ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 844, 28 December 1878, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOR I)I-' THE EVENIM; MAIL. Sir.—The following f;iets will tend to show that the new education scheme on which the country is spending so much money is not appreciated in many of the rural districts of the Colony, and that those who groaned most at the hardship of ]laying fees under the old regime now consider it an equal hardship to be asked to educate their ehijffren free of charge. Such, however, is the perversity of human nature that, we aisl not surprised that such tilings exist. But that a teacher's salary should he made* contingent on the whims, prejudices, ana- neglect of people who do not know the value of education is a matter the logic of which is not easily explained. Mr. A. hails from the East End of London, and, on principle, does not send his children, to school for the following reason :—lf he did they would not by the age of twelve become thoroughly posted in all the arts of vice, slovenliness, and squalor, such as he rejoiced in in the backr slums of London in his youth.

Mr. B. has a largo family, and thii.\k*it .1 great hardship t<> have to send lii.s children to sdnml, because they are so fond of driving cows and riding to death poor old frames of horses in a country where the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act has no force. Then, again, the little | urchins are so useful to cut and plant j "murphys," and, though only ranging; from five years old upwards, it is a shame i to take them from so intellectual an employment. Mrs. C. finds it so much trouble to get her little creatures ready by O.ISO a.m.. and she thinks herself a little persecuted : so, being mistress of ceremonies of this kind, she informs her spouse that the eldest should lie kept at home to assist in certain lucrative occupations, and the others to practice the various forms of cruelty (m animals. .Mr. D. will defy anyone to compel him to send his children to school, h is understood that this very honorable gentleman can neither read nor write, and triumphs in the iniquity, lie is albeit a member of that august body the School Committee. Mr. E., a shrewd and penetrating individual, and a passably good member of society, but withal a little slippery, thinks it impolitic to send his children till they are at least twelve years of age. j Mr. F. has a. boy- big of his age. y-u > know--a tine arithmetician, and really " he, digs the garden splendid " the verv image of his father. Of course he can't be spared 3 ' though the last-mentioned realises at 1,10 weekly, and subscribes to the I'.eiicvolent Institution. Mrs. CJ. thinks her children unei|ualled. and, if the master dares to give them a "palmy' for some moral delinquency, she will never send them to the school again. " that she won't." Then, Mrs. H., hers are so delicate, poor things. Why, they sleep four in a lied, and yet they d ,u'l get strong, and so they can't appear on the school roll ; iniu cover, as she is poor, they must stay and help in the house. Mr. I. is a shepherd. lie has one or two boys between six and nine, and he reipiires them every second das' l" dri\e buck slice]', oVc., and to work in the garden and for other useful occupations. I'nder the foregoing State of ait'airs, all that a modest pedagogue could ask bv wav of redress is that he be created a'.l.l\\ with the compulsory not tile ''optional compulsory "--clauses at his back, and with the adoption of this alternative the status of education and society might be raiied.- • 1 am. itc., An Or.sKuvKi:.