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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 40

Speech of His Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson, G.C.M.G., Governor of New Zealand, Delivered at the Opening of the New Normal Schools, in Thorndon, Wellington, 3rd May, 1880

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Speech of His Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson, G.C.M.G., Governor of New Zealand, Delivered at the Opening of the New Normal Schools, in Thorndon, Wellington, 3rd May, 1880.

Ladies and Gentlemen,—It has given me much pleasure to comply with the invitation of the school committee to be present here today at the opening of these new school buildings. The occasion is one of more than ordinary interest, for, as pointed out by Mr. Woodward, provision is made by these buildings, not only for a commodious and well-appointed public school for this immediate neighbourhood, but also for a Normal School for training teachers, for a class room to serve as a school of art, and for an educational museum and library for the whole colony. Of late years great attention has been directed in all countries where education is appreciated to every detail connected with the construction of school buildings, and the arrangement of playgrounds—both of which are important elements in a school system. I was glad to see on a visit which I paid to these buildings a few days ago that all modern requirements in such matters as cubic space, lighting, and ventilation had been kept in view; and that all those improved appliances and arrangements had been adopted which experience has shown to be essential for the health and convenience of both pupils and teachers, and for the maintenance of regularity and cleanliness and discipline in the school. (Applause.) The weak point appears to to me be the play ground, which is too confined in space; but I hope the Board of Education may be able to see their way to purchasing or renting the neighboring paddock, which seems as if it had been left unoccupied for this very purpose, and which I am sure could not be more usefully employed than in straightening the backs and widening the chests, and hardening the biceps of the rising generation of the Thorndon district. (Loud applause.) With this single exception these buildings and their appurtances appear to me to supply all that can be desired, and I feel sure they will contribute their full share to the successful administration of the public school system of the colony. It is now nearly a year since Mr. Woodward and a deputation from the several Wellington school committees called on me, and invited me to preside at some educational demonstra- page 8 tion which was then about to take place. I was unable to accept, as I was at the time about leaving for Auckland. Besides, I had only just arrived in the colony, and I remember telling the deputation that I should like, before taking part in any public gathering of the kind, to make myself acquainted with the provision made by law for primary education in New Zealand, and to be able by personal observation to compare the system in operation here with that in force in other countries and colonies with which I was acquained. In the twelve months which have since elapsed, I have carefully studied the Education Act, and the admirable report from the Department of Education presented last year to Parliament. I have read too the able and interesting reports of the various Inspectors of Schools, and I have not failed to avail myself of my journeys through the country to have a look at the principal schools in operation in the districts through which I passed. And now that Mr. Woodward and the school committee have again returned to the charge, and have asked me to be present here this afternoon, and to offer a few remarks, I do not see that I can do otherwise than to tell you candidly exactly what I think of your national plan of education, which appears to me to be admirable in its general design, although defective in one or two of its details. (Applause.) If I understand your scheme correctly, it is this: It is proposed in New Zealand to provide the whole juvenile population of the colony with instruction, free of charge, in the following subjects :—Reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and composition, geography, history, elementary science, drawing, object lessons, vocal music, drill; and, in the case of girls, needle-work and the principles of domestic economy. The scheme includes also provision at the public expense for the establishment of a system of scholarships—for the maintenance of normal schools for training teachers—for the efficient inspection of public schools—and for the erection of suitable school buildings. As soon as sufficient school accommodation has been provided, the Education Act contemplates further that attendance at public schools shall be made compulsory on all children in the colony between the ages of 7 and 13 who may not be otherwise under efficient or regular instruction. This is, I think, a correct résumé of the provision made by law for the education of the people of this colony; and it is, as far as I am aware, the most comprehensive and ambitious scheme of free public instruction which has as yet been adopted in any country in the world. (Loud applause.) In England the liability of the nation to its uninstructed youth is generally supposed to be limited to education of a very rudimentary