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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1649, 7 October 1903, Page 11

The September issue of c ‘ The Nelsonian,” just to hand, has some vigorous remarks on an educational topic that has recently come into prominent notice through the medium of the “ New Zealand Times.” It says:—At the risk of committing a breach of privilege we have the temerity to refer to the Government’s proposal to debar from our secondary schools all pupils who are unable to pass Standard V. This arbitrary innovation will undoubtedly rob us of our most tractable material among the boarders of the school. B-oys entering into residence with us at ages varying from ten to thirteen, owing to the plasticity of their nature, assimilate in their entirety the school traditions, and reap to the full the advantages of the ordered discipline of boarding life. The maturer boys who enter school with, their,natures as it were set and stereotyped offer no such material to deal with. The educational work of our junior school ensures a sound mental training, and, moreover, the presence of the juniors in no way excludes from our school any would-be participants in the advantages of secondary education under the new regulations. Fortified by the promised financial assistance, our Governors are prepared to give all the free places that the Government can possibly require. What possible justification, then, exists far this autocratic pronouncement which, threatens to curtail so arbitrarily the scope of our influence? It seems to us that this sort of legislation will foster a mushroom crop of select and private academies, and thereby intensify the very class distinctions Which the Government rightly wish to obliterate. Mr D. D. Hyde, Government Poultry Expert, stated, in reply to a Blenheim deputation, that lie thought the services of a grader could be secured for that district if a building were provided for tlio plucking of the birds, but he believed it would be less expensive for the settlers to send the birds to Wellington, as the Government would pay freight to the depot, grade and pluck the birds, pack them, freeze them, find the cases, and keep the poultry for a month if necessary in the freezing chambers, at a total charge of eight - per.ee per pair*