Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1896.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7663, 24 June 1896, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1896.

Technical education was moved a step forward last night, and there is every reason to believe that the meotiDg in the schoolroom will lead to the establishment in Gisborne at an early date of classes for manual arid technical instruction. It was very gratifying that notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather there was such a large attendance and that such enthusiasm in the project should have been displayed. After the preliminary business had been transacted thoso of the audience who were willing were ' asked to sign the lists of membership, and in response to the invitation 49 persons signified their intention of becoming members. This alone augurs well for the success of the undertaking. A committee was appointed to draw up a prospectus of association and syllabus of classes, and the members intend to lose no time in getting to work. Immediately they have a scheme that is satisfactory to themselves, another public meeting will be held, before which their report, embodying the proposed prospectus and syllabus, will be presented. The committee is a strong one, and its members are well qualified to suggest a feasible and workable scheme. A note was struck last night which it is hoped will not be lost sight of, and that is that the young women of Gisborne should not be neglected in tho matter of technical classes. Thero is no reason at all why they should be passed over. Many of the classes — such j as English and English literature, mathematics, photography, Bhorthand, and other like subjects — both sexes could attend, whilst for subjects useful only to women there should be no difficulty in forming classes and obtaining instructors. It is to be hoped that this most deserving movement so enthusiastically started will not be allowed to drop. The present leaders will do all they can to bring it to a successful accomplishment, and if they are supported by the people of Gisborne that end will be attained. The crucial point will be reached shortly when the townspeople are called upon to show their sympathy by the very material means of cash— for that is a most essential feature in tho initiatory stage of such an undertaking — and if that appeal is responded to, as we think it will be, then the teohnioal classes will be established on such a footing as to leave no fear that the training of our youths in the more advanced — yet not the less necessary — subjects of education, whether manual or technical, will be neglected. It was several times stated last night that the youth of Gisborne were being left behind owing to tho want of technical instruction. If that is so, and those who made the assertion were men who were well qualified to speak, then it is the more incumbent upon all, young and old, to do what they can to forward the movement which last night was initiated. May it not be said that the people of Gisborne are apathetio as to the mental requirements of the young men in their midst. Tub Parliamentary stonowallor is hard to kill, as tho English Government have found to their cost during the present session of the Imperial Parliament. Despite their large majority, they have found themselves quite unable to proceed with the business o* country, and in order to prevent the session from being entirely barren have had to throw overboard the most important measuro, tho Education Bill. Thore is no doubt that the jettisoning of this Bill, regarding which the leader of the Houso made a declaration not long ago that the Government would insist upon it being passed into law this session, indicates a serious reverse to Her Majesty's advisors. It is also a triumph for the stonewallers. The Opposition, having no programme and no creed, have made it clear that their only line of policy was obstruction. To overcome that policy, the Government early in the session applied the gag, but though the cloture hus been constantly iv force, and though two monthß ago a resolution was carried devoting the remainder of the session solely to Government business, the Government is " no forrader " with its legislation, The obstructionists have got round the cloture and Stauding Orders by tabling piles of amendments. Twelve hundred of these have been moved in connection wiih the Education Bill, to consider all of which, of course, would take months of weary work, and so tho Government finding thomselvcs quite unable to make progress against auoh burners of obstruction have been compelled to forego their main policy Bill. Tho ohief feature of the Voluntary Schools Bill, ib will be remembered, were decentralisation of control, a new educational authority to be set up in every county and borough ; the new committeeß to be sub.

sidised liberally by Parliamentary grants ; and compulsory school attendance to be raised to twelve years. Seeing that Education is the topic of to-day, we may mention an important modification of the individual pass system which has been approved of by the Otago Education Board, The resolution adopted by the Board and forwarded to the Government with a recommendation that the regulations be altered so as to enable the Board to give effect to the proposals, reads as follows : — Tliat instructions be issued to head masters and inspectors to the following effect: — 1. That it is the duty of head masters to advance pupils to a higher class as soon as they are, in his opinion, fit for it, without waiting for examination by an inspector. Pupils so advanced shall be presented for examination in the more advanced class; but if any pupil so advanced fails to pass the standard of that class, the inspector shall examine the pupil in the lower class unless he thinks proper to pass him in the standard of such lower class without further examinaiion. 2. That in the case of pupils who are, in the opinion of the head master, fib to be advanced to a higher class in one or more subjects, but not in all, it shall be the duty of the head master so to advance such pupils without waiting for examination by an inspector. A pupil so advanced shall, in such subjects, be examined by the inspector according to the requirements of the higher class to which he has been advanced, and in the event ot his passing iv all the subjects, with the exception of aoy subject or subjects in which he has been "exempted," he shall be deemed to have passed the standard for such higher class. Iv the event of any such pupil who has not been so exempted failing to pass for such class, the inspector may pass him for the lower class without further examination. 3. Pupils failing to pass the standard for which they are presented, who have passed in one or more of the subjects, shall be advanced to a higher class in those subjects in which they have passed, except in cases in which the inspector, after conferring with the head master, shall be of opinion that the pupil should not be so advanced. 4. If before the examination of any class the head master shall report to the inspector that any of the pupils in the class should be exempted in any one or moro subjects, and if after inquiry the inspector shall see no reason to come to a different conclusion, the inspector shall treat such pupils as " exempt" in such subject or subjects, and the pupil shall be deemed to have ; passed the class standard if he shall pass such an examination in other subjects as would entitle him to a full pass if the subjects from which exemption has been allowed were not included iv the Btandard requirements.