character. Mr. Bright, in one of his speeches on this subject, explained with clearness and precision exactly the kind of education which he thought the State was under an obligation to give. He said :—"What I would wish to see in this country is that every child should be able to read, and to comprehend what he reads; that he should be able to write, and to write so well that what he page 9 writes can be read; and that at the same time he should know something of the simple rules of arithmetic, which might enable him to keep a little account of the many transactions which may happen to him in the course of his life." (Applause.) Here, as I have shown, you go far beyond this modest estimate of the debt of a nation to its youth, but, if the colony can afford it, I am not prepared to say that your curriculum of primary education may not be an improvement upon that of the old country. (Applause.) It is sometimes urged, I am aware, that as the great majority of the population must always be dependent for their livelihood upon manual labor, the tendency of a national system of education, which aspires to so high a standard for the masses, may be to make the majority discontented with their lot in life. But the answer to this objection is, I think, this: That with every encouragement but a small proportion of the youth will ever advance beyond the fourth standard; and even were it otherwise, intellectual cultivation to the fullest extent which the fifth and sixth standards offer, ought not to make persons discontented with their lot in life, however lowly, or unfit them for employment in the humblest industrial or productive occupations; on the contrary, it should, if rightly appreciated, help both men and women to discharge even the common work of the field or the ordinary duties of the household with more intelligence, and not only more intelligently, but with greater enjoyment to themselves. (Applause.) For these reasons I do not attach much weight to the objection that you are running the risk here of educating the masses above their occupations, but the doubts which do occur to me are these : Whether your programme of primary education may not be found in practice to be too varied, and whether it may not also prove to be too costly. In other words, whether, considering the very early age at which the majority of children are removed from school—attendance not being compulsory after thirteen—the cramming them with instruction in such a variety of subjects will not tend to lower the standard of efficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic—objects of primary importance—and thus substitute a smattering of many subjects for thoroughness in a few; and whether, too, the attempt to provide the machinery for supplying the whole youthful population of the colony with free education of the varied and advanced character embraced in the six standards will not entail upon the country an expenditure more heavy than can be borne. (Applause.) As to the first point I scarcely feel competent to express a decided opinion; but the earnest, able, and experienced officers who are engaged in inspection, and who have opportunities of watching the operation of the new system over extensive areas, will soon be able to judge whether the quality of instruction in essentials is being sacrificed to variety and quantity. As to cost, however, I must confess that when I contemplate the expenditure which primary education will entail on the general revenue, so soon as the scheme at present established by law is page 10 brought into full operation, the prospect appears to me to be appalling. It must be borne in mind that the present Act has only been in operation for the last two years. In 1877—the year before it came into effect—the number of public schools was 730. The average daily attendance for the whole year in these schools was 40,837 and the total amount paid by the Government to Education Boards—exclusive of the proceeds of Education Reserves—was,£204,205, being £154,205 for ordinary expenditure, and £50,000 for school buildings. In 1878 the number of public schools was 748. The average daily attendance was 48,212; and the Parliamentary grants—exclusive of rents of reserves—amounted to £317,923, being £216,666 for ordinary expenditure, and £101,257 for school buildings. In 1879 the number of public schools was 812. The average daily attendance for the whole year was 54,809; and the Parliamentary grants—exclusive of reserves—amounted to £368,457, being £217,876 for ordinary expenditure, and £150,581 for school buildings. Thus it will be seen that the Parliamentary grants for primary education have increased from £204,205 in 1877, to £317,923 in 1878, and to £368,457 in 1879—or, in other words, from £5 for every child n average daily attendance in 1877 to £6 12s. in 1878, and £6 14s. 6d. in 1879. estimating the probable expenditure for the future, it must be remembered that the capitation rates paid by the Government to the Boards for ordinary working expenses and scholarships, added to the subsidies for normal schools and inspection, amount together to about £4 10s. for every child in average daily attendance. In these items there can be no reduction, as the tendency of the new standards will be, I apprehend, to increase rather than diminish the ordinary expenditure. But under the head of school buildings some saving upon the heavy outlay of the last two years may possibly be effected. Having regard, however, to the facts that the population is