I.

Otago Witness, Issue 1024, 15 July 1871, Page 1

I .

No unprejudiced person can feel sorry that at a time when a Colonial Scheme of Education is about to be developed, special attention should have been drawn to what are deemed by one and another to be defects in the system at present at work amongst ourselves. Several things have of late been recognised as wanting to the completeness of this system by those who have been more immediately charged with its administration. This being so, we need not be surprised if lookers on, who proverbially ' see most of the game,' should have been disposed to criticise. For our own part, we are rather disposed to astonishment that criticism has not been both wider in its range and more keen. "We can only attribute the fact that it has not been so to a wide spread feeling of thankfulness, that so much has already been done for the cause of education in the province. The contest between our own position in this respect and that of too many other parts of the colony has naturally incited some little feeling of self-satisfaction, and that sort of contentment which is summed up in the words 'let well alone.' The feeling has been that improvements would come in time as the necessity for each became more pressing, and that feeling has had ample justification in the constant progress that has been going on in the provision of educational appliances. Home was not built in a day, and the time during which the Educational System of Otago has been at work has been insufficient for the attainment of anything like perfection. The time has, however, arrived when criticism may play a useful part — especially such criticism as is offered in a friendly spirit. Even those who, like Dr Moran, object wholly to the principles on which the system is based, may give us some assistance towards perfecting it by showing us where its development up to the present time has been inconsistent with those principles. To more friendly critics we may look for more effectual help, and this is precisely the moment when their voices should be heard, and when they deserve to tave attention. The framework of our Educational System may now be said to be complete. Primary Schools may be found wherever there is population to support them, Grammar Schools are established in the more important centres, a beginning has been made towards providing higher education for girls, and at length the University has been formally opened. At the same time we have the attention of the Colonial Government forced, after too long delay, to the subject of Education. Very soon our local system must, to some extent, be merged in one of wider proportions — an expansion from which it ought to reap many advantages. No time could be more appropriate for a rigid investigation of the results already attained amongst us. Foremost of these critics, we may reckon the Education Board and its indefatigable Secretary. Experience has led them to recognise the absolute necessity of more thorough and constant inspection of our schools. The Provincial Council, whilst voting money lavishly for many less important purposes, has hitherto refused to listen to their appeals on this point. What influences have been at work behind the scenes in regard to this subject we do not pretend even to guess ; but it is certain that its refusal to provide for the efficient inspection of schools is one of the worst of those discreditable things for which the last Council will be chiefly remembered. By its conduct in this matter it has strengthened the arguments in favour of another reform, which had already feeen mooted by those who have had the care of our educational establishments. The conviction they have arrived at, that

a permanent and inalienable provision for the maintenance of our schools should be substituted for the annual appropriation from the public funds by the local legislature, is shared with them by a large majority of those who have given the subject thoughtful attention. To a certain extent the existing Educational Keserves accomplish this, but the annual income derivable from them goes but a little way towards meeting the necessary expenditure. The time, we trust, is not far distant when the funds derived from more ample endowments will render the Education Board less dependent on the annual votes of a body which, though in the main liberally disposed towards the cause, is whimsical in the dispensation of its bounty, and deems itself better able to decide in the heat of debate what expenditure is or is not of primary importance than the Board itself. The subject of endowments leads naturally to another, which has been taken up by some at least of those who have taken their share in the management of affairs — we mean the proposal to alter the constitution of the Education Board. The system as it stands has in the main worked very fairly hitherto, and would probably have proved even more satisfactory had it been possible for the political functionaries who compose the Board, to devote a larger proportion of their time to this branch of their duties. The members of the Executive Government have, under our existing political system, far too much else to attend to daily to allow of their giving proper consideration to the business of the Education Department when brought before them at very occasional meetings of the Board. If we grant that it was proper to place uhat Department almost solely under the control of those who form the Government of the day, it would have been wiser to have madeits management ordinary Executive work, and to have left it to be dealt with like that of any other Department. On principle, however, the system of making the Executive of the day also the Education Board, is objectionable. It may, as we have said, have worked very fairly up to the present time, but every year's experience furnishes something or other to strengthen the conviction that h. will not do to perpetuate it. This matter and that of School Inspection will, we, hope receive attention in conj nection with the general Educational Scheme with which Parliament is to deal next session.