AN EXPLANATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 13, 17 July 1885, Page 11

AN EXPLANATION.

The following copy of a letter addressed to the Premier ihas been sent us as a possible explanation of the delay in the education state* ment : — " Selwyn street, Addington, July 1, 1885. ' To the Honourable Mr. Robert Stout, Premier. " Sir, — I take the liberty of forwarding to you a copy rff a petition emanating from the recent sitting of the Anglican Synod, and about to be presented to both' Houses of Parliament in a week or two. Also the following statements, which have appeared embodied in a letter on education, in the Cbristchurch Press newspaper of the 19th of May last. These statements have been copied verbatim from a paper on State education read by you before the Otago Teachers' Association in 1870, and afterwards published in pamphlet form. Now, boa. sir, it seems to me that a gentleman listening in the lobbies, and having in his hand a copy of these statements, would be highly amused at the grand Philipic you will no doubt deem it your duty to pronounce against this petition, on its presentation, and in defence of the present system. Summing up your argument at page 7 in the pamphlet referred to, you say :— " (1.) That State educatiou is educating one class at the expense of another. 11 (2.) That it confers knowledge at the expense of character. " (3.) That it retards the development of a quality universally needed one in the absence of which, poverty, and restlessness and crime must ever continue ; and all that it may give a smattering of information. " (4) That it makes men forget their duties, and deadens that parental feeling for progeny which nature has implanted in the bosom. " (5.) That once admit the doctrine of the State care of minds, and the State care of bodies must be enforced. " (6.) That state education is a violation of the social compact and unjust. " <7.) That it destroys parental responsibility and uneducates those who need education most. " (8.) That it is never expedient to be unjust. " I am, your obedient servant, " Thomas Milneb."