EDUCATIONAL.

Observer, Volume X, Issue 603, 24 January 1891, Page 9

EDUCATIONAL.

The educational truant officer has £1 a week more than the City Missionary. Female teachers aie paid from £50 to £100 a year in Auckland district, against £100 to £280 per annum in other parts of the colony. Abb the public of Auckland aware that it is illegal to charge ' quarter money,' as is done in the public schools of this district ? Evidently not, so the Observer means to enlighten them. Botorua School Committee has taken action to redress one of the educational grievances of the country districts, by calling on all country committees to unite in returning members who will vote for the capitation being raised from £5 to £7 10s for schools where the average attendance is under 25. Wb are preparing some eye-openers for the public on the subject of the quarter- money impost, and we predict that, when the faots are known, the parents in this district will rebel against the iniquitous method of robbing them now in vogue, which is a flagrant abuse of our free education system. Pay no quarter-money in the meantime ; next week we will tell you the reason Why. That very, important letter from Devonport School Committee to the Educational Institute calling for an amendment of the public school syllabus, so as to make it include definite teaching in morals, was met by a miserable evasion. The Institute agreed to reply, sympathising with the Devonport Committee's view and adding ' that true moral teaching holds a prominent place in the instruction imparted in our schools.' (Applause). Yes; the Institute nobly applauded the genius who framed this shallow lie. Of course, nobody complains that the teaching is immoral ; but it is a most immoral thing to pretend that moral lessons occupy a prominent position, when every child knows that any morality taught is purely incidental and subsidiary.