increasing, and the percentage of attendance to population increasing also, that in consequence, accommodation for a considerable number of additional children will be required annually, and that there will besides be a constant necessity for replacing old worn-out wooden buildings, I scarcely think that it will be found practicable, without imparing the efficiency of the system, to reduce the annual expenditure on buildings much below £1 10s. per head upon the average attendance. This, with £4 10s. for ordinary expenditure, would make the total cost to the country of primary education about £6 for every child in average daily attendance in the public schools. And next as to the probable numbers in the future. The last census, taken in 1878, shows that the number of children at that date of school age—that is between 5 and 15—was 105,208, and, as has been observed, the average daily attendance in the public schools for that year was 48,212, being in the proportion of 45.8 per cent. In 1879 the estimated juvenile population was 110,552, and the average attendance in schools 54,809, being in the proportion of page 11 49.5 Percent. From these data it is not unreasonable to expect that the average daily attendance for the present year will be over 62,000, for next year about 70,000, and for 1882 not less than 80,000; so that, if the present system be maintained, the colony will soon find itself face to face with an annual expenditure from the public Treasury of from four to five hundred thousand pounds upon primary education alone, exclusive of the cost of the Department of Education, and of the sums appropriated annually for higher and secondary education. This appears to me to be really a very serious consideration. The expenditure on primary education will soon amount to nearly £ 1 per head of the whole population, and the consolidated revenue alone will be quite unable to bear such a charge without considerable additions to the general public burdens. Of course, if the people of New Zealand desire education of this expensive class free, and are prepared to submit to the necessary taxation, there is an end of the matter; but I doubt whether the position we are drifting into in this respect has as yet been generally realised. (Applause.) It appears to me a great pity that all local sources of revenue—such as school fees and school rates—were extinguished by the Education Act, and the whole cost of primary education thus thrown on the consolidated revenue. Such a course has not merely sacrificed a considerable amount of much needed revenue, but its inevitable tendency is, I believe, to deaden parental responsibility, to encourage irregular attendance, and to weaken the feeling of self-reliance, by teaching people to look to the State for everything. (Loud applause.) I have never been able to see myself why attendance should not be compulsory, and a small fee at the same time charged in all cases in which the parents can afford it. This is the course adopted in England; and also in the neighbouring colony of New South Wales, where the fees last year amounted to about £1 for every child in average daily attendance, and contributed nearly twenty-five per cent, towards the total ordinary expenditure. I believe the best authorities condemn free schooling. The Rev. Canon Norris, formerly an inspector of schools in England, in one of his reports observes :—"That parents ought to feel responsible for their children's education is allowed by all. That the State, or the clergy, or a society, or a patron should take it out of their hands, and do it for them, is clearly a second-best expedient—an argument that something is wrong—a concession to conditions (real or supposed) which we must all deplore." Dr. Chalmers, too one of the greatest authorities on the subject writes :—"The only way of thoroughly incorporating the education of the young with the habit of families, is to make it form a part of the family expenditure, and thus to make the interest, and the watchfulness, and the jealousy of the parents, so many guarantees for the diligence of the children; and for these reasons do we hold the establishment of free schools to be a frail and impolitic expedient." Professor Smith, also, who has for seven and twenty years been inti- page 12 mately associated with primary education in New South Wales—who has been ten times elected president of the Council of Education—and whose opinion on all subjects connected with national education is second to none in Australia, strongly supports the retention of school fees, and he points out in an admirable speech which he recently delivered in the Legislative Council, of which he is a member, that the abolition of fees is not only injurious to parents, but also to teachers. He observes :—"The substitution of a fixed salary for combined salary and fees tends to diminish the difference between a good and a middling teacher. They may have the same attainments, and the same classification, but the one may be popular and successful and the other a good deal the reverse, for to be popular and successful may depend on qualities which cannot be gauged by examination and are not taken into account in classification. But the popular teacher draws pupils in abundance, and gets his reward in increased fees. Do away with fees and he loses his advantage." But if a return to the system of school fees is impracticable, the next best thing to my mind would be that the public schools should be, in part at all events, supported