THE CENTRAL BOARD OF EDUCATION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 100, 26 April 1873, Page 4

THE CENTRAL BOARD OF EDUCATION.

To thk Editor op the Nelson- Evening Mail. Sib,—lt is plain the Central Board of Education for the Province of Nelson does not at the present time represent the views or interests of a large majority of the people of this Province, on the contrary they are now lending themselves to the particular views of a small section of the community, however respectable it may be, and no doubt every particular portion of the public is entitled by right to fair dealing, and rach measure of encouragement as can be acceded to without detriment to the general good. It is not long ago that the particular complaints of the Roman Catholics were brought forward; they were liberally entertained by the Central Board of that day, and met so far as was then possible, in furtherance of this liberal policy, the Provincial Legislature provided for the entire management of their schools being secured to them, under the Provincial system. If that body'in conjunction with others of a different cast have got the Upper hand in the Central Board at present, how can they presume to attempt the depriving of the rest of the community of that liberty which has been so readily and liberally conceded to them ? The scheme for examinations ior the Provincial Scholarships provides that in English History such examination shall come down to the reign of Henry VII. In fact that boys- shall be au fait with the half-savage state of Britain—the Roman occupation—the Anglo-Saxon and Norman princes —the wars and the barbarisms of the Houses of York and Lancaster—and then at the first > revival of literature, and the first beginnings of those things which have resulted in England's unparalleled greatness." Provincial Scholars ! minds are to be a blank ! and then of all preposterous exercises (for a child) candidates are" to get up the first portion of "Pope's Essay on Man !" By a side wind the English Bible is to be excluded by an alteration of the Act. At present it rests very properly with the local committee whether tbat venerated book shall be so used or not. God forbid that the Provincial Council should thus insult either the principles or even the prejudices of the great bulk of the population of the Province by giving their sanction to propositions in themselves unfair and unreasonable, and of a character wholly subversive of the popular constitution of our educational system. I am, &c, An Old Member ov the Board. '