A SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES;

Otago Witness, Issue 1029, 19 August 1871, Page 1

A SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES;

A Telecjham: which wo publish elsewhere announces that the Provincial Council of Canterbury has appropriated the sum of £2000 for the erection of a School of Arts and Sciences. The profect of founding such a School has long been cherished by our neighbours. Last year they proffered an unsuccessful prayer to "the Assembly in favour of the establishment of a Colonial School of Mines at Cliriskhurch. By .some peculiar train of reasoning they arrived at the conclusion that that city is situated in precisely the most central of all the positions that such an Institution could occupy in New Zealand. Othei' people did not see matters precisely in the same light ; but on the main question, viz., that a School of Mines is wanted in the colony, and ought to be provided as soon as ever we" call afford to incur the necessary preliminary expenses, few would be found to differ with our friends in Canterbury. Nothing came of the proposal at the time, ami as there does not appear to be any prospect of the Colonial Government or Legislature entertaining it with more, favour now than when it Avas first mooted, our neighbours have done a very wise thing — have relied upon themselves, j and determined upon procuring at their own cost a local institution which will be the proper preparative to the higher I one. We wish them e\ cry success. { What they arc about to do will in a general way be recognised by even' one as a wise step, and as one likely to lead to results of much importance. For our own part we are disposed to rank it «till higher, and f> saythat in connection with Education — which itself is i\\^ first of all subjects in importance to the commonwealth — the establishment of a School of Arts and Sciences is precisely the most important thing that can be attempted in the colony. What is wanted at the present moment is not so much a School of Mines of the first class in one isolated spot iv the colony, as the formation in every important centre of population of .schuf.lh in which a good grounding in the Natural Sciences and in applied Science may be obtainable on easy terms by every one. It is utterly impossible that such instruction should be got in the ordinary schools, although a great deal moi'f 1 may be, and, Ho doubt, before long, will be done, in these schools to prepare the way fur more special instruction. A School of Arts and Sciences, properly constituted, ■will, on the one hand, hold the position which a High School holds m regard to the ordinary schools of a country; and on the other, will be the proper training place for those to whom the further and higher technical education to be obtained in a School of Mines in a necessity. The presence of hueii an institution in any centre of population will aha give a. tone to the education imparted in the ordinary schools, and assist to establish the —■•1 Sciences in their proper place N-vtui.. 1 "" n1 °f tlu H^hools. We in the currieiu- - to hear should, therefoie, be voi;> o _ ' that other provinces had determineu . follow the example now set them by Cautei'biivy. We do not entertain any hope of seeing a reJ] v first-class School of Mines established in iuC. colou >* until the way for it has been properly prepared in this manner. The subject recalls to mind the recommendations iv the Iteport of the Committee on Colonial Industries which Avas presented to the Assembly last session. Some proposals to make the Colonial Museum and L;iboratory, and the members of the Geo logical Survey staff, useful in an educational point of view, were remitted to that Committee for consideration. These proposals were made by the Board of Governors of the Ncav Zealand Institute ', but the firfat suggestion of them '

enme, we believe, from the Government. When the matter was enquired into, it was found that there were a good many preliminaries which demanded attention before; the project could be entertained. The men might be. available, but the means of teaching were not — neither a proper place in which to teach, nor the necessary apparatus, diagrams, books, Are., Arc. l)r Hr/TOR drew up a scheme, but pointed out that the first requisites were, additional accommodation, suitable apparatus, and the lecturers. Towards getting over the la it difficulty he suggested that some of the member.-, of his Survey Staff might assist < luring the winter months, when they could not be so usefully employed in the field, and expressed his own willingness to undertake at least one of the courses of lectures. Upon this evidence the Select Committee recommended that an addition should be made to the existing building of the New Zealand Institute, adapted for the purpose of a lecture room ; that suitable apparatus should be procured from Europe ; and further, that scholarships of .£3O v year each should be established and placed at the disposal of the various Superintendents of provinces, so as to provide means for the gratuitous education in technical science of lads who might be desirous, and might have shown themselves qualified, to benefit by the course of instruction to hepiovided. The report came up late in the session, and no steps were taken to carry out these recommendations. But the subject was, we hope, only dropped for the time, and will not be forgotten, or have attention to it long postponed. As leading to the formation of what slysuldj>e the germ of a future School of Mint's, or of Mines, Agriculture, and Engineering combined, the proposal is one of the greatest interest and importance, in regard both to the culture and the material progress of the colony.