EDUCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3160, 24 September 1892, Page 6 (Supplement)

EDUCATION.

TO TilK KIHTOK, Silt. — There uvc> mon in the Waikato who may he termed blessed foitunntcs. These men are those who started on then original fifty acres, and who now hav t two or three hundred aer<'S with every thing else in proportion. These men have been thrice blessed iu this way, that the j)ii3t has been a happy past to them. 'Tig true they had to work hard and .suffer hardships and study selfdenial, but those are nothing, and are as utifelt ; in fact, are not felt at all, because the pleasure in getting on, no matter how slowly, overcomes the feeling ol short rations and aching arms. Hardships are unfelt where there is reward. Mr Editor, or rather yonr readers, for it

is your readers I am writing to, you and

they will, perhaps, not have noticed that of all these blessed fortunate* not one of them was a sixth standard man. Rules have exceptions, but this is a rule without exception, that not one of these happy men were sixth standard men. On the other hand, many man —these names are legion—have commenced farming on 500 or ] 000 acres, and now they have none ; and at the expanse of years of misery, and of all this lug o i of * nhappy unfortunates, everyone, with hero and there an exception, were sixth standard men. Mr Editor, what doe 3 this show ? It shows that the fortunates were fortunate in having poor parents who were unable to give them education, and the unfortunates were unfortunate in having parents who could give them a sixth standard education. It is impossible to draw any other logical deduction that such is not so. Mr Editor, lam a urreat admirer of education : my heart bleeds when I meet a man who can neither read nor write. Snch a one has my greatest sympathy, and I would willingly suffer a personal sacrifice to help him on in instruction, but all good, no matter what the good is, if we have too much of it, becomes an evil. If there were no

wheels within wheels, education of itself would be good, and the more of it we ' had it would be the better. The wheels within wheels in over-education are that this over-education is at the expense of the material benefit of the community, both individually and collectively. As it is an evil to have too little and an evil to have too much of a good thing, the proper thing is to have the correct medium. 1 think the State educating up to and including the fourth standard would be the happy medium. I may say that I am a little inclined to think that the third standard would be still the more happy medium, but I am inclined to sacrifice a little (not too much) of the material benefit of education. Mr Editor, I have never written a letter to Tiie Waikato Times without having aa end in view. 'Tis true I may not have stated the end. I will state the end I have in writing this letter. The end is the settlement

of that block of land with the Maori name, which I do not remember ; but, as Mr Lawry has taken an interest in it, I will specify it as Mr Lawry's block. If the original takers.-up of this block are sixth standard meu, the consequence will be that these men are failures to themselves and failures as far as is concerned in the successful settlement of the block ; all and everything connected with the settlement will be failure, misery, anguish, broken hopes, and mis-spent lives. It is quite true that if there were ninetynine second standard men and one sixth standard man, the. latter might live by his pen ; and that very likely would Le a personal advantage to himself—he might escape the hardships, but at the expense of not having at the end of the year one acre more under cultivation, or one cow

or pig the more, nor the great blessed enjoyment of feeling that at the year's eud he was a little better off. I would, therefore, implore Mr Lawry to do hia very best to discourage sixth standard men from going to these wilds. If Mr Lawry \vishe3 twenty years after this to look upon his scheme as a success, and be proud thac he had a hand in that success, let him do his very best to discourage sixth standard men. History repeats itself, and history has 3hown that sixth standard men are not the men for small pioneers ; by small I refer to small in extent of area or size of farm, and also small in size of purse.—l am, etc., Harepepe. P.S.—lt is true I know of one single exception where a sixth standard man who began on his fifty and haa now two hundred ; but it would not be just to my argument to use him as an exception, for he had for a mate, or partner, a second standard man. I also know another, but he also had advantages outside of farming. These two are the extent of the exceptions, and, properly speaking, they are not exceptions.—H.