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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 61

Education

Education.

We are now spending half a million a year on education, and he is a bold politician who would dare to advocate a reduction. This is the one sure and certain thing the working-classes have in return for their taxation; and how they value it may be tested by proposing a reduction of the vote. "Education—free, secular, and compulsory" is the system which, after many a fierce conflict, has obtained the support of the many. That some of our fellow-colonists are conscientious enough to refuse to avail themselves of State education, on religious grounds is no objection to the system, though it does credit to those who are willing to pay twice in order to avoid a compromise with their religious convictions. We are training up a generation of thinkers, and we may be certain that a large percentage will be able to show that the opportunities afforded have enabled their natural ability to shine out beyond their fellows. This universal education will undoubtedly tend to make mere unskilled labour scarce; for it must be the veriest dullard in the school- page 99 class who will be content with a labourer's lot. Here, then, is another reason for providing industries requiring intelligence, if we wish to keep our youths in the colony. The industrial exhibition has shown admirable examples of inventive and mechanical skill among our young people, and this should be encouraged in every possible way, so that we may rival the unique faculty of the Americans for labour-saving inventions. I do not pretend that America can claim the palm for scientific discovery or invention, or for artistic skill; but for mechanical appliances, for neatness of workmanship, for elegance in common working tools she has shown the way to all others. And what are the characteristics that have tended to produce this? General education, quickness of perception, the apprehension of the situation that, where labour is dear, the most that can be got from an implement is the thing to be desired; and the result is that, in tools and implements, the American models stand as things of beauty alongside the uncouth British articles with which people have been content for generations. It is true the British manufacturer has not been slow in noticing and copying what his American competitor has done, but the credit belongs to the Yankee.

This, then, is the function of education—to diffuse cultivated intelligence among the masses, so that genius, wherever found, may have its fair chance. The present system may be supplemented more than it is, by instruction in the principles of mechanics and physics, and by paying particular attention to directing the pupils' minds to the study of what has been done before in the way of inventions, arts, and industries; by demanding higher and higher qualifications for the teachers: until the industry of education—which is already highly remunerated in comparison to what it was a few years ago—shall rank among the most elevated occupations in the land.

That nation is in no danger of falling to the rearward which is constantly examining itself, and comparing its progress with that of others. A nation of grumblers is generally a nation of progress. We grumble, but we also exult. "Well, what do you think of the Exhibition?" said I to a friend. "I am proud," Said he, "to belong to a colony that can produce such a display of its own industry." The remark was not, perhaps, original—I had heard something like it a good many page 100 times;—so much the better. The more that feeling is diffused the nearer has the attainment of the object of the Exhibition been achieved. Let it be known that three years hence a still grander Exhibition will be held, and if the colony paid the whole expenses it would have a good bargain in the result. The credit gained now by our youths will incite scores of others to work and to give their wits fair play. The knowledge of what can be done in the colony will secure customers by the hundred to our manufacturers—a livelier feeling of what is due by ourselves to ourselves will be, as it has been already, engendered. The present enterprise excites more national feeling than previous Exhibitions, especially more than those adventured by private speculators—though all thanks to those private persons who taught us a practical lesson in the art of Exhibition-holding! The profit to exhibitors is not so direct as where they can sell their goods while on exhibit, but it is none the less sure. We shall be none the more inclined to put up with poor work because it is colonial, but we shall more eagerly seek for excellence in the colony, and gladly be consumers of colonial products in preference to those imported but which possess a greater intrinsic merit.

A humble suggestion may here be made that a complete catalogue should be printed in large quantities, showing the exhibits, and the judgment passed upon them, the names of exhibitors, and their addresses; and that these catalogues should be distributed throughout the colony, and circulated as largely as possible. This would enable the good effect of the Exhibition to be sustained as long as possible, and probably it would then endure until the time came round for another gathering together of industries. The catalogue should be bound as serviceably as circumstances permitted, and a price fixed which, while securing the Committee from loss, should be low enough to secure a wide demand Thousands who have been unable to leave their homes would gladly purchase these catalogues, and would avail themselves of the information afforded to aid as far as they could New Zealand industries by purchasing within the colony. People will not buy inferior, articles at a high price because they are colonial; but, all other things being equal, I have still faith enough in my fellow-colonists to believe that they will give their own country the preference.