DOMINION education

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

DOMINION education

SYSTEM AMONG THE BEST DIFFICULTIES OF PAST YEARS. LECTURE BY DR. A. G. BUTCHERS. The history of education in New Zealand, its trials and troubles, mistakes and • conflicting opinions, and the triumphs that had made it one of the best State, free secular systems in the world, was the interesting subject taken by Dr. A. G Butchers in a lecture to the teachers summer school at New Plymouth last - night. He dealt briefly with development from the time of the first Bay of Islands school in 1816 and with the varying influences that had affected control till the present • system was instituted in 1877. ... The New Zealand education system was not perfect, said Dr. Butchers, but it was not his purpose to go into that.' They had a goodly heritage educational- . ly, ” compared with other countries, one ' in’ five of. the population, European and - I Maori, was in full-time attendance at a I school and in no country in the world was there a higher standard of general culture. There had been a system of free public education for 57 years and in Nelson for 96 years. Free secondary education had been available for 33 years and free university tuition for 20 years. New Zealand, in the days of Seddon, assumed the leadership of the world in social legislation. The progress made had not been haphazard. Dr. Butchers read an instruction given to Governor Hobson to promote the education by missionaries of the. Maoris. The first . school in New Zealand was established in the Bay of Islands in 1916 by Kendall and Carlyle, two teachers brought out by Samuel Marsden. The first printing press was established in 1830 and by 1839 there were 2000 white and 100,000 Maoris in New Zealand, , for whom there was a calculated education system. The result was,” emphasised Dr. Butchers, “that by the time the flood of European settlers reached New Zealand practically every young Maori could read and write.”.

FIRST EDUCATIONAL ORDERS.

The first educational orders of the New Zealand Government were issued in 1847, but Domett, who had been in the. ’ forefront of education at Nelson, fought’ Grey’s denominational schools under State subsidy. In 1849 Domett outlined the identical system eventually adopted in 1877, including local rating and-com-pulsory schooling. His proposals were not adopted and until 1877. Wellington province, for one, had to depend on private and church schools. Domett knew what had been done among the Maoris,, and was actuated by the feeling that the same could be done for the Europeans. ' After 17 years of the educational policy adopted in 1877 the advantages were noted by Bowen in Canterbury. How much greater, asked Dr. Butchers, were the advantages to be noted now? Mr. Rae had the other day related how he had been told he would find the. best schools of England in East Suffolk. In New Zealand, however, he ventured to say that the standard was more equally good than any where, else. ■ ■ • In the public schools, primary and secondary, 97 per cent, of the pupils were free place scholars and in the univer- - sities 40 per cent, were Governmentmaintained. There was.no doubt that the good work was being-carried on progressively. With it was allied the improvement in the height and weight of the children after the introduction of school dental and medical There were between 7000 and 8000 children under the care of the State, and such was the excellence of the system inaugurated in 1880 that the. fact was almost unknown, most being brought up in private homes. There were also the State’s provision for the education of the native children, the blind and the deaf. All this had not been accomplished easily. There had been the problems of native wars, divided government and inter-provincial jealousy. , Therefore the first schools were de- , nominational schools, although attempts were made to take public control. .Grey was a provincialist and waited tn* tMprovincial Governments were firmly established before having the constitution established. Domett’s State-wide system was thus blocked because the provincial Governments pounced on education.

HUGE INFLUX OF PEOPLE. ' The tremendous influx of people in the early days and when gold was discovered, coupled with the geographical isola- • tion, made educational problems very real ones. The Maori wars in Taranaki saw all the children . transhipped to. Nelson for education in 1860. The low price of land in the North Island—7s 2d on an average compared with £2 in Canterbury—soon exhausted the supply of land for small revenue, which also was soon exhausted. Consequently there was no money for schools. . There was difficulty in bringing in secondary education, the Act being ve p' rigidly drawn. It was therefore to the honour of the Southland and Otago Education Board, which established nyegrammar schools, that there are 81 district high schools in New Zealand , toDr. Butchers traced the development of secondary colleges, Wellington College, Auckland Grammar School, Wanganui Collegiate School and Te Aute College. The finest single endowment in New Zealand was that. possessed by Wanganui—2so acres in the city, the revenue from which was stipulated as available for the children of all Polynesian races as well as Europeans. Mr. Thornton, as headmaster of Te Aute College for 34 years, had done more for the rehabilitation of the Maori race possibly than any other man through being responsible for the education .of the leaders of the race and the planting in them ideals and ■ high. aims. The slump hit New Zealand and education was in difficulties. Then came the abolition of the provinces, by which a grave injustice was done to the South Island and the passing of a greatly altered education Bill took a whole session to accomplish. The struggle had been so great that for nearly 20 years no-one in Parliament dare touch the Act for fear of re-opening the old quarrels. Then came the Ballance-Seddon Government, the slump passed, away and a new liberalised syllabus was introduced in 190 Z. Coming to modem days, Dr. Butchers emphasised the boon that the 509,090 acres of land endowment had been, to education, and concluded by showing how even those endowments were now. being • nationalised with many results and some unjust results. He had attempted to give an idea of the difficulties faced in the past to show W the difficulties of the future should ISIS be regarded as insuperable.