to ‘ love learning for its own sake,” by lifting from the teachers the fearful incubus of the pass examinations. We think, however, that Mr Howard exaggerates when he says the result of the existing system is to make books “ instruments of torture ” to boys, so that after leaving school they do not care for books, only read the cricket and football news, and stand “ in towns at the corners of streets and in the country at convenient places of rendezvous, passing rude remarks upon passersby, cultivating tho most disgusting habits, or indulging in inanities.” it is a careless an,d superficial reasoning that assigns these au^

other defects in colonial character to the education system, [t only requires a slight extension of this style of argument to make education responsible for all new forms of vice and crime. Mr Howard’s paper is, on the whole, most admirable in spirit, in grasp of the subject and in aim ; but no good cause is helped by strained arguments or exaggerated statements. We should like to see educational bodies throughout tho country taking up the question of the eforms advocated, and creating a healthy and powerful public opinion which would compel Parliamentary action on the subject.