The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-06-12 00:00:00

Eke tourbribge elisertnr.

SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1875.

EDUCATION AND ITS COST.

Fiva years ago this month a measure was
being worked through Parliament, in the facn of
many difficulties, which all parties held to be of
the greatest possible importance. The House of
Commons had become somewhat weary in con-
sequence of its labours over the Irish Land
Bill, its immediate predecessor in that assembly;
but the question was felt to be of such urgency
that the Education Act was passed as well, two
statutes of the first magnitude thus receiving
the sanction of the . Legislature in one year.
Probably no measure of modern times has given
rise to so much controversy as tile Education
Act of Is7.t. The manner of its operation is
constantly before the public, School Board pro-
secutions, School Board elections, and School
Board openings, being now as common as flies
at Midsummer. It must be confessed that the
magnificent dreams which surrounded the pass-
