THE NELSON EXAMINER. Wednesday, November 25, 1857.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVI, 25 November 1857, Page 2

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Wednesday, November 25, 1857.

Journals become more necessarj ?s men become mote equal and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only to secure liberty: the; maintain civilization. De TocaußviLn, Of Democracy in America, vol. v.,p.230.

The countryman involuntarily did homage to a great principle, who, desiring his minister to preach a sermon on the death of his mother, requested to have some Latin in it; "for though," said he, " neither I nor the people understand Latin, yet it will look very respectful to the dead." He recognised the fact that a branch of knowledge existed which he was ignorant of, which yet might be of some value ; nay, which, from the circumstance that it was acquired at the cost of much time and pains by men considered his superiors in station and understanding, was most probably of very great value, and he was determined to have his share of the benefit, whatever it might be, and offer it as a tribute of respect to his mother's memory. He concluded justly that it had a value ; that he overvalued it, and applied it to a wrong use, were mistakes which even those who laugh at his simplicity may easily fall into, and often do, themselves. That we hive men who are thus "wise in their own conceit," and think a good education a receipt in full for all demands, social and moral, is very likely, for such are found everywhere ; but we may have others also, who, conscious of their deficiencies (for we take the countryman's Latin as a representative of all that is included in or meant by a liberal education), and perhaps unfairly taunted or unduly depreciated on that account, fall into the opposite error, and run down as unnecessary or decry as useless whatever interferes with their own success and gives weight to the cause of their opponents. Of the former class was the celebrated Dr. Lardner, one of the first among the secondrate scientific men of our time, who ran away with his neighbour's wife to America, where Mr. Godley, in his letters from the United States, says he found him living in obscurity, not unknown, but universally despised and rejected by that society which would, under other circumstances, have courted his acquaintance with eagerness. The mechanical powers which he was acquainted with could not raise his fallen reputation, nor the higher mathematics make his character aught but a negative quantity. So, on the other side, if the best intentions and the most amiable disposilion or upright character will not qualify a man for the command of a vessel, or even to take the stroke oar in a boat, still less, although we know the prejudice runs strongly the other way, can they be held sufficient by themselves to entitle him to a seat among lawmakers, or to a voice in the Executive Government.

And this brings us to consider the practical question we have had before us in making these remarks, and that not the general question of education, which we hope is pretty well settled, but the special case of the Nelson College, which has lately, not undeservedly, attracted some attention.

Those who find fault with existing arrangements, or call public attention to the circumstances which prevent them from obtaining their fair share of existing advantages, may be divided into two classes : first, those who would wish our present Nelson College knocked on the head, and its funds distributed among the various districts in proportion to their various needs, or perhaps in proportion to their greater or less political weight ; and, secondly, those who, like Mr. Dartnall and the Wairau Dairyman, wish to see our rising institutions go on and prosper, but think they see defects in its plan and management, and throw out for public consideration suggestions for such alterations as appear to them calculated to improve it. The first class of objectors has not yet come before the world in a very tangible or argumentative form, as we do not recollect any attempt to reason out the question in a connected manner, the ideas they entertain having been chiefly promulgated from the hustings, or at those dinners and suppers where the prevalent feelings and inclinations, rather than the reasoning faculties, are hi the ascendant; but we know that the feeling does exist, and, like most other fediogs, obtains a certain currency, from being reasonable enough so long as only one side of the question is considered. "For," exclaims the orator of the hour, "if the Nelson College is for all, how can that be when it is confined to one place ? It may be very well for Nelson, which has schools of all kinds already, and does not want it, to have the money spent there, but what good does it do us ? What we want is a good ploin education in our own district, before we have a superfine College for gentlemen at Nelson. Let us have that first, and use the money to get it, and then, when the time comes for it, we shall be able and willing to support a College if we want it." Now, we are much mistaken, if assertions like these do not find an echo in many men's minds ; who, feeling the want which presses immediately upon

