OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1029, 2 April 1884, Page 3

OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

(To tJie Editor.) Sib, -Mr Bathgate, M.H.R., recently stated that " the present system of education is costing the Colony more thnn it cat* well afford to pay." This statement your Duneain correspondent, in his last communication, condemns as "a foolish expression of opinion.*' It must surprise many people to know that a veteran politician and a well-informed man on public question generally, such as Mr Bath* gate is allowed to be, should bo considered guilty of making foolish and unconsidered statements, and that too on one of the most vital and important questions of the day. This illogical and rather slipshod style of criticism finds much faror amongst a large class of newspaper correspondents, and to them I always thought belonged the exclusive pririlege of indulging in the indiscretion at. tributed to Mr Batbgale. Your correspondent seems to think that were there twice as much expended on education in the Colony, it would be "all for the better." If the present enormons expenditure is not sufficient to develop the intellectual faculties of young New Zealand, the same amount doubied or even trebled could have very little effect in accomplishing satisfactory results. Ever ■ince its introduction, public money has been lavished on it, with a profuseness amount' 1 ing to recklessness ; and, still your correspondent affirms, were we to inn ease our recklessness and prodigality two-fold it would be "all for the better." This, I must say, is rather a unique style of reasoning. He then tells us that "it is simply absurd to say that the Colony spends mpjre on education thau it cau

well afford," and immediately rominds us that the Colony is still in its infancy j and yet around the infant neck of tho Colony is hung a millstone in the shape of over thirty millions of borrowed money. In what state this thriftless prodigal infant will find itself on its arrival at manhood it is impossible to say. The very thought is enough to make one shudder for the future generations of New Zealand. That the money spent yearly on education is terribly in excess of our means, and is a heavy drag on the Colony in its efforts to encounter successfully the financial difficulties into which it has floundered, are facts that are beginning to be understood by the very best friends and most zealous advocates of the present system. Nevertheless, your correspondent affirms that "it is greatly appreciated by the public." It Tould be instructive to learn on what grounds this appreciation is based. The class of people by whom it is appreciated are those who pay least towards its maintenance, but who, from their good social position, are enabled to monopolise, at the expense of their poorer fellow colonist*, any advantages derived from it. The struggling farmer, whose life is a round of unceasing toil, finds himself compelled to withdraw his boy from the school the moment he is able to be of any assistance, in lightening his labor and helping him to become the owner of his holding. The work-ing-miner, with his reduced wage and large family, is compelled to adopt a like courso, and avail himself of the assistance wbic ) the additional earnings of a son or daughter affords him in his struggle for existence. So it is with the needy mechanic in town or city, who, by excessive competition and general stagnation in trade, has of late, as we all know, been driven to the wall, with life made scarcely endurable for him. And, similarly so it is with numerous others engaged in uncertain trad precarious occupations. The children of these people through the force of circumstances, are prevented from learning during their brief sojourn in the schoolroom anything more than the mere rudiments of a very commonplace education ; still, the struggling farmers, miners, mechanics, and others, and, in turn, the children themselves must contribute to the support of a system of education which has yielded them, comparatively speaking, no tangible benefit. There is a clas-, however, which benefits by the sacrifices imposed on the poor but industrious people referred to above. The children of professional and commercial men, affluent storeke i pers, wealthy mine-owners, and others in the enjoyment of comfortable incomes are all, as I before hinted, from their fortunate circumstances, able to prolong the attendance of their childi en at the public school until such a time as they have acquired knowledge sufficient to fit them for some remunerative employment. It is for the children of these people alone that these costly establishments called High Schools are maintained, at an enormous expense, all over the country ; and for them also does the country import and maintain, at high salaries, a large staff of professors in the different cities of New Zealand. This, Sir, is the class on whose special behalf the Education Act has been framed. And yet this very Act that imposes on the poor toilin* maßses of tho Colony the burden of paying for th» education of the children of the wealthy minority, is continually talked of as being the very perfection of justice and wisdom. Apart from this is the hardship it imposes on the Roman Catholics of the Colony, who, as a body, both in Parliament and out of it, have repeatedly protested against the shameful injustice— the wanton abuse oi power — that compels them to contribute to the maintenance of an educational system that they cannot conscientiously participate in. The time is rapidly approaching when something must be dono to relieve the country of this terrible burden, and, when once it has seriously en. gaged the attention of tho people, its onesideness will be seen through as clearly as its costliness. — I am, &c, Y.