THE EDUCATION TAX.

New Zealand Herald, Volume X, Issue 3622, 20 June 1873, Page 3

THE EDUCATION TAX.

To the Editor of the Herald. SIE, —Your correspondent in tlie Hebald of the 13th instant may be " consistent" in stating " the one great valid objection to tlie tax ia, we are overtaxed already," and that, if we have Government education, that a direct tax for it ia the best tax of any. Good this! Direct taxation by all means, for all purposes, for when people pay iu ea-h they will look after what they pay for. But is ho "consistent" in sneering at (as be chooses to cull them) " the noisy and vulgar people at the meeting in the Mechanics'. °If " noisy and vulgar people " object either to the tax or to the scheme, have they not as much right to express their objection as he has to express his, especially if it were true, as ho says, the respectable classes " will pay for these noisy and vulgar persons," and get little or nothing for themselves in return. I say if these "noisy and vulgar persons " wish not to pay, and he were " consistanl," he would noL only allow them to say so, but commend them for it. His " consistency "in ridiculing the idea of the honest workmen taking a pride in edueatiug their children, ant! then assuming they are too ignorant, or too selfish to make the sacrifice required—he should know that tardiness to pay tho teacher is a failing that afllets uil classes; nay, if we may believe those who live by the calling, their testimony is, that, the most wealthy are o!tei> the most mean and grinding in their * and ready for any truck whereby they can escape the cost; —yes, ten of them to one amongst tho honest, workmen may be found ; not that these are better men, but that the others have ten times the opportunity. Here is a sample: The most wealthy endow-d school in London was set up to board, educate, aud clothe children of the poor citizens of that town. How has it beon carried out? Why, so that not- one in 500 of the class intended have received the benefit. It is notorious (for the past 100 years at least) the scholars have been almost, if not entirely, from the wealthy. The recipients are presented to the charity by life governors, and wealthy people create themselves that for a ;CIOO, and thereby grasp the value for their own children of £G9O or £800; or, as a speculation, selling their presentation now and again for an odd £200 or £'300. But my chief object in writing was to controvert the notion that tlie extra tax was the " great valid objection." iN'o, sir, there is such a thing as principle, and if the tax was a farthing instead of a pound it should be tho samo. The one great valid objection to the scheme should be, its upproachment to centralisation, and the friends of individual liberty would do well to look at it under this light. The poor, blinded objects who are so ready to give up their present rights to their conscience-keepers are already instructed to approve of the measure. Yes, it's easier to manipulate 10 men than 10,000 (but I fear I am already too long).—l am, &c , Looker-on.