by local rates. I think that it will always be expedient to continue to pay some considerable portion of the ordinary expenditure out of the general revenue, in order to ensure effective supervision. (Applause.) But if fees are not levied, some part of the ordinary expenditure, and the whole cost of buildings, should be provided locally—the ratepayers being allowed to elect the Education Boards. (Applause.) School rates, doubtless, would not be as good as fees as far as the teachers are concerned, but they would have the same effect in bringing home to parents a sense of their obligations, and the system would provide a remedy for the constitutional anomaly involved in the existing arrangement under which the whole of the vast sum required for primary education is raised by one body and administered by another. With reference to the compulsory clauses which have been embodied in your Act, I will only remark that although I do not much like the principle, it is difficult to resist the conviction that some interference of the kind is necessary. The census taken in March, 1878, shows that there were at that date 27,731 children in the colony between the ages of five and fifteen who were not returned as attending either public or private schools. Of course many of these may have been receiving efficient instruction at home, and others may have left school fairly educated before reaching fifteen years; but after making all reasonable deductions for such cases, there must remain a large number of children who were not receiving instruction of any kind; and it is difficult to see how parents who habitually disregard such a primary duty can be influenced except by penal legislation. (Applause.) I hope, however, that the compulsory clauses will be administered with discrimination and forbearance, and with a view rather to induce attendance than to recover penalties. (Loud applause.) page 13 There is only one other point in your national system to which I will advert, and that is the clause in the Education Act which prescribes that the teaching-shall be entirely of a secular character. I do not know the precise meaning which the Legislature may have attached to words "entirely secular," but I think the extent to which moral training is ignored in your national plan of education is to be regretted. (Applause.) Of course, in public schools established for children of all denominations, and at which attendance is made compulsory, the schoolmaster should not be made the medium of imparting dogmatic religious teaching, nor should such instruction form an integral part of the school routine. Perhaps, indeed, upon abstract principle, the State to be consistent, ought not to interfere in religious teaching at all; but I think the compromise which has been arrived at on this vexed question, both at Home and in New South Wales, is a wise one. In England, the Bible is read in State schools, guarded only by a conscience clause, and instruction is allowed to be given by the teachers in the general principles of religion and morality. In New South Wales a selection of Scripture extracts is included amongst the school books authorised by the Education Department, and there are numerous lessons in the ordinary reading books which give Scripture incidents and moral teaching. The Act, too, permits the teachers when reading these books to give a considerable amount of general religious instruction, and it permits clergymen to go during school hours, and to supplement this by special teaching to children of their own persuasion, assembled in a separate class room. Here there is, I believe, nothing of the kind, and the omission appears to me to indicate a forget fulness of the fact, that the two-fold object of national education is to secure in the individual citizen intellectual clearness and moral worth. Nearly every man in this country, in every rank of life, participates in the exercise of political power, and such being the case it is no doubt of much importance that his intelligence should be sufficiently quickened to enable him to form for himself a sound judgment upon subjects of public concern. (Applause.) But it is even more essential to the well-being of a community that its youth should be taught to love right and hate wrong—that they should be brought up to entertain a strong sense of truth and justice of virtue and integrity, of honor and duty, of respect for the constitutional authorities and the law; and these and such like moral results can, I fear, never be accomplished by intellectual cultivation alone. (Loud Applause.) In the present condition of society moral teaching, to be efficacious must, I believe, rest upon a religious basis. (Applause.) The world has not, as yet, been universally attracted to well-doing by the simple Confucian precept—"Be virtuous and you will be happy and until it attains to such perfection it will be well not to discard the influence which has so far proved the most effectual in arresting the sources of evil in the human heart. (Applause.) I was page 14 reading the other day the recent debate in the New South Wales Parliament on the new Public Instruction Bill, and I was much struck with an interesting bit of testimony which was quoted by Professor Smith in support of the contention that religion is the best foundation for morality. De Luc, speaking of the superior efficacy of positive laws compared with the mere philosophy of morals, says :—"Some time ago I was conversing on this subject with a very celebrated man (the late Sir John Pringle) who had been Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. He was advanced in years, and had lived much in the world. At that time I was still rather a friend to teaching rational morality, thinking it was useful to bring men acquainted with their duty in every possible way. I had just read a work of this nature entitled, 'Of an Universal Moral; or, Man's Duties founded on Nature,' and as he had not read it I offered to lend it to him. I cannot express the tone in which he refused this offer, but you will have some idea of it when you come to know the motives upon which he did it. 