THE HIGH SCHOOL PRIZES. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4629, 16 December 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE HIGH SCHOOL PRIZES. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir—l do not intend to. defend the action of the Education Board in, at the last moment, refusing to grant a vote of money for the usual prizes given to the High School, Sufficient notice should have been given. At the same time, I think much greater h&ro> is likely to accrue from the very injudicious tone of many of the remarks that have appeared inthe public prints on the subject than is at all likely to be ' the result, to tho children, of that decision. Had the decision been given at the commence ment of a session inntead of at the close, few thoughtful men would be found to find fault with it. The Education Board holds the position of trustee of funds for the education of the children of the Province, and it is bound p discharge its functions in such a manner as will contribute in the hijrbest degree to overtake that work. Whilst lat once grant that Dunedin has very considerable claim? upon the Board to provide better and move .extended accommodation for the schools in Dunedin, looking also to the claims of many of our pioneer settlers and their families in outlying districts, I confess I fail to see that the Board would be justified in voting out of its funds money for prizes which is urgently re quired for the payment of teachers, the building of schools, and the subsidising the voluntary efforts of parents who are carrying on I the work of colonization in the interior of the country. Let us not forget that it is not cities that make the country; but the country that makes the cities. What would be thought of a parent who, to deck out his eldest childin superfluous trinkets and finery, would deprive the rest of his family of food and clothing, who would fatten one for mere show, and starve the others ? I for one am anxious to see our Lmversity, our High Schools, and our Normal Schools, well and liberally supported, to enable them to carry out their proper functions, but trust that the Education Board will not permit that unhealthy thirst so prevalent amongstus for mere show to influence them in squandering their fundfl on non essentials. Two facts that I have noted in perusing the reports of the Education Board, I would commend to the consideration 'of those who desire to see all our children in Otago well eduoated, and these are, that in many cases of applications for subsidies, the Board has had to refuse the help asked for, even where parents have been willing to make much greater individual pecuniary efforts than ever the parents of children in Dunedin have been called on to make, and that in many of our outlying Hsi^ttt, somt Jwwr« ewtntotfw

the whole, and others a large portion of the necessary funds for ,scho~ol Duudffigs. "WitiS these,fMtß before us, t thinks sWs' tint aitttofor that' portion 6f' the Press of Dunedin that i losers no p{)portuni<y of sneering at bur' country fellow settlers, and which, in the'narrowness and selfishness of their own. individual selves' (be they Pfovincialistij or Abolitionists), would t seek tocbnyert'thelate deoisidn'drthoEdnc«tion Board. Into a mere political stump for party purposes.—-I am, &c, ! ■■■■■■ OftSBBVER,