Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DISE SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1888.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 11287, 5 July 1888, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle. AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DISE SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1888.

What a rapid change has come over the public mmd — or at least over a' large and important. section of it — with regard to the enormous annual expenditure on education. Public men and public newspapers are becoming quite bold in their utterances as to the unwisdom of retaining the school age at as low as five years, while the imposition of fees over the fourth standard is now quite freeely advocated. Yet less than a year ago there was hardly a candidate who stood for election who dared to advocate such a change. Indeed, so far as we remember, the defeated candidate in Wanganui was the only one who ventured that length in his public addresses, and there in no doubt that his temerity cost him a great many votes, even among the circle of his own friends. Now, however, a great many leaders of public opinion have either come round to the same way of thinking, or the necessities of the country have given them the courage necessary to declare their opinions. In Auckland on Monday night the advocates of the change went so far as to challenge the vote of a crowded public meeting thereon, and although the vote was carried against them, still the proceedings proved that a great change has already taken place in the public mind on the question. • We say at once, that, considering the state of the colony's finances, we think it would have been better had the age been lowered last year, and had fees been imposed after the fourth standard. But, nevertheless, we should not like to see any such change made during the present session; and for this reason, that the Boards throughout the colony have been engaged for the last six months in reducing their expenditure, to bring it within the reduced vote of last year, and it would therefore be highly undesirable to force upon them a second attack of crucial retrenchment before they have completed the details of the first. It would be better now to allow the system to shake down to its present level before being subjected to a second retrenchment shock. It may, however, be reckoned upon, that unless the severity of the depression passes away during the next year or two, Parliament will be forced to face the changes above referred to in the system of education.