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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9022, 7 April 1888, Page 4

The interview between the Board of Education and the Honorable the Minister of Education, on Thursday, had for its object mainly the provision to be made for the Girls' High School. It is an anomalous thing that while abundant provision is made in this district by endowment for the secondary education of boys, there should be no provision, .by either endowment or grant, for the equally important object of secondary education for girls; and we heartily concur in the efforts that are being made for the attainment of this. But the question forces itself on us whether the right purpose of such an institution is kept clearly in view in relation to female education, any more than it is in relation to boys in the conduct.of .the Auckland Grammar School. This institution is, and always has been, merely a class school for the education of lads whose parents are able and willing to pay high fees for the purpose; and is in no sense purely a school for higher education, and in this respect it is heavily endowed for the purpose of maintaining an unfair competition with existing schools of the same class conducted by private effort, to say nothing of its doing work which is equally well, if not better, done by the free district schools. As an institution for secondary education the Auckland Grammar School is deserving of all encouragement; as a school imparting ordinary education to boys whose parents send them to it as a select school, we protest that it is in no way warranted in receiving the proceeds of public endowments, and in so far it is an outrage on our every sense of fair play. There are several excellent select private schools which should not be called on to bear this unfair competition, and which in spite of that competition are more than able to hold their own by the excellence of the education afforded. Now we should be guarded that the very same evil is not reproduced in the High School for Girls, the cause of which is being so earnestly and properly fought out by the Board of Education. If that school is to be conducted for continuing the advanced education of girls in subjects not within the scope of the district schools, or taught in the many excellent private select schools supported by voluntary effort, then it is deserving of every encouragement. If, on the other hand, the Girls' High School is to be conducted merely as a select school to which will be sent the children of those who are able and willing to pay highclass fees, then it will be utterly alien to the spirit of colonial life, and a gross wrong done by the State in setting up a State-supported competition with private enterprise. The unwisdom as well as the unfairness of it is seen in the fact that, despite the advantages of substantial subsidy, and the more attractive education which that should have afforded during the time it has been in operation, other girls , schools of the same class in the district have maintained their position with success. Let us take a single case in illustration. In another column we see the advertisement of a school of the class of the Girls' High School, conducted solely by private enterprise, in which it is stated that there are "at present no vacancies for day 1 pupils or boarders," and respecting which the principals require to have applications for admission made some month or two in advance, in order that they may make provision for extended school and boarding accommodation. The school fees appear to be exactly the same as in the Girls' High School, and the class of education the same; and the pressure of pupils is simply because ot the excellence of the education imparted and the confidence that has been won from parents by teachers who have no adventitious aid from subsidies from the public purse. Now, we ask is it fair, is it honest, that a public grant should be given to an institution of precisely the same class, and doing the same work, to maintain an unfair competition with such a school as this, and many other excellent private schools, which have honestly won the confidence of parents, and are crowded by fee-paying pupils % If intended to do away with an inferior class of select schools, in which systematic and sound teaching could not be obtained, well; but in the school to which 2 we refer, and which we only single out as an illustration, the principals are experienced and skilled, avid accredited teachers, trained on the most modern methods of high-class English schools, and but recently from England, where they occupied principal positions in an institution of recognised standing, superior indeed to that of any High School in New Zealand. Now, taking this one as a sample of what private enterprise can do, we ask, Is it right that public funds should be used to endow an institution if it is only to compete with other schools, which like itself, are catering to the requirements of one class of the community ? It is a wholly different matter if the Girls' High School is to be devoted to imparting secondary education in the correct sense of the term ; if pupils are to be admitted only after passing a certain high standard of qualification, and with the object of their obtaining a more advanced class of instruction, such as can not be expected to be obtained without subsidy for professors and teachers of the higher branches. If these. are the lines on which the High School for Girls is to be conducted, then it is deserving of public support as University College is deserving, or as the Auckland Grammar School for boys would be, if it was fulfilling its proper functions. But if the High School for Girls, subsidised by the btate, is to be conducted as a select or " high class" school, for the ordinary education of children only of parents possessing certain means, and occupying a certain social position, then we do not hesitate to say that the pupils attending it are nothing better than genteel paupers, and that it is a discredit to the State" which thus goes out of its way, at the expense of the whole people, to pander to class pretensions. The High School for Girls, if conducted really as a secondary school, will be deserving of the sympathy and support of the whole community ; and we would warn the Board of Education that if they intend that it should have the support of public sympathy for a permanency, in pressing its just claims to the support of the State, whether by endowment or public annual grant, that sympathy can only be given if the Girls' High School fulfils the functions of a secondary school, or seminary for the higher education, and by no means if it is merely a select school for girls.

The deputation from the Chamber of Commerce, which walled yesterday on the Minister o£ Public Works, presented to him probably the most important question as affecting the interests of this city and provincial district, that could be raised. In the connection of the constructed portion of the Trunk Railway with Taranaki the commercial interests of this place are largely bound up, and though nothing very particularly of an assuring nature has been elicited, good ser.vice has been rendered in showing the fixed determination of this community to persistently demand that this diversion of the route shall be effected, if there is to be any further extension of the trunk line at all. No possible good can come to this district at least, and quite as little benefit can accrue to the i-ailway revenue for a generation to come, from pushing the railway through a desert; and if the connection with Taranaki, running through a fertile territory, cannot be obtained, the people of Auckland will be doing good service to the State not less than to their own interests if they strenuously insist on no further extension of the Trunk Eailway. This we believe to be the conviction universally prevalent in Auckland, and it was a duty to have that view distinctly conveyed to the Executive. It is to be regretted that the matter must be "hung up" for another year, but any reasonable loss of time is preferable to the construction of the line by a route which can be of no possible benefit. Time will afford a better opportunity for proving the evident superiority of the Taranaki diversion, and will afford also the opportunity for the purely selfish advocacy of the desert route being rightly estimated by Southern and other members who may be open to the force of reason. The suggestion that was made by the Minister that parties independent of the Government should intei-est themselves to proving the character of the western route is deserving of attention; and we trust that the influence of the Chamber of Commerce will be exerted in inducing a thorough investigation of the proposed route in concert with the people of Taranaki. The delay necessitated by the position m which the question has been placed by legislation on the subject is of course to be regretted, but! with determination on the part of Auckland we feel confident that victory will ultimately come to the cause of reason and common sense.