BOARD MEMBERS PRAISE GREAT MEN OF PAST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18339, 16 December 1927, Page 7

BOARD MEMBERS PRAISE GREAT MEN OF PAST.

THEY DID MUCH FOR THIS PROVINCE. To-day being Anniversary Day, members of the Canterbury Education Board praised early educationists in this province. Mr W. A. Banks said that the pioneers were cultured men and women. One of their first, steps was to establish educational institutions, and Canterbury soon became the educational centre of the colony. That element had persisted to this day. The facilities for education in Canterbury were outstanding. It was remarkable what the Canterbury Provincial Council had done for education. An early Canterbury settler. Sir Charles Bowen, was author of New Zealand’s first Education Act. Mr W. Johnson, who said that he had spent seventy years in the province, praised the pioneers’ wonderful work when they set aside large educational endowments, which he described as practical evidence of their culture. lie said that that was in a different field form their remarkable work in building the Lyttelton Tunnel and undertaking other big public enterprises of that character. Mr W. If. Winsor .said that a member of the board should give an address on remarkable men of the early days. Tho First Four Ships came in 1850, and in the “sixties” and “seventies” the pioneers began two of the greatest works in Canterbury—the Tunnel and the Anglican Cathedral. He did not think that-the same spirit existed at present. The provinces were abolished in 1876, and the Education Act was passed in 1877. Mr E. IT. Andrews moved that a committee should be set up to consider suitable means of celebrating the board’s jubilee, and report to next meeting. Mr R. Wild, who seconded the motion, said that the jubilee celebration should be of a solid and valuable character. “They were fine men,” Mr T. Hughes said of the early provincial educationists. He particularly praised Sir Charles Bowen. The chairman said that much was to be learnt from history and from the lives of the great men like Sir Charles Bowen, who worked in Canterbury in the early days. The motion was carried.