THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2099, 25 September 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1875.

The Bill for the Abolition'of Provinces may almost be looked upon now as the law of the land, the proceedings of Tuesday next being, as. is well known, of a nature purely formal; and unless that law is repealed—which we think neither Hkely or desirable—education in this almost obsolete province of Auckland must necessarily be placed on a different footing from that on which it endeavors now to Bland tottering, and as it cannot well Tj« in a more unsatisfactory state, w«

may hope, with some chance ef our hope being realised, that a system may be devised more just in its working and more satisfactory in its results. The Board of Education have published their report of the year ending June 30th, 1875, and it is to be hoped that ere another yearly report can be issued, fnatters may be changed for the better. The report is far from satisfactory, at least looking at ! that portion of it which under the head of Public School Fund more nearly affects the Thames and all districts outlying | from Auckland itself. The portion we annex:— Public School Fund.—Statement of receipts and expenditure for the year ending 30th June, 1875 :—iß7o, July 1: To balance from last account, £387 18s 9d; rents received, £365 3s 6d; re-funds for books, &c, £114s 4s Id; Provincial Government,. £1500; rates collected, £11,434 4s 2d ; advances from the Bank of New Zealand £7293 5s 4d; total, £21,094 15s l°d; balance brought down, £6 15s lOd. By grants for building and other purposes, £1894 19s Id; . salaries (teachers) £16,639 0s 9ii; salaries (departmental and inspection), £732 18s 4d; travelling expenses, £182; office rent, furniture, &c, £89 2s 6d: contingencies, £66 12s 8d: liability of old Central Boards, £8; insurance on school buildings, £35 10s; books, stationery, maps, &c, £205 3s lid; books to be sold by teachers, £114 10s 7d; school fittings, £98 16s 3d ; training teachers, £4113s 4d; school sites and reserves, survey and law charges, and others. therewith, £114 9s 2d ; Provincial Scholarships, £150; printing, advertising, and stationary, £117 7s Id; collecting rates, &c, £375 16s 4d; test and other examination, £70 13s; interest on advances, £91 7s; balance carried down, £6 15s lOd : total, £21,094 15s lOd.

This report it is true shows a balance in hand, but of so small an amount as to be practically useless, the sum available being £6 15s lOd. But the way in which even this small balance has been obtained shows that our present system of educating the youth of the colony is as defective in its provisions, as it is objectionable in the means which it employs. To commence then with the report. That report shows that the Board began the year on which they have just reported with a balance in hand from the last account of £387 18s 9d, which balance has dwindled down to the miserable small sum referred to above. But even to enable them to keep this small sum in hand, advances have been obtained from the Bank of New Zealand to the amount of £7293 5s 4d; or in other words more than a third of the entire revenue of the Board has been obtained by loans, the only result being that a respectable balance has been reduced to an insignificant one, and the Board have been enabled to pay off a paltry debt of £8 incurred by their predecessors ! This looks black enough, but this is not all. The liabilities for the present year will be greater than the liabilities for the year which expired with last June; the claims on the Board will be as urgent or more so than those for the period just ended, while the means whereby to meet the one and settle the other will probably be smaller. In the first place the Board may lose the £1500 hitherto given by the Provincial Council, out of which they have only been obliged to pay £150 for Provincial scholarships, being a clear loss to them of £1350; besides which they have more than £350 less inhandnow than they had when they issued their last report, and have moreover to provide for the interest if not repayment of the loan of seven thousand and odd pounds they have obtained from the Bank of New Zealand. Taking only the interest of this and placing it at the lowest probable rate, an additional sum of £400 would be added to their liabilities ; so that thoughtheir income be decreased to the amount of £1700 they have £400 increase tacked on to their expenses. They cannot always go on borrowing, nor will banks always £0 on lending, so that their position is this: taking the rates and rents to be about the same this year as last, i.e. in round numbers £12,000, and striking out from each side of the account the £114 for books, the Board of Education can but rely on £12,000 to meet expenses of about £21,500. Can anything be more condemnatory of the Education Rate than, that as well as being certainly unpopular and manifestly unfair, it is" found so deficient iv its working as to provide for not much more than half of the amount needed ? It must be taken into account that though this great deficiency exists education * matters are not progressive, even if they are not retrogressive. Not one item in the expenditure can be pointed out where any considerable saving can with advantage be effected, while many and imperative cases reach the Board every fortnight which they doubtless would wish to respond to, but are unable from want of means. At the last fortnightly meeting no less than sis applications for aid in building or enlarging schools were obliged to be refused because the Board had no money at their disposal, nor were they even able to make a grant in aid of the subscription which the inhabitants of Bombay themselves had raised, but were obliged to rest content with expressing their regret at their inability. Thus we have the picture of a body of gentlemen who have the interests of the education of a young colony at heart, and are perfectly competent to act in a manner conducive to the welfare of those interests, brought to a stand still for want of funds simply because the Province whose educational affairs they j regulate has adopted a system to supply its wants which is repugnant to a sense of justice, inimical to the well being of education itself, unpopular with those who are obliged to comply with ifc, and in addition totally fails to meet the necessities of the case. If Abolition does nothing nore tb«u overthrow this system*

all will have reason to bless Tuesday next and the third reading of the Abolition Bill.