The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Xon Uro. FRIDAY, 27th FEBRUARY. 1891.

Southland Times, Issue 11671, 27 February 1891, Page 2

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Xon Uro. FRIDAY, 27th FEBRUARY. 1891.

At the last monthly meeting of the Ota£o Education Board the subject of tmppl nientary reacting books for the classes in oar public schools came up for discussion. It feeuns that the Board had, on the recommendation of its infipectors, decide) that two reading books should be used, and that the supplementary books should be the Southern Cross Headers. Ihe circular intended to give effect to this decision, however, was not issued ; but the headmasters had got word of the matter from the reports of the Board's proceedings in the newspapers, and it would appear that they, or some of them, had been acting on the recommendation of the inspectors, probably at the instance of these gentleman in their official capacity Be tiiirt as it may, some parents took exception to the u«e of two books, and a gn-at many more to the uae of the particular books selected as supplementary Headers, and this for two reasons; rirst, b<-C:iu^e the b >oks were iuferior in their kind, and, secondly, because they were published by Messrs Whitcombe and Toiubn. The object kms were thus brought forward partly on educational and parti) 1 (perhaps chiefly) on political grounds. We will s^y at once that we have no sympathy with bo> cutting in any shape or form. Jt is an instrument, not of civilisation, but of barbarism, and ought to be put down by all legitimate means. The fact that Messrs Whitcorabe and Tombs rendered themselves obnoxious to Trades Unions is certainly no sufficient reason why Education Boards should be called upon by school committees, or conferences of school committees, to prohibit the use of their school books in the State schools. A member of one of the deputations to the Otago Board stated that 200 children would be withdrawn from one of the suburban schools if Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs' Readers were foisted upon them. This was acre bounce. Were the books in question as good in every respect as tbeir imported livals the Board would be wrong in excluding them from tbe common schools simply because tbeir publishers had offended the Trades Unions. Political considerations of this kind ought rather to he excluded from the deliberations of the Board. Even granting that Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs were as tyrannical and unfair as the Unionists piint them, this would be no justification for an Education Board — a strictly nonpolitical body — taking part in the controversy between that firm and their enemies , %hQ cootroTerej li<» altogether •

outside of the jurisdiction, so to speak, ' of Education Boards. Suppose the offending ficra had published, say, a volume of original poetry, or a new contribution to philosophy, of su preine excellence. It is indeed not at all likely that any 6rra of booksellers will have th^ chance of publishing anything of the kind in a young country where the people generally, and even aach poets and philosophers as there are, have such a keen eye to the main chance. But the supposition is fair enough. Would then the Unionist members of our Athenaeums be warranted, if they were in a majority, which is indeed also an unlikely thing to happen, in shutting the doors of these institutions against the said volume of immortal poems or scarcely less immortal philosophy ? Surely not. Then let the Southern Cross Readers stand or fall on their own merits, apart altogether from their connection with Messrs White >mbe aud Tombs. It is not at all impossible however that the objections to this firm's school series are valid enough from the educational point of view. As a matter of fact, the Otago Education Board referred this very matter some time ago to the Educational Institute, and it is not a little significant that the Institute reported, as we may so express it, dead against the Southern Cross Readers, as compared either with Chambers' Graduated Readers or the Royal Star Readers. In thia judgment wg heartily concur. There is what we may call a meanness about the Southern Cross Readers, as respects both matter and form, that strikes the eye at first sight. They are not nearly so well got up as the other two series of Readers, but it is in respect of the contents that they are especially inferior. The illustrations are for the most part very poor, not at all equal to toe beautiful specimens of the art which are nowadays to be found in many of the cheapest publications. This is a great defect. The pictures in Chambers' series and in the Royal Star Readers are very much better, though, to say the truth, they are not so good as those in many of the popular books (or children. The reading matter of the Southern Cross Readers is also inferior in many points. It lacks variety. There is far too much natural history, and the remark of one of the Danedin papers, that the lessons smack not so much ol science as of the pedantry of science, is strictly true. Nor ia the reason for this far to >eek. It is at least generally said, and the (statement has not as far as we are aware been ever denied, that the school books in question ure either wholly or in part the work of school inspectors. (Fortunately, this district has, so far as we are aw»re, as yet escaped the aflliction of schoolbook-raaking inspectors). Some of these officials are great in natural history, and, imposed upon by their own pedantry, they have failed to observe anything like the due proportion that ought to obtain amoug the subjects suitable lor school reading books The old moral lessons from history or biography, than which nothing is more interesting or iivjre nutritive to the infant mind, are in great measure crowded out by cats, spiders, humble bees, tuis, sharks, flounders, lions, and tigers. Children of course like to read about animals too, but there are things more important, to which iuHpectorial pedantry, it should seem, liaa blinded Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs' hackn. Our readers may perhaps wonder why the Otago Education t'oard did not act on the opii.ioa given them by the Institute, but the reason is not far to seek for this either. That Board has baen always led by tbe nose by its officials, the secretary and the inspectors working very harmoniously togetue'. We may be quite sure then that it was not no much the desire to encourage native industry as the habit of deferring to their inspectors that led the, Board to set aside the opinion of the Institute, th.tt is of the m') r H intelligent teachers of Otago and Southland, and to recommend the Southern Cross Readers aa supplementary books. At the last meeting of the Board a resolution was passed giving headmasters a certain discretion as to the supplementary reading book. Instead of the Southern Cross series tl ey may take : — " .-<tar Reader, No, 2, in classes preparing for Standard I pass ; l>itto No. 3 for Standard II pass ; Blackwood's Short Stories from English History for Standard 111 pass; and Gardiner's Outlines of h nglish History for the other Standards. But this is not enough. It rather makes matters worse, for it places the headmaster between the devil and the deep sea. He will have the inspectors on one side urging him openly or tacitly (for the thing can be done tacitly) to use the bonks in which they have presumably both an authorly and a pecuniary interest, and on the other side the parents or his school committee threatening vengeance if he allows them to be read. ihe Education Board ought most distinctly to have forbidden the use of the Southern Cross Headers, not because they are published by Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs, but because they are adjudged inferior to Chambers' Graduated or Nelson's Star Readers — in other words, because they are the productions of certain tar from disinterested inspectorial pedants. Why, in the mine >1 common sense, should not tbe beet books be uwed 1