THE Otago Daily Times. SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1872.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3250, 6 July 1872, Page 2

THE Otago Daily Times. SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1872.

It may be that the inhabitants of a young Colony are not able to understand or explain the great questions of

the day; and it may be that those who take a deep interest in such questions, and venture, practically, to evince that

interest may bo properly rebuked for meddling with what i» above them ;but surely Her Majesty's Royal Commissioners on Educition will obtain a hearing, especially when they are such men as Lord Taunton, Lord Stanley, DrTEM-

ple, Lord Lyttelton, Mr Forster, Sir Stafford Northcote, Mr Acland, and others; nor will a hearing be

denied totho.se Assistant-Commissioners whom they selected out of the United Kingdom as best adapted to sift the subject of Education. There can be no

uestion but that such men are worthy

of the utmost attention, and what they say of our earnest consideration as reasonable and responsible boings. The Royal Commissioners adopt the opinion that 'an educated mother is even of more importance to the family than an educated father.' They dwell

upon * the gravi fey' of the question of female education, and. say that' if one looks to the enormoim number of unmarried women in the middle-class who have to earn their own bread, the instruction of the girla of the niiddleclass family, for any one who thinks much of it, is important in the highest degree,' and thoy express a very decided opinion when asserting that * the farsighted and enlightened views about the education of girils, expressed by tho many able and experienced ladies

arid other authorities whom we have consulted, wo have no doubt wiJl meet with evpr increasing acceptance in this country.' But objections are made to this education, causing women to be masculine and heady. What says Mr Aite}'B* tant-Commissioner Fitch, Her Majesfcy'r Ingpector of Schools? 'It happens that the finest manners I ever Skw among young people—the most perfect self-possessiion, modesty, and freedom from, affectation—were in a class of girls who were brought to me !to demonstrate a problem in Euclid.' He adds: —' It would be a strange commentary on our present system of Education, if it could be proved that the studies which are supposed to elevate and refine men had an opposite effect on the other sex ; but though grossly untrue, there are many who believe it.' He quotes Sydney Smith as saying, ' that the system of female education, as it now stands, aims only at embellishing a few years of life which are in themselves so full of grace and happiness that they hardly want it, and then leaves the rest of existence a miserable prey to idle insignificance.' Mr Assistant - Commissioner Gkee.v, Fellow of BalHol College, Oxford, says of an endowed school at Birmingham, that the upper class was superior, for j their age, in what is called 'English Education,' than the best in ' boarding schools for young ladies.' In arithmetic they were ' simply perfect;' very well in analysis of the first book of Paradise Lost; knew thoroughly the ' outlines of English history ;' had a sound knowledge of French grammar, and could translate correctly Voltaire's Charles XII ; and then he says, ' The j manners of these were perfectly ladylike ; but they were comparatively of humble origin, being mostly daughter? of small tradesmen or superior artizans, and might be objected to by the Principals of the higher grade of boarding schools, who perhaps affect hyper-criti-cism in the matter, as not " presentable." '

The edxicated woman is untruly represented as above domestic duties. What say the Royal Commissioners on this point?—' The most material service may be rendered to the husband in the conduct of his business, and the most serious branches of his domestic affairs, by a wife trained and habituated to a life altogether different from that of mere " gentleness and amiability " of which we have spoken; a life of no slight intellectual proficiency and capacity for many functions too commonly thought to be reserved for the male sex.' Again, it is said that earnest study injures the health of girls. What say the Royal Commissioners on this point?—' So far from its being true that girls are likely to suffer from increased and systematic intellectual exercise, the very opposite view is maintained, both as regards the result of experience and on scientific authority.' And this is supported by Dr Solly, Surgeon of St. Thomas's Hospital, who says of the education, of girls, ' I am quite certain that there would be less illness ■ amongst the upper classes, if their brains were more regularly and systematically worked ;' and Dr Aldis confirms this when ho says, *I am perfectly convinced, as the result of many years' practice, that whatever tends to develope the minds of women will have the best effects on their moral and physical, as well as intellectual, health.' Having these opinions, well may the Royal Commissioners remark that ' the appropriation of almost all the educational endowments of the country to the education of boys is felt by a lai-ge and increasing number of both men and women to be a cruel injustice' And not only is there perfect unanimity on the subject of the higher education of girls among the Royal Commissionersand Assistant-Commissioners, but the first educational institutions of England have given their formal, earnest, and active practical assistance to the cause. All honour then to the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and

London

It is for the women, of Otago to take freely what is being gained at home, surely and firmly, by dint of indomitable pluck. It is for the women of Otago, of every rank in life, to help this good work by their influence, domestic and social, and by money assistance, be it ever so little. Let it not be said in after years that they would not stretch out a hand to help those who were doing their best to help their sex by enabling them to add graces to the family and social circle, and, where necessary, to employ their brains as well as their hands in getting a living for | themselves or supplying the necessities j of their fellow creatures. I