THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9104, 12 July 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1888.

It is gratifying to see that the Auckland Chamber of Commerce consider that retrenchment in education, as in all things, is within the sphere of thenduties as guardians of the commercial and industrial interests of the community. In the annual report to be submitted to the meeting of the Chamber to-day, an opinion is expressed that by the raising of the school age a etreaehment might be effected most

desirable in the present financial position of the colony. At the same time the report directs attention to a subject which requires that careful consideration should be bestowed on it, in view of the admittedly universal demand for retrenchment in public expenditure ; we refer to, University education. On that the report says: "Your Council in last year's report called attention to the useless expenditure upon Universities, and the salaries of so many professors. They are still of opinion that one University for the colony, and consequently one staff of professors, would satisfy all the requirements of New Zealand students for the present." Of course, in this reference is made to University Colleges not universities, for in point of fact there is but one university in the colony, the New Zealand University ; even the so-called University of Otago being but a college of that institution. The contention of the council of the Chamber of Commerce is that there are too many of these, and that one should be sufficient for the requirements of the colony. Now in order to rightly weigh the propriety of this recommendation, we should consider what it involves; for it is to be remembered that the only one of these colleges that receives aid from the consolidated revenue is that at Auckland. The people of the southern provinces were wiser in their generation than we, for they took the opportunity when they had it, of setting aside enormous endowments for the support of their institutions, so that they are perfectly indifferent to the action of the retrenchment knife. That there should be a redistribution of these, and that all kindred institutions throughout the colony should equally participate in the liberal provision which they make for university education, is undeniable on grounds of equity ; but it is very certain that no such thing will be effected, and that Southern members in both Houses would resist to the death the passage of an Act intending to give a share in these endowments to Auckland, as they would one for their being devoted to any other purpose but that for which they were reserved. As the whole of the grant for the purposes of University Colleges goes to the maintenance of the Auckland University Collegethe few endowments which it has, counting as yet for very —the contention of the Chamber of Commerce, if given effect to, could not do more than the suppression of the Auckland University College. That this would meet the views of the South we are well assured, but as the grant of this £4000 was made as an act of justice, in view of privileges long ago secured immoveably in their endowments to Dunedin and Christchurch Colleges, it is probable that even the Chamber of Commerce would not sustain such an act of pure selfsacrifice. If all the districts can be equally treated, then by all means let it be so, but we confess that we do not see that the claims of retrenchment would warrant any one community in being alone deprived of a privilege, while the same privilege is necessarily left to be enjoyed by others intact. This would certainly be the antithesis of shedding the last drop of one's brother's blood for one's country. " Far be it from us to discourage any effort after retrenchment in public expenditure ; and if the Chamber > of Commerce have any anticipation that a successful attack can be led on what the Southerners consider the sanctity of their reserves, by all means let them lead on. Our own impression is that though a time may come when patriotism will so far have dominated local selfishness that the reserves of the provincial districts may be "pooled" for the common use, the prospect is at the present very 1 emote, and may not be regarded as being within the sphere of practical politics. In such circumstances it is an idle waste of effort to pass a resolution, or profess a principle which can have no bearing on the grave and pressing question of immediate retrenchment in the public service ; unless indeed the Chamber are prepared to advocate that the one institution in Auckland is to be laid in sacrifice on the altar of the country, while those who are safe in possession stand by and smile at our generous selfsacrifice. There cannot be the slightest doubt that, so far as University purposes proper are concerned, a single staff of professors, as in any one of the Colleges at Dunedin, Christchurch, or Auckland, would be sufficient to conduct the education of all the undergraduates of the colony for many years to come. But the question suggests itself whether such an institution as ours may not be utilised for the promotion among the great body of the people of that kind of education, which we most urgently require, and which is of incomparably more practical utility, than that literary veneer which is imparted, say, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh standards of our primary schools. We refer to technical educai tion, which would specially prepare our rising generation for the various callings of agriculture, mining, designing manufacture, and so on, which are far more in the nature of our colonial requirements than that education which, as at present, seems to aim at the creation of a nation of quill-drivers. In the conduct of such a course of education the Professors of our University College might not only come directly in contact with classes of pupils from our primary schools within the city, but be the instructors of teachers who would carry the study into our country schools, and so we might attain to that class of education which would best meet the requirements of colonial life. Indeed, at the present time that is done to a certain extent, and large numbers of teachers as well as other students are in attendance on technical classes conducted by the professors of the College. What is being done is at least an indication of what could be done on a far more extensive scale, if our educationists only realised the paramount importance of technical education, in lieu of a large part of the useless work in which the time of our rising generation is frittered away. If technical knowledge and capacity to impart it, as in agricultural science, mineralogy, and other practical subjects, were made a qualification for teachers' certificates, instead of Italian and other utterly impractical and worthless things, a substantial interest would be given to the study of technical

subjects, which would 'thus ultimately come to be diffused through the whole community of our colonial youth. This is the direction in which our educational machinery should be guided; and if even, our own reserves for secondary education were to some extent utilised for such purposes, instead of being as now maintained principally for the education of the children of a social class, a really practical and useful education- would be placed within the reach of every deserving pupil, however poor, without entailing burthens on the consolidated revenue, or interfering with the application of retrenchment to.the extravagant vote for education. It is t technical education that we' require instead of a literary veneer, and if the machinery of our University College were utilised in this direction, as it can be, there would be few indeed to feel that the money voted for that institution is unwisely granted. In the meantime, the Chamber of Commerce, before endorsing the contention contained in the report—which is virtually that our Auckland institution should be suppressed, while those of the Southern provinces are to be maintained in unimpaired efficiency, with lavish funds that laugh at the knife of the retrencher—should consider the possibilities involved, and see whether our Auckland University College may not be exactly the institution for the successful promotion of that technical education, in favour of which the Chamber itself has already and frequently emphatically pronounced.