South Canterbury Times. MONDAY, APRIL 9, 1883.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3125, 9 April 1883, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. MONDAY, APRIL 9, 1883.

The proposal to establish in the South of England a school for the preparation of boys for colonial life, strikes one as a new departure in education We shall be glad to hear further details, and to learn on what basis the institution is to be conducted. We doubt whether any special preparation can be made for the work of a colonist. There are peculiar circumstances, combinations of circumstances, difficulties and phases of colonial life, which can scarcely be transplanted or counterfeited—they must be seen to be properly understood. Therefore we do not expect the pupils of the proposed school will greatly excel other lads who have had no special training. Of course a good deal of theoretical knowledge may he supplied them, and they learn riding, sheep-tending, fence-making, and a score of things useful to know. The chief use of the institution would be, as far as the colonies are concerned, to test in some degree the fitness of a youth for the colonies. A great bane of colonial society and a serious obstacle to colonial prosperity, has been the stream of utterly unfit and undesirable persons who have flowed into these countries. There are numbers of young men who should never be separated from their early surroundings. Having no force of character, though nut destitute of amiability and “ good intentions,” they may float quietly on in life in some minor capacity, and turn out well, always surrounded and supported by their connections and relations and sustained in goodness by the atmosphere of propriety in which they are. These persons sometimes choose to leave home, or are induced to do so, “to better themselves ” —with what result ? Not a few die miserably, end their career in the gaol or the madhouse, or find a drunkard’s grave. The reason—every one who has had any experience of colonial life knows full well. These pliable natures, free from home influence, confronted with new scenes, their baser passions fired by opportunity, having no strength of will and destitute of purpose, never make headway and are in fact but curabcrers of the earth. There are indeed some persons of strong natural ability whose career is one of dissipation and self-indulgence, yet who right themselves at last. These are very rare, however, and they only make us regret when we come across them that their talents and capacity for work have been so long trifled away and never steadily applied to a high purpose. In a preparatory school the characters of the boys might be very carefully watched, the fittest selected for the colonies, and the others recommended to pursue, if possible, some line of life which will not necessitate their quitting their early social and domestic surroundings. Any institution which may have influence in purifying the stream of emigration from the Mother Country to the colonies is worthy of our warmest approval and support.

The Timaru School Committee have, in the most emphatic manner, affirmed their entire confidence in Mr J. Scott, tho present Head Master, by recommending him for re-appointment. The Board of Education are not likely to withold their sanction in this instance, and the storm may now be said to have died out and been succeeded by a calm, Mr Scott must be congratulated on the position he occupies in the estimation of the public and the confidence of the Committee ; and wo have no doubt that in the future things will work smoothly. These disturbances of scholastic peace are much to be deplored—for they mar the internal work and the usefulness of the school, and shake the confidence of the outside public ; and we only echo the general sentiment when we express our extreme gratification at the happy termination of the difficulty in the Timaru School. In this as in everything else, “ All’s well that ends well.”