The N.Z. Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1905. TOPICS OF THE WEEK

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1749, 13 September 1905, Page 41

The N.Z. Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1905. TOPICS OF THE WEEK

Two matters which have cropped up perennially during the administration of the Education Act have come into- prominence during the past week. The first and most important of these was voiced by the School deputation which waited on the Premier on the 4th inst. In the Act of 1877 a method of appointing teachers is embodied which allocates to Education Boards the duty of appointing teachers after consultation with School Committees. The indefinite word “consultation” has more than once been the cause of troubles between Boards and Committees, and though a judgment of the Supreme Court long ago decided that it means no more than the asking by a Board of an opinion Which may or may not be acted on, Committees generally still cling to the idea that they have certain rights in these matters which are encroached on or wholly abrogated by Boards making appointments contrary to their desires. Differences in the practice of the various Boards have done much to strengthen this impression, the extent to which consultation is carried varying considerably in different districts. The deputation asked for an amendment of the Education Act which should make the present nebulous rights of Committees clear and well-defined, and the Premier agreed that the Act in this respect “needs amendment or alteration,” adding that as Minister for Education he was .“satisfied that Committees should have greater powers in the matter than at present.’*

The fact of the matter is that never since the initiation of the present Act has the method of appointing teachers, even as regards the action of Boards alone, been on a wholly satisfactory footing. A school teacher is of necessity a professional expert, whose capabilities cannot be tested or proved by persons without the same professional knowledge. Recognising this, some Boards when making appointments or promotions rely wholly, or largely on the advice of their inspectors. Others do otherwise, and apart from the fact that they have immediate access to a more or less complete record of each candidate’s work, are practically no better able to form a judgment on the subject than the average School Committee. Personal influence, too, direct or indirect, is often brought to bear on individual members of Board®, as of Committees, the possibility of which should be eliminated. To secure as nearly as possible a satisfactory solution of the problem of how' best to' fill each vacancy—a solution which "would satisfy Boards, Committees, and teachers alike—is not impossible.

The education of the people is a national and not a parochial matter, and the best interests of the colony demand the best means of dealing with every phase of the question. The Education Department, at present examines and classifies the teachers under every Board in the colony, and under an amendment of the original Act provides for their payment on a uniform basis. Parliament has at present under consideration a Bill to provide adequate retiring allowances for those who drop out of the service. Nothing except unreasoning prejudice against centralisation, and a bigoted worship of the fetish of local government, stands in the way of a non-poli-tical and non-partisan Board for the control of all appointments and promotions throughout! the education service of the colony. It is possible to secure members of such a Board who should select capable candidates for admission to the ranks of the profession and watch, judge, and reward the work of every teacher in the colony. We would not advocate any machine system of promotion by seniority, or by chance extrinsic circumstances such as the growth of attendance in a school. This latter is the system which at present obtains in Victoria, and which is far from satisfactory. Neither would we advocate a Board which should meet formally to vote the nominees of its clerical officials into fore-ordained vacancies. What is essential is in American parlance a “live” Board, the sole business of whose members would be to know' their duty and do it without fear or favour. Commonsense, professional judgment, unswerving honesty of mind, and aloofness from political said personal influences are net an impossible combination of qualities, as is evidenced by the lives and decisions of our Magistrates and Judges. Those are the qualities needed in like degree by the members of such a Board as is here suggested. The setting up of an Appointments Board for the whole colony would interfere In no way with the local administration of the law by Education Boards and School Committees. Neither would it limit any capable teacher’s chance of appointment or promotion. Vacancies might be advertised as at present and a relieving staff allocated to each district to fill temporary vacancies caused by transfer of teachers. The performance of- these functions by a central and independent body would relieve Education Bcards'and Committee® of their most troublesome and thankless duty, and obviatet the admittedly great liability to injurious friction which at present exists between these representative bodies.

