The Puapeka Times. THURSDAY, JUNK 16,1870. "Measures, not Men."

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 123, 16 June 1870, Page 4

The Puapeka Times. THURSDAY, JUNK 16, 1870. "Measures, not Men."

We have already presented to our readers extracts from the Educational Report laid before the Provincial Council by the Secretary of the Educational Board. These extracts were purely statistical, and referred principally to the schools in this district. The importance of the subject of which it treats is sufficient apology for again referring to the Report. The educational system of Otago consists, or rather soon will consist, of a university, now in course of being established, a high school, grammar schools, and common district schools. Of the measures taken for the establishment and endowment of the university, — unquestionably the distinctive educational event of the year, — the Report says nothing — a strange omission, contrasting singularly with the fulness of the report on the High School. Certainly the friends of that institution cannot complain of its being kept in the background, or allowed to languish in the cold shade of neglect. Of the twenty -six pages which the Report occupies, about one half are monopolised by the High School and the examinations for its scholarships. Its five teachers and its seventy pupils bulk as largely as the 122 teacherfc and the 6000 pupils in all the others. Mr. Hawthorne's presence at parade ; his lectures on the principles of the barometer; Mr. Abram's method of teaching history, backwards, as witches are said to repeat their prayers ; Mr. Pope's medal ; the prizes won by Smith, senr., and Brown, junr., are minutely chronicled by the Rector, at the expense and for the delight of a grateful community in general, and of our Provincial Councillors in particular. Those who admired the official self-importance and complacency of Mr. Simmonds will, if they peruse this Report, be delighted to find that with his mantle some portion of his spirit has fallen to his successor. But it is not from the Rector's Report only that we are left to learn the superior consequence of the High School among our other schools. If we compare the cost to the province of the education of a boy at the High School and that of a pupil at the district schools, we find that the former exceeds the latter somewhat in the proportion of the space they relatively occupy in the Report. The average attendance at the High School during the last year was seventy — exactly fourteen pupils to each master. The ed ucation of these seventy boys costs £2,233, of which £712 was paid by themselves as fees ; the balance. £1521, was paid out of the Provincial Treasury — an average payment for each boy of £21 14s. 6d. During the same year £46.9 was expended in repairs, being a further sum of £6 14s. for each pupil, which, added to the former average, makes a total of £28" Bs. 6d. If we. were further to calculate the

yearly interest on the sum expended in the buildings in connection with the institution, we are confident we should find that the annual cost to the province of each High School boy would be found to be little short of £40. The yearly expense of the education of a pupil at the district schools was, according to Mr. Hislop, £2 13s. lOd. ; but as the sum from which the average was calculated includes the grants to the three free schools and that for the education of destitute scholars, the average is slightlyinaccn rate. Taking it, however, as correct, the education of every boy at the High School costs the country more than is paid for eight pupils at the district schools. In the Benevolent Institution, in two free schools, and as free scholars in the district schools, over 500 children are educated entirely at the public expense. Their education costs the province considerably less than half of that paid for the seventy favoured pupils of the High School. In support of this lavish waste of money, it is urged that the expense, though great, is temporary ; that in a short time, by the increase in the attendance, the institution will be nearly, if not altogether, self-supporting. The experience of the eight years since it was established proves, however, that this hope is a delusive one. From the report of 1864 we learn that the number of pupils was then 81, and that notwithstanding the want of a head master and other disadvantageous circumstances. So that instead of the increase confidently calculated upon, eight years have given a decrease of at least ten per cent., and that in spite of the many devices resorted to for bolstering it up, — such as the lowering of the standard of admission, the reduction of fees, and the establishment of provincial scholarships. The experience of eight years has shown that it can only be carried out at an expense enormously disproportionate to the benefits to be derived from it, and to the sum which the Government can afford for educational efforts. We think that an experiment tried so long, and at an expense of £30,000, ought to be regarded as conclusive, and that immediate measures should be adopted to reduce the expenditure — in fact, altogether to remodel the institution. Oar space will not allow us to continue the subject, or to refer to the other features of the Report before us. We hope, however, to be soon able to return to the subject.