Marlborough Express, Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, DECEMBER, 12, 1889. A PROTEST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXV, Issue 282, 12 December 1889, Page 2

Marlborough Express, Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, DECEMBER, 12, 1889. A PROTEST.

• '. <> Ip we are to>believe Ministers and their supporters, the treasury chest is suffering from the rare malady of plethora. Yet there is no hint of relaxed taxation, nor any attempt to spend money where 'it is much needed. If there is anything that calls for liberality on the part of a reviving Government, it is the school building fund of an Education Board ; yet these bodies have received the most intermittent treatment. It is high time a unanimous protest was entered against the unfair treatment of our public school system. Fas cst ab lioste doceri. We are by no means enamoured of the Education system ; — on the contrary, we believe it to be an ill-conceived and badly working system. But, while it is the recognised system, it ought to be fairly treated. . If its destruction is sought, let it be accomplished by fair, not by foul means. starve it out, to drive Boards to desperation and resignation, 19 not fair treatment ;— yet this has been meted out by the present Government. The paltry sums allotted to the various Boards for building purposes, are ridiculously small. In Marlborough we have very good reason to complain,— although we are not selecting our own case m a selfish spirit. Our building grant is laughably small ; the country schools that have defective windows, unpainted walls, broken-down chimneys and tumble-down residences bear witness to this. At. the same time the town school is supplied with a particularly costly building at the expense, not of the Board, but of the Government. We are not complaining that the town building is too good ; on the contrary, we are glad to see the Blenheim school well-housed ; but what we do say is that if such liberality can be shown to the town school, the ; country schools have no right to be left unrepaired. We have always "stuck up" for the town school and supported the Government, and it must surely appear therefore, that we are now speaking simply for justice's sake.