3^1 



Education. 



By R. N. Morris, LL.D., Department of rublic Instruction. 



One of tlio dangers wliicli beset young communities is tluit of ])ursuing 

 the path of material i)i-ogress to the neglect of the cultivation of those 

 intellectual and moral qualities which, after all, must be regarded as 

 forming the foundation of social safety and national greatness. Every- 

 thing in a new country makes demand on physical energy; the very 

 exigencies of existence imperatively require thjit men shall work with 

 their hands to win subsistence from the soil. The disastrous results of 

 inattention to physical wants are immediate and fatal, and so cannot 

 be postponed ; whereas the evil consequences of failure to supply mental 

 needs are not so clearly seen, neither are they so soon or so keenly felt. 

 Almost necessarily, therefore, everything that concerns the immaterial 

 man has to await a more convenient season. But too often that which 

 was at first necessity afterwards becomes habit. The flush of material 

 success and the inflow of wealth, with its seduction to wish for more, 

 is liable to make the pursuit of riches the main object in the life, not 

 only of the individual, but also of the nation. Moreover, the country 

 having managed to get along without intellectual culture, such culture 

 comes to be looked upon as not being indispensable, and so is neg- 

 lected ; and, when a large majority of any community becomes imbued, 

 even though unconsciously, with this sentiment, public opinion lends 

 its support to the idea ; and, in such circumstances, society is uncon- 

 scious of its own deficiencies. 



The colonies of Australia, though not wholly escajnng the usual con- 

 sequences incident to the early stages of national life in a new country, 

 were, however, never liable to the full measure of tbeir force, inasmuch 

 as the first colonists included a certain number of men of scholarship, 

 culture, and refinement, who brought with them the traditions of 

 British civilisation, and who felt, on behalf of their children, the need 

 of educational advantages. This feeling from time to time received 

 fresh impulse as new arrivals came to these shores from the old home 

 across the sea. 



During the first thirty years of the existence of this Colony educa- 

 tion was left entirely in the hands of private individuals, the Govern- 

 ment taking no part whatever in the motter. 



The first State recognition of the necessity for general education 

 took the form of a subsidy to the various religious bodies, in ]n-o})ortion 

 to the amounts raised by them for educational purposes. 'J'he money 

 was given to assist in maintaining schools which were wholly under 

 ecclesiastical control. When this system was begun is not certain, 

 but the probable date is about 1820. It may be said generally that the 

 state of education from 1820 to 1848 was anything but satisfactory. 



In 1831 Sir Richard Bourke drew the attention of the Legislative 

 Council to the importance of providing more ample and efficient means 