themselves, are very much obliged to any one who points out so ready a way of supplying it, and are not disposed to inquire very narrowly into the right or justice of the proposed remedy ; which flatters at the same time the natural propensity for getting an advantage without paying for it, and the equally natural desire to be very liberal at some future and indefinite period. But there arc objections to this plan ; the first of which is that the money was given in trust for a different and a distinct object ; and that to take it for District Schools is not to found a College, any more than it would bo to spend it in building a Hospital, or Public Baths and Washing-houses, or even a House of Assembly or a Mechanics' Institute ; all which are good and praiseworthy objects (although some people have strong doubts as to the Council Chamber) ; the only objection in any of those cases being that the money was not given for that purpose, but for another. Again, to those who complain that the residents in Nelson obtain all the benefits, we would reply, this is not the case ; aud even if it were, that, as a College is not, like Wombwell's Menagerie, capable of being moved about the country, it must, if it is to be at all, be somewhere ; and, if so, where can it be placed more properly than where there are the greatest number of persons to be benefited by it ? And supposing it to be in any other locality, let them consider whether the same outcry might not be raised with much greater reason. That is, supposing Richmond, or Motueka, or Collingwood, or Waitohi were fixed upon, would not the objection remain quite as strong %s at present ? But we would ask those who think in this way, who say that they derive no benefit from such an Institution because it is not in their own immediate neighbourhood, whether this is not only a very selfish, but a very short-sighted view of the question. We sincerely believe, and are convinced that an Institution which shall offer, no matter where in New Zealand, the advantages of a good, sound, liberal education, will prove eventually to the Province which possesses it, a greater boon than even a Gold-field. For what are the complaints we have often heard? Why, that people come here and make money, and then go elsewhere to spend it and enjoy themselves. They do so simply because other places are more attractive ; and one of the chief attractions is a good education for their children.

Then again, just before our Gold-fields were discovered, when there was such a general stagnation of business and universal depression amongst us; when the sheep-master looked forward to boiling down his wethers as his only means of getting rid of them ; and the farmer complained that all were producers and none consumers ; when the holders of land, whether of five or of five hundred acres, complained that there were many sellers and no buyers ; what was the cry, what was the want so generally felt 1 That there was no home market for our produce ; that there were no employers of labour, no consumers of the good things which their neighbours produced, willing to pay not in kind, but in good hard cash. We surely have not all forgotten the time when half a pig was paid for a pair of shoes, and so many pounds of butter were offered for an equivalent quantity of tea, sugar, calico, and even, we are afraid, for tobacco and beer. And why was this ? Why was it that men said, when fresh immigration was proposed as a remedy fov our troubles, that there was labour enough already, and that labour, too, paid quite little enough ; and that what was wanted was not labour, but more employment, and a better price for what we had already ? Why, but because the employers of labour, the spenders of money, were leaving us, and no others came to supply their places. Aud should any check occur now, should the gold be confined to the limited space within which it is at present found, we shall fall back again into the same state of exhaustion and despondency from which its discovery aroused us, only ten times worse, unless, timely wise, we take measures to make our Proviuce a permanently attractive place of residence for all classes ; for the rich, for the prosperous, for the highly educated, as well as for the pioneers of civilization ; for the hardy labourer, for the energetic explorer, or the enterprising adventurer, who williugly, in the hope and fair prospect of independence, casts behind him for a time all thought of the comforts or refinements of civilized life. For a time, and only for a time j for even he, when his object is attained, must enjoy the fruit of his labours ; that fruit which was forbidden to him before, except at the price of previous self-denial and honourable exertion. Of all these, we say, let us keep as many as we can, and let us, if possible, keep the best ; let us keep those who, in the language of Lord Bacon, have "given hostages to society " in their wives and children that they will neither hold lightly the laws which bind it together, nor set its institutions at defiance ; and who above all other advantages value most highly, and prize most dearly, the blessings of education.

How we may best do this, how we may most widely, most fairly, and most impartially, with the means at our disposal, offer the greatest educational advantages to all whom the talents of their children and their own feel-

ings lead to desire it, is a further question, which we have now left ourselves no room to enter upon, but which we must reserve for discussion at an early opportunity. It is a subject of more difficulty than it at first appears to be ; and if we fail to convince our readers that the view we take is the correct one, we hope to show that we have this in common with them, that we are fellow-seekers after truth — and that our first object and end is to attain it.