The second matter of educational importance is that which came before the House on the 6th inst., when Mr Field asked the premier whether the Government would consider the whole qustion of the supply of books to primary schools. In his reply, Mr Seddon stated that to equip all the primary schools with fresh books would entail an initial expenditure of £30,000, with an annual outlay thereafter of from £SOOO to £lO,000. We have considerable doubt whether the first mentioned sum is not an under estimate. With upwards of two thousand schools to re-equip with books, and an average attendance over all these of from seventy to eighty pupils we are afraid that £ls per school would fall short of the barest requirements. This remark is, however, merely incidental, the larger question being the possibly of effecting an improvement on the system which obtains at present. Under this latter plan the Department of Education issues a list of books from which those in use in any education district must be selected. Elach board, ordinarily on the advice of its inspectors j issues to its teachers a list chosen from that of the Department. Both the major and the minor lists are modified from time to time, and perhaps there are no two boards in the colony which use exactly identical books. This plan except in the matter of expense to parents, has worked fairly well, hut it is just in the matter of this'exception that the shoe pinches. The father of a large family who'charges Ins-place of residence from one district to another, is not to be blamed for feeling aggrieved Avlien he finds that his children, who have already been supplied with .abundant and sometimes expensive books, have again to be furnished with a fresh and perhaps

even more costly lot. It is hard, too, to convince a parent whose elder children have been educated satisfactorily, and have passed then- examinations after" using certain text books, that these, no matter how well preserved, are no longer of any use for the younger members of his family. An edict has perhaps been issued by the Board or the teacher’, enforcing a change, and there is no practicable appeal. This is the knernel of the grievance. It .is not, however, to be supposed that inspectors or teachers desire a change of books without good reasons. Such alterations are not made through mere caprice. But the parent who, has not a pecuniary plethora is hard to convince of this. There is no doubt that a, wellchosen and uniform system of sohqol books for the whole colony would be a desirable innovation, and one which would not interfere' in the slightest degree with the efficiency of the instruction at present imparted.

In the farther course of his reply to Mr Field the Premier said: “If the question be limited to the supply of uniform books printed by the Government Planter it would probably be impossible to secure books that would he comparable in the quality of the matter and illustrations with those published elsewhere by .firms who could secure a circulation many times greater than could he secured in New Zealand alone. Even granting that it would be possible to produce in New Zealand books as good as those published elsewhere, it is quite certain that the price would be much higher.” We must confess that we cannot see exactly how these conclusions are arrived at. The Premier, of course, has the best means of knowing the capabilities of the Government Pointing Office, but if one may judge by xilany of the bound and illustrated works which have been issued from that office, there is notliing to fear from comparison with the best school books imported into the colony. Again, to exemplify the fact that the matter of such books, though of looa'l production, need notnecessarily be inferior, but on the other hand might even be largely superior to that of imported books/ it is only necessary to refer to the many school works of purely local compilation at present on the Department’s list. One New Zealand firm has produced the bulk of these, and has no' reason to fear comparison with anything issued by Old World publishers. It may be pointed) out, too l , that the colonial books are not on the average any dearer than the English, but on the contrary are in many cases notably cheaper. While not desirous of seeing the Government plunge into any rash scheme of school book production, we think the Department might considerably narrow its list of alternative books, if not reduce it to the. absolute minimum. It might also offer every encouragement to local authorship and publication of the works required, and if these things were done we are convinced that our education system would be quite as well served as heretofore and all present courses of complaint completely removed. In “Anglo-Colonial Notes,” under date July 27, our London correspondent quotes New Zealand’s High Commissioner as saying : “Domestic servants are wanted in the colony, and we are glad to assist them to get there.” If any judgment may be formed from the endless discussion of the domestic servant problem which goes, on in English, papers and magazines, it might be supposed that Home wants in respect to household service are proportionately even greater than those of New Zealand, and that no young women need seek afar for employment which is at. her command all over her own country. Writing on t&e subject in the August number of “Chambers’s Journal,” an anonymous scribe says: “Ask any teacher in our large Board! schools, and she will tell you that hardly one out of fifty of the girls is going into service when she leaves school. She will become a clerk in a telephone or telegraph office, a teacher, a typewriter, or a shop-girl, but not a. servant. Oh no; she wants her freedom, and her evenings to herself. The result is that fewer and fewer of the better class of superior girls go into service, and gradually we have to draw upon the lower stratum of society for our servant girls. It. is well, perhaps, for our peace of mind that we do not know the kind of homes from which many of our maids come. We often wonder at their hopeless ignorance and dirty, careless ways; but we should wonder less if we knew of the slums in which many of them! are reared, and the absence of moral training.” Assuming that there is a body of truth in this extract, and admitting as indisputable that there is ample employment for capable and respectable girls at Home, we are justified in doubting whether the High Commissioner is on as_safe ground as lie"?i.ppears to think in preferring to assist female emigrants from Eh gland, who. profess to' desire domestic service.