The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1888.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8272, 19 September 1888, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLI SHED DAILY WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1888.

From the reports sent in, during the ourient year, to the Minister of Eduoation, by the gentlemen who have the happy fortune to preside over the proceedings of those remarkable bodies, Eduoation Boards, some interesting and far from uninstructive facts may be gathered, oonneoted with our truly admirable system of State eduoation. Tho annual Beport from Education Boards for 1888 is drawn up, it need not be said, after the characteristic fashion, and ex* pressed in the oustomary classical and chaste style, acquired, we presume, at least with the younger members, while passing the several standard examinations prescribed by the syllabus. Let us offer oar readers, for their edifioation, a few specimens from this valuable collection of exercises in English composition. The chairman of the Marlborough Eduoation Board tells us, with the utmost gravity, that —to quote his very words-—*' The Blenheim sohool was divided as to sexes." Now, what in the name of mystery, oan this mean ? A year or two ago, when a good deal of dissuasion arose in a town we need not mention, about the propriety of permitting boys and girls to associate in the same classes at a oertain High Sohool, we remember that the term "Mixed sexes" was employed by a correspondent to a local newspaper. But "Divided as to sexes 1 " We give it up, till at any rate we have paid a visit to that extraordinary sobool at Blenheim. This self-same chairman concludes his report as follows : — " Due allowance being made for this contingency, it will be found we have not exceeded our annual allowance." Evidently a playful pun must here be intended. Such light banter is not, we fanoy, wholly unpopular at Education Board meetings, serving, as it does, to relieve the otherwise slightly slow routine of heavy business. But we seriously would advise this gentleman, when he draws up his next report, to oall in the aid of his Inspeotor to assist him. We have heard of the thing being done elsewhere, the result of these co-operative labours being a con* spiouous suocess, in the art of writing grammatical English. We do not wish to be hard upon a deserving and often ill-appreciated class of men, so we do not propose to go higher than the Fourth Standard, having no desire to see members of Education Boards compelled, against their inclination, to become, as Mrs. Malaprop observes, " progenies of learning," "to meddle," for instance, " with Greek, or Hebrew, or Algebra, or Simony, „or Fluxions, or Paradoxes, -or any such Inflammatory Branches of Learning," included in the portentous list of that accomplished lady. But we may be forgiven if we venture heartily to echo the prayer that chairmen and members of Boards who direct the education of less enlightened mortals should, more generally than at present, " reprehend the true meaning" j of what they write, often in such a glib and grandiose style. The Chairman of the Wanganui Eduoation Board, who exercises, as a trustee for the public, control over seventy-six schools, containing some eight thousand pupils, and a total expenditure out of the taxes of the colony of not far from twentyeight thousand pounds yearly, delivers himself of such sentences as these : " The Board was obliged to suspend the acceptance of any new building contracts:" "At Marton, in the Second and Third Standards, three ohildren are obliged to sit in eaoh of the dual desks." Unhappy Marton ! We had imagined that that prosperous and intelligent community had advanced a little beyond the Third Standard, at any rate ; it seems we have been mistaken. But sitting inside those wonderful dual desks ! This beats anything, even in Taranaki sohools. We would respectfully but earnestly .beg for an explanation of these enigmas for the benefit of our less civilised and favored population. Had poor Tulliver, in George Eliot's pathetic story, but lived at Marton instead of at his Mill on the Floss, he oould have exclaimed, with a double emphasis, " This is a puzzling wcrld 1" The chairman of the Hawke's Bay Education Board, after tickling our delighted ears with suoh magniloquent phrases as the following — " Full knowledge of the topographical features of the whole of the dißtriot," " Simplifying the machinery of compulsion," "Harmony between the mental, physical, and moral training of ohildren," and the like English, to whioh the genteel and exalted phraseology of the Family Herald itself is Bheer vulgarism, can positively desoend to the abyss of acquainting in plain language that dignified personage, the Minister of Eduoation himself, who is known to be the very impersonation of prim propriety, that a gallant military officer has offered prizes, eagerly, we are further told, sought after, for "The best seating and patching a well worn pair of trousers aud the best made night-shirt." This is simply unutterable ! We can only trust tho hon. gentleman may survive tho shock should specimens of these domeßtio gnrments be forwarded to him at his official residence iv Government Buildings. The chairman of that costly and majestic body, tho Auckland Eduoation Board, whioh duriug the paat year has somehow contrived to expend nearly eighty seven thousand pounds, inoluding nearly twelve hundred on offioe salaries alone, has the 000 l assurance to inform tbe Minister of Education that " new requhements are constantly arising." We don't for a moment doubt it. Bat when he goes on to complain that " The salaries paid to teaohers in this district are, upon the whole, lower than those paid in other districts of the colony," we sincerely hope he is mistaken, {or, on turning to tbia

Board's balance sheet, we peroeive that the total amount for teaohers' salaries and allowances reaohes the little sum of £57,579 15s 9d during the year, besides other trifling " departmental contingencies," &0., making a total of not far from eleven thousand pounds in addition. Assuredly thore ia nothing like moderation and modesty for success in this world, at least in New Zealand.