THE New Zealand Herald. MONDAY, MAY 8, 1905 AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12860, 8 May 1905, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. MONDAY, MAY 8, 1905 AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

DURING the entire term of lite Seddon Administration there has been a continually increasing tendency to concentrate all political power, privilege and authority in the hands of the central Government. The motive has Ween, of course, the political ••pull" which is possessed by a Government sitting in autocratic control of every public function and every public official, even in the furthest extremity of the colony. And the result lias been to weaken and demoralise the public services and t.) establish that form of Tammanyism in New Zealand against which Mr. Massey is leading a very general revolt. In the educational system the Government has been unable to interfere as much as in other Departments, with non-political methods of administration, because the School Committees and Education Boards under which the public schools are primarily organised possess a full measure of public confidence and stand between the provinces and the usurpation by the Government of dictatorial authority over out public schools. Mow the Government would use its power, if it should succeed in subordinating the Education Boards, we have had very emphatic warning in the extraordinary proposition by which Mr. Seddon — having seized upon the portfolio of Education in order to show the world how public schools ought to be conducted—asked Parliament to give as many national scholarships to Westland, whose population is largely composed of old age pensioners, as to Auckland, which has nearly twenty times the population of Westland, and largely children at that. In fact, wherever it is possible for the Government to show partiality in educational matters it does so, but even partiality does not blind the Otago Education Board to the dangei that confronts effective public education 'if local authority and supervision and control are to be destroyed by the centralising tendencies of the Education Department under its present guidance. This danger is perceived in Auckland as in Otago, in Taranaki as in Canterbury, and we would suggest, that some concerted steps be taken by the provincial Boards to obtain an expression of opinion from members during the coming session of Parliament so that the rntblie may know who are in favour of centralisation and who are not.'

There can be no doubt thai the present most unsatisfactory state of our educational system is largely due to the Department having deliberately set itself to seize every opportunity for encroaching upou the functions, duties, privileges, and prerogatives of the Education Boards, This undesirable spirit and unpatriotic ambition has occupied the time of Ministers and officials to such an extent that they have simply had no time to exercise ordinary intelligence in the general Departmental management to which they should confine then energies. The complaints made on Friday last at a special meeting of the Otago Education Board, help to show how very badly the Departmental work is done ; which showing is not new, being the common feature of every educational gathering and educational conference. For instance, it lias been long and strongly advocated that it is bette. and cheaper to convey children to a central school in a sparsely populated district, yet nothing has yet been done by the Department excepting the most trumpery arrangements for railway transport. Again, the injustice oi applying to country children the same agelimit for scholarships as apply to town children has been pressed upon the Departmental consideration and must be evident to all who know the country conditions as they affect the later commencement of school life and the more irregulai attendance during its whole term. . While the !

Oiago Board only joins the echoes when it demands the making of the teaching profession attractive to the best youth of the colony and provision by superannuation for retiring aged teachers. These are all matters Departmental. They are outside the power or prerogatives of the Boards or of the Committees. They are practically in the hands of the Department and of Ministers who do very little except, attempt to take away every vestige of power and authority from the provincial bodies. And we say, without hesitation, that they would be promptly and effectively dealt with by the provinces, if such matters, with the financial ability to deal with them, were taken away from that dog-in-the-manger officialism a'. Wellington and left in the hands of provincial authorities. We should be especially concerned over the educational system of our colony at the present time, [or the very sufficient reason that, the service has been so pulled about by the Government, so handicapped by the pernicious antagonism of the Department to the Boards, and. consequently, so stationary while the colony lias generally advanced in material prosperity, that it is being given the cold shoulder by the best of our colonial youth. As we have frequently pointed out, this is/being temporarily'covered by the transposition of female teachers foi male teachers, but it can hardly be questioned that such a transposition is not for the good of anybody. And when it is completed -supposing we wish it to continue until a. male teacher is a curiosity in the educational service—the ruthless process will continue to work itself out to our further detriment as educated and capable women shrink in their turn from averagely inferior pay and from the haunting phantom of the inspector. The position is a serious one, because we cannot suddenly lift the standard of our school teachers nor replace them on an emergency even by a suspension of immigration restrictions. They must 1 be trained English men and English women,,of good presence and unimpeachable character—or, at least, they ought to be—and we can. only get these by making the inducements of the service such that: our better lads and girls will look upflhi it as most desirable to enter. The Government has neither made the service desirable nor its Departmental organisation of the service an effective one. All it. has done is its very best to kill the Boards and to stun the Committees in the course of its con-sistent-policy to Tammanyise the colony and the entire public service.!