The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1885. EDUCATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1441, 15 December 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1885. EDUCATION.

During the last few days the Education question has been prominently before the public, and as the subject is just now seasonable we think a few remarks relative to it may not be inappropriate. According to speeches made in Parliament not long since, our educational system costs us ab:iut balf-a-million of money every year. We are, according to the Hon. Mr Rolleston, educating about 100.000 children for this sum. Mr .Rolleston set the number down as 120:000, bathe included private schools, which probably he meant to embrace Roman Catholic schools, so that in all probability putting down the number at 100.000 will not be far wrong. On these 100,000 children about L 500,000 —half-a-million of money—is being spent annually, and the question is, Are we getting good value for it ? The chief obj-ct which should be kept in view in the education of children is to give them such; a training as would fit them for fighting life’s battle. The chief use of education is to fit one for earning a livelihood, and any system which does not make that its leading feature is not perfect. We are afraid the present system in existence in this colony is calculated to unfit as many as it will fit for the struggle of life. No one can deny hut that a little education is indespensibly necessary. Reading, writing, »nd arithmetic are absolutely necessary : in these days no one can do without them very well, and the State may, we think, go to the extent of teaching them with safety. It is not that we hold that the functions of government reach their limit at this point. By no means. We bold that Government has a right to interfere with, and legislate upon, anything and everything calculated to promote the well-being of the people. Ihe limits of Governmental functions are reached only when the greatest amount of good to the greatest number of the people is With regard to education the State not stopped at the point where the greatest amount of good has been secured ; it has gone beyond it, and the result will, we feel certain, prove disastrous. liea'ing, writing, and

ari t limn lie is sufficient fur any one whose prospect in life is to earn his living by the sweat of bis brow. To give him more is the best possible way of rendering bi n unfit for earning a livelihood. We venture to say that there is not in the colony » working man’s son who goes beyond the 6th Standard that will take up the pick and shovel or follow the plough if he can possibly get anything in the shape of work requiring educationary attainments. Ihe same may be said with regard to working men’s daughters. If they are educated to that high pressure pitch our educational system is capable of, they will not be fit for servants nor contented to be the wires of their own equals. Who are the barmaids of this colony? With scarcely an exception they are educated girs who think it beneath them to work as servant girls. As servant they would be called “ Mary ” or “ Maggie”—as barmaids they fire styled “ Miss,” and ' are flattered and courted till, as a general rule, they sink out of sight into the depths of misfortune. Fanners* sons and daughters have a belter chance. As a general rifle they arc brought up to farm work ; in the majority of case* their parents will be able to give them a start in life, and they will be contented with farm work. It is not so with the children of the working classes ; they are brought up in towns ; they seek town employment, with the result that in the course of time we shall find the position of a clerk the most miserable in the country. Germany, we are told, suffers seriously from the overeducation of the masses, yet the system there is nothing compared with ours. It is said that there is no country in the world where forgery and embezzlement is so prevalent. We are greatly afraid our educational system will lead to a similar state of things in this colony in the course of time.

Of course it can be said that education is no load to anyone, and that nn educated man will be able to handle pick, or shovel, or plough more deftly than the ignorant man. All this is true, tut the trouble is not that he is unable to handle them, but that he does not like to do so. Given any number of men brought up as clerks, and two-thirds of them will do anything sooner than undertake hard work. In the early days of this colony of course a great many educated men worked hard, but then it was fashionable to do so, end no one was looked down upon because he wore a pair of moleskins. Things are different now. We are separating ourselves into classes, and making distinctions between men’s positions. There is nothing more galling to most men than to fall in the social scale, and no one feels this so keenly as the educated man. This very thing adds to the irksomeness of labor, and if we ore* to educate laborers highly we must give them a belter position in society than they have hitherto occupied, else they will be very discontented.

It must not be inferred.that wa object to working men or their sons improving their position. We do not by any means desire it to be understood that we regard them as hereditary hewers of wood and drawers of water. We know that some of the greatest men that ever lived rose from the ranks, and that many of them have left their names written indelibly in the annals ol their country. What we want to warn them against is the danger ot too many clerks and genteel laborers, and consequent misery, poverty, and crime. We, too, do not raise any objection to free education. The working man contributes so much to the revenue through the Customs that he may very well claim to have his children educated as a quid pro quo. But we hold that education should not go beyond the 4th Standard, or at any rate the sth Standard —anything more should be paid for. With regard to children showing remarkable talents, scholarships should be provided for them—that would enable them to obtain a more liberal education. If this were done the masses would be sufficiently, but not too well, educated ; they would be fit .for work instead of being spoiled ; they would prove useful citizens, and the result would prove satisfactory. With regard to technical education, too much attention cannot be paid to it. If half the amount of money spent on education were devoted to teaching the rudiments of some useful occupations, and half the time of the pupils spent in acquiring a knowledge of some means of living, then indeed the money would be well spent. As it is, we are afraid we are paying too much for our whistle, and that we are getting a bad article for our money.