The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 1874.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1707, 23 June 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 1874.

A PHTindK, 'said to have been signed by 4000 or 5000 inhabitants, was presented to- His "Honor the Superintendent on Saturday by. a deputation of-Auckland citizens introduced by Mr Cadmanj,

M.P.C. The petition requested His „ Honor to use tke power conferred upon him by the Constitution Act and refuse

his assent to the Education Bill, the 'Teason .adduced being that it provided for additional taxation, and also that His

Honor's, refusing.to assent to the Bill would be the surest way to compel the .j,General^Assemblj to take up the question of Education. The Superintendent, , i having already disposed of the Education •JBUI by reserving it for the assent of the Governor, could not accede to the prayer '" of the petition—it had come too late ; but even had it been presented before the .prorogation, and every one of the five thousand signatures had been found to be genuine, we question if His Honor would have disallowed the Bill. He has done all he could: he has expressed his disapproval of the measure as passed! The petitioners seem to have forgotten, however, that had His Honor been in ,a position, and ever so willing

to grant the prayer of their petition, it ; would not have altered very materially. the tax for educational purposes. In the event of the Bill of 1874 being disallowed the jGfovernment would fall back-on the Act of 1872; and the former merely provides for

an additional capitation rate—which is

more of the nature of school fees leviable lon those who reap the greatest advan-i tages from common school education, rather than'a tax—and a ten shilling tax .on bachelors. , With regard to the latter we still think that the difficulties attending the collection will be very great. When the tax of one. pound per annnm was proposed in. the Treasurer's Bill, we pointed out this defect,' and now that the tax has been fixed at ten shillings .we see, HO'^ieasoiTfo alter the belief that the obstaclegjn the way of realising even the comparatively low estimate set down as likely to accrue from the bachelor source will be. incalculable. A tax on real estate

would have been preferable, although it would have been accompanied by difficulties in the way of , assessmeiit and collection. 'But to the petition; v : lip Honor the Superintendent explainbd to the deputation how matters stood, and an arrangement appears to have been come to that the.petition should be-forwarded to His Excellency the Governor at Wellington, without comment. We confess" we have no sympathy with the petitioners ■. It appears quite plain that the petition was the outcome of the agitation got up in Auckland against taxation and state education of any kind whatever; the combined effort of two parties—one of which would like to see the Act of '72 repealed, altogether, and a denominational system substituted; theother, composed of radicals of all classes, caring very little for education in any shape, but viewing'with disfavor any system established by law.' If: the coalition of these parties had been successful the Province would soon have been in a worse position than ever it was with regard to: education. The common schools established would have been closed j and the excellent provision for education in scattered districts which has been initiated under Mr. Lusk's Act would hav-e been removed jusfc at the time such provision was.beginning to be appreciated. The attempt has been defeated, and should the measure of the late session be disallowed by the Governor, the Province will revert to 1 the >'■ old Act, uncle* jiihich,-. r ,we believe, the actual income would fall little short o^ that expected under the amended' rating' 1 clauses which constitute the Education Act of 1874.