THE BLESSINGS OF EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7782, 30 October 1886, Page 3

THE BLESSINGS OF EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir,—l should like, with your permission, to submit some observations on the article of "Colonus" on the "Cane of Education." The cause of eduoation in our time is won. But, like other conquests of which we are proud, it behoves us to watota over it. Not that I for one- moment believe that the friends of obsaurantism can cause the rivers to run dp their sources, can cause a reversal of the deliberate policy of all the intelligent democracies of our time, But it is too muoh that the policy should even be questionedquestioned too by those who,like myself, but for it would probably be, as far m literary utterance is concerned, as dumb as the beasts that perish. At least it is not in a young democracy like ours, Where the majority rules, that suoh opinions should be preaohed. We are to give every man a vote, but We are not to give him an education whioh would enable him to make an enlightened use of it. t ■ ■' , , Let us take the most sweeping of the many wild assertion* of "Oolonus ! ~*" X have not the smallest hesitation, he says, " in asserting that, next to alcoholic drinks, this erase for education is the cause of more personal and general unhappiness than anjr other oause with which ths race is initiated. In the first plaoe, I do not know what "Colonus" means by being "afflicted a cause t" that however is a detail. -Next *■ would observe that it Is ft mere { without a partiole of proof. Finally 1 traverse this assertion, in so far as it relates to education, by the most energetic denial, and 1 appeal to all history to support me. The first, and the only authority Cm°" nus" cites, is Eoolesiastes, and here I allow he at first fairly puzzled me. He appears to have taken the last verse of the first chapter, and part of the 12th verse of the last chapter, and to have strung them together by a comma. Is this respectful dealing with Holy Writ 7 Moreover, the preacher (who was not boloman, as ." Colonus" seems to suppose), denounces houses and vineyards, gardens and orchards, gold and silver, and even wisdom itself, as " vanity and vexation of spirit. Is "Colonus" going to ooumel his fellow citizens to abandon all these things, and will he straightway renounce them himself to become a Pakeha Maori! To be logical he should do .so. We may safely leave Eoelesiastei to theologians—not that if I .wanted a text I should have far to go for one. " How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity, and the scornera delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge And that ig from Solomon. After this slashing exordium, one is rather astonished when "Oolonus" proceeds to cut the ground from under his own feet. He admits that education " represses the coarser criminal instincts, that it enable* men to guard themselves with greater caution against falling within the meshes of the law," (although if onoe within I do not see that their falling were of much oonseqtteaoe) that it diverts tneir criminal instincts " into safer and more orderly channels." And finally, "I am very far from saying that absolute ignorance is bliss, or a moderate amount of knowledge is not conducive to human happiness." After these admissions one would have thought the writer would have OOneluded with Shakespeare: Ignorance la the curse of God* Knowledge the wing by which we fir to HeaVen. Not at all. "Education," he says, "is the curse of the age." To prove this more than doubtful thesis, he takes the case of London as a standard by which to measure the effeot of education. That is manifestly unfair, for London is in all respects unique. The state of things there is unnatural, and no fair test. And yet the difference between the London of | to-day and the London of 100 years ago is a striking testimony in favour ef education, whioh alone has wrought the change. Read in the memoirs ot those times of the insolence of the mob, of their abuse of women, of their brutality to foreigners, and wonder at the change 1 Or read of the hunting, gaming, drinking clergy of the time, and reflect that if such were the pastors, what ware their flocks 1 . . Mr. Mundella, who was then Vice-Presi-dent of the Council, equivalent to Minister for Eduoation, gave, a couple of years ago, a conclusive reply to similar attacks at home. He showed from statistics that juvenile crime in England had decreased by 40 per cent, since the introduction of sohool boards, and I totally deny that it is simply the type of crime whioh has changed, and I maintain, and can prove, that in 1886 there are, per cent of the population, fewer criminals than there were 50 —much less 100—years ago.

The grief of "Oolonus," in fact, comes to this ; we have introduced, and we pay for a system of state education—yet the millennium has not oome. Larrikins • are around. That is quite true, and to anyone who has studied the theory of evolution, i think that it most be evident that any improvement in our moral and intellectual nature, to be permanent, must be by slow and insensible degrees. Slowly we have won our way up from the level of the cave*dwellers and river-drift men, immensely increasing our enjoyment of this life in so doing, without increasing our sufferings in the same ratio. And it is, thanks to education, in some form or another, that we have done it. Says "Colonus," " Those School Boards' children will spend the years of their lives amid ■ the same surroundings in which they were born, with their perceptions, hopes, and longings infinitely expanded, capable of enjoyments infinitely higher, bat consigned to a life-long; misery of rags and stench." Fortunately for Us all, they are consigned to nothing of the sort; for expanded perceptions, hopes, and longings are no more compatible with " rags and stench" than the opinions of "Colonus" on education are consonant with an enlightened Liberalism. He pays in this paragraph a well-deserved compliment to the effect of education on character. _ He may rest assured that that effect will show itself in the morals, in the manners, in the associates, and finally, will colour even the material surroundings of those who have received such an education. Once let ub have a glimpse of a loftier ideal, and we will, we must strive to reach it; we strive to ascend and asoend in striving. Thank God for it 5

I could aay muoh mora on this theme, Mr. Editor, bat I must spare your space. No subject is more worthy of engaging the attention of all those who have the future moral and material well-being of New Zealand at heart, and amongst whom I pray you, Mr. Editor, to count yours, &c., Hb>ry Pjjkoival (of the University of London), Licentiate of the College of Preceptors.