SCHOOL FEES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 665, 12 January 1881, Page 3

SCHOOL FEES.

(From the Press.) • Now, if education is a matter of national concern, and if—aa it is generally admitted—it is the duty of the State to fee that every child is properly educated, ? we cannot discover what standing ground ,thfi.advocates.'of school fees have. Thoy tell us that they are as anxious as their ;. : opponents to Bee the children properly ..;• gained U]s. They- think the State is JtWßdto interfere, and insist upon that I .duty being performed. They admit, moreover; that the State should contribute • < something. But that something, on their ! own showing, is not enough. The balance, ; they therefore hold, should be found by • the parents of the children, Those who ; talk in this way do not attempt to explain i how it comes that a national system, which they say the whole taxpaying community cannot maintain, can be supported by a J portion- of the. peqple, Their position , Virtually' is-r-the taxpayers as a whole can- / . not pay for national education; therefore , repeal the. Act and pass another, compelling a portion of the taxpayers to find the . money. Such a position, we hold, is • altogether untenable. We can under- :• stand those, of-course, who say that the education of the ohildren of the Colony is no concern of theirs, who objeot to pay for the training of their neighbors' children, and who would be oontent, perhaps .pleased,.to Bee a considerable portion of the rising generation growing up in ignorance. -But. the advocates of school fees •■ profess to hold ho suoh views.. They only ~.;." wish, they teU;up, to alter the mode'in' which the education-tax is raised. Instead •. 'of taking the whole of the money out of •:: ' the consolidated fund they would take ;. ■■ part, end reior.t to the cumbrous, expen. _ aiv'e,andjinsitisfactory planof.cp.llecting : ■ school few to. pay the remainder. Their assertlpn, in aword.'ia that a portion of . the.pedple are more capable of paving for .' a national system of education than, the whole community are,