'I have been,' said he 'for many years professor of this pretended science. I have ransacked the libraries and my own brain to discover the foundation of it; but the more I sought to persuade and convince my pupils, the less confidence I began to have myself in what I was teaching them; so that at length I gave up my profession and turned to medicine, which had been the first object of my studies. I have nevertheless continued from that time to examine everything that appeared upon the subject, which, as I have told you, I could never explain or treat so as to produce conviction; but at length I have given up the point, most thoroughly assured that without an express Divine sanction attached to the laws of morality, and without positive laws accompanied by determined and urgent motives, men will never be convinced that they ought to submit to any such code, nor agree amongst themselves concerning it. From that time I have never read any book upon morality but the Bible, and I return to that always with fresh delight.'" I think the English plan of allowing teachers to draw instruction in the general principles of religion and morality direct from the Bible the best that can be devised; and that we lose a great deal here even in the matter of teaching English, and history, and biography, by not having the Bible as a school-book. Professor Huxley gave lately to the world some striking testimony in support of this view, which is the more remarkable as flowing from such an unexpected source. He said :—"I have always been strongly in favor of secular education, in the sense of education without theology; but I must confess I have been no less anxiously perplexed to know by what practical measures the religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, was to be kept up, in the utterly chaotic state of opinions on these matters, without the use of the Bible. The Pagan moralists lack life and color, and even the noble stoic Marcus Antoninus, is too high and refined for an ordinary child. page 15 Take the Bible as a whole; make the severest deductions which fair criticism can dictate for short-comings, and positive errors; eliminate, as a sensible teacher would do, if left to himself, all that is not desirable for children to occupy themselves with, and there still remains in this old literature a vast residum of moral beauty and grandeur, And then consider the great historical fact that for three centuries this Book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that it has become the national epic of Britian, and is familiar to noble and simple from John o' Groat's House to Land's End, as Dante and Tasso were once to the Italians; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of a mere literary form; and, finally, that it forbids the veriest hind who never left his village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries, and other civilizations, and of a great past stretching back to the farthest limits of the oldest nations in the world. By the study of what other book could children be so much harmonized, and made to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a momentary space in the interval between two eternities, and earns the blessing or the curse of all time, according to its efforts to do good and hate evil, even as they also are earning their payment for their work." * * * I have thus stated to you frankly what appear to me to be the weak points in your educational plan, namely, that it will entail a larger expenditure than the general revenue can well defray without assistance from local sources; and that the course of instruction prescribed fails to inculcate sufficiently the observance of those moral obligations which are essential to the welfare of society. (Loud applause.) With these exceptions I think that your scheme of national education is one of which any country might feel proud, and that it is being administered with an earnestness and an ability which is deserving of all praise. (Loud applause.) I have been much struck in travelling about the country with the deep interest which is universally taken in this most important question, and with the determination which pervades the whole community that the blessings of education shall for the future be placed within the reach of all. Possibly the very intensity of this popular feeling has rendered the correct adjustment at first of all parts of the educational machine the more difficult. But with such a healthy vigorous motive power, supervised and directed with so much intelligence, any defects in the driving gear of the machinery will soon be detected and corrected, until the object which all have equally at heart is fully attained, and New Zealand is placed in the front rank amongst the educated communities of the world. I beg now to declare the new Normal School formally opened. (Loud applause.)