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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 55

The Daily Telegraph, — Review. — Public Education in New Zealand.*

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The Daily Telegraph,

Review.

Public Education in New Zealand.*

New Zealand has the advantage at the present time of having as its Minister of Education a gentleman practically acquainted with the teacher's work; and the address delivered by him in the local Parliament a month ago, is possessed of more than ordinary interest and deserves extended publicity. Mr. Stout opens his address, which in its printed shape occupies some 40 pages octavo, with these words :—"It has not been the custom hitherto for the Minister of Education to make any formal statement about the working of his department. Seeing, however, the natural and gradual increase of the vote for education in proportion to the increase of population, and the need there is in every country of taking care that the lines on which the State aid to education is granted are such as commend themselves to the community, I have thought it proper to make a short statement about the educational position of this colony. I do not think there is any need of apology for my doing so. It is considered the duty of other Ministers, with respect to their several departments, to report to the House, outside of the official departmental reports, what has been accomplished during the recess, and also, if necessary, to indicate what reforms may be made in the departments under their control. There is no department so important as that of education." Mr. Stout then proceeds to show I what the State has done in regard to higher, secondary and primary education; what reforms are being attempted and what, in his opinion, are further needed in these branches; what has been accomplished with native schools schools for deaf mutes and State industrial schools and the way in which the State is developing scientific instruction and the establishment of public libraries, museums. &c. He also enters upon a defence of the position modern States assume in interfering with, and to a considerable extent controlling education, and urges the hearty acquiescence of Parliament in passing the votes required for the effective support of the secular system adopted in New Zaland.

The staff which the central Government possesses for the control of the whole of this department cannot be regarded as an extravagant one, consisting, as it does, of the Secretary, the Inspector-General of schools, three clerks and three cadets.

The New Zealand University is an examining and not a teaching organisation. It confers degrees, but the teaching part of university work is done by affiliated institutions comprising, at the present date, the Otago University, Dunedin; the Canterbury College, Christchurch; University College and St. John's College, Auckland; and Nelson. High schools for both boys and girls are numerous, and fairly distributed over the colony.

The primary schools are under the charge of 13 Boards, and consist of 976 ordinary primary schools and 11 district high schools, combining some secondary school work with primary teaching. The teaching corps comprises 1657 teachers, 790 pupil teachers, and 161 sewing mistresses; and the current cost is £313, 816, being at the rate of £4 3s, 2¼d. each for 76,891 pupils in average attendance, or £8 4s. 9½d. each for 96,840 pupils on the rolls, The expenditure on school buildings last year was £49,679, or at the rate of 13s. 2¼d. for each scholar in average attendance, and 10s. 3d. per pupil on the rolls.

As a test of the value of the colonial system, Mr. Stout points to the number of their teachers, exclusive of pupil-teachers, trained in New Zealand. He had obtained the statistics of all the schools of the colony, except about 90, and found that in these schools there were altogether 1650 teachers. Of these, 1034 were trained in New Zealand.

The weaknesses of the system he indicates as being a lack of proper gradation between the primary and secondary schools; that too much attention is paid to literary education as compared with scientific; and the almost complete want of technical instruction. Steps are being taken, however, to remedy these deficiencies. On the subject of scientific education, Mr. Stout says:—

"We have brought with us to our colony the idea that our fathers had about high-class education, and their idea was that a high-class education must be a literary education, an acquaintance with languages, an acquaintance with the literature of ancient peoples, an acquaintance juice with philosophy. In these days scientific page break education has taken great strides, and every-where throughout the world efforts are being made to teach science in such a way that, independently of the information it contains, it may afford a mental gymnastic equal in value with that which is supplied by the study of any classical language, The University of New Zealand has wisely recognised this, and so have the affiliated colleges; though the recognition can only take practical shape to the extent allowed by their revenues. Considerable stress has for some time been placed upon scientific attainments, and now persons may obtain degrees in science without having passed in more than two languages, and one of the languages may be English and the other French or German or Italian. The pass for a bachelor of science is as follows :—Mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and any two out of the five following subjects :—Latin, Greek, English, modern languages, mental science. A candidate can both matriculate and afterwards proceed to to the B.Sc. degree without any knowledge of the classics."

In the secondary schools considerable advance has been made in science classes, while in the primary schools, Mr. Stout is making alterations in the standards, with the view of giving science a fairer position.

Touching technical instruction, the following remarks are so interesting, that we quote them in extenso:—

"Our schools cannot be utilised—neither our primary nor secondary schools—for direct training for special trades. The workshop, after all, must be the school for the mechanic. All that we can hope to do in primary or secondary schools is to so teach a boy the theory applicable to any trade that the practice may become easy to him, and also to so train him that he may have a bias towards industry. The training may, perhaps, include, where circumstances will permit, some practical exercises in the handling of tools. Believing in the great advantages of technical education to this colony as likely to promote the development of our manufacturing, our mining, and our agricultural pursuits, I addressed, through the Department, a letter to the various secondary schools in this colony, a copy of which will be found annexed to the report of the Education Department laid on the table of the House. I am glad to state that this letter has met with hearty response from almost all the schools, and efforts have been made to establish technical and science classes.

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In order, however, to provide for the teaching of technical science, something must be done in primary schools. What, then, can be done? Following the recommendation of the Royal Commissioners on Technical Instruction, who reported last year to the British Government, I have included drawing as one of the compulsory subjects, Drawing is of very great importance to most of our trades; the carpenter, the builder, the engineer, the cabinet maker the pattern-maker, the manufacturer, the dressmaker—almost all—require to know drawing. It is, in fact, the first step in technical education, and I propose that it shall be compulsory in all the standards. I shall not expect that the pass will be high, and I shall not seek to enforce this compulsory subject in the higher standards at once. I know that there are many good teachers throughout the colony who do not Know how to teach drawing because they have never been trained, and that is one of the difficulties under which the education system must labor for many years to come. I intend, however, by the adoption of drawing copy-books, and by only requiring at first what may be turned an elementary pass, to lay the lines for the development of drawing, it being, as I have said, the basis of all technical-science education, Then I propose that attention shall be paid to elementary science, and I believe that elementary science can be taught, not from text-books but orally by the teachers, and that it should be taught to our children from their earliest years, and without any technical names: geology could be called earth-knowledge; botany, plant-knowledge, and so on. And the principles of mechanics could be taught without text-books, by means of object-lessons. In schools in the country, I think the teachers should be able to give a special bias towards agriculture, and in schools in the various town districts, a special bias may be given towards those manufactures that have been, or are likely to be, established in those towns. This is the system that is practised in many parts of the Continent of Europe with very happy results. With the aid of drawing, we may hope to see our manufacturers become more artistic. Defect in this respect, as has been pointed out by the Commissioners on Technical Education, has been the great drawback to the manufactures of the English, workman : for sound workmanship he is not to be excelled by any foreign workman, but he has lacked the artistic finish and touch of many continental manufacturers."

The aborigines of the colony are provided for in 65 native village schools, in charge of 116 teachers and work mistresses, the cost, includ-ing buildings, being £16,000. There are 2226 attending these schools, in which, it appears, the prominent Maoris take a keen interest. "Looking over the reports of the inspector," says Mr. Stout, "and comparing the work with that done in European schools, one sees that with proper educational opportunities the Maori race will not be far behind us. I have seen letters of their own composition written by Maori children; I have seen work done by them, of all kinds, equal in many respects to that done by Europeans; and, seeing that we have a great responsibility in dealing with the Maoris, in providing for their future, I only regret that many years ago similar efforts were not made for the training of Maori children."

There is much more in this exhaustive address worthy of attention, but we conclude our notice of it by reference to the portion where Mr. Stout deals with a subject in which all the colonies are keenly interested, viz., the probable effect of the State education on the morals of the community. We have frequently had occasion to point out in these columns that in the Australian colonies the statistics of criminality show that those trained in State schools have the advantage of other sections of the population. The experience of New Zealand tends in, page break a similar direction, as the following extract from this address indicates :—

"If it be said that our State system is doing any moral injury to the children, I say that this Question may be tested by statistics. Our State system has now been seven years in operation. This period has been sufficient to afford some test of the system and its results, and the questions we have to ask ourselves are, Has juvenile crime increased and how do children at our schools turn out in after years? So far as juvenile crime is concerned, New Zealand is far more free from it than other countries. I you take, for example, the number of prisoners from 10 to 20 years of age received into our principal gaols, I find that, of the population per thousand at that age, there are only 2.49 between 10 and 20, being 4.90 per cent. Of the total prisoners. If I go to England and Wales I find that between the ages of 12 and 21 the corresponding proportions are 7.75 and 19.78; in 1878 it was 8.16 and 19.30. If I go to New South Wales, where there has been religious teaching in schools, the clergyman having the right to enter there, I find that from 10 to 20 the proportions are 6.38 and 7.60 respectively. In Victoria, where the system is more secular than in the neighbouring colony, the proportions are only 3.94 and 7.58; in Queensland, where there is the secular system, 4.92 and 12.86. The numbers I have formerly given are those of prisoners who have been received in the principal prisons. I have omitted those received in what are termed police-gaols; if these be added, the totals for New Zealand will be 2.96 per thousand. I know it may be said that there are other causes that have led to the differing results in the other colonies. This does not affect my contention, for I adduce the statistics only to show that our own system has not been productive of any ill consequences in the direction of crime, and that we are remarkably free as a colony from any criminal tendency."

Mr. Stout then quotes further statistics to prove that since the establishment of the State secular education, crime in New Zealand has largely decreased. "I do not mean to say," he adds, "that the Education Act has caused this; I only say this: that those who say that the Education Act tends to larrikinism or to crime or to vice should look at the statistics, and they will see that, with a more efficient police force than we ever had, we have had less crime, fewer apprehensions and summons cases, fewer commitments for trial, and fewer convictions. I hope, after the figures I have given, that we shall hear no more remarks about our State system tending to crime. On the contrary, the statistics show that crime is yearly lessening, and I have no doubt that, as the education of the people progresses, crime will still decrease." In the face of facts like these, it is not surprising that the New Zealand Parliament lately, in such emphatic fashion, rejected a proposition to interfere with the existing system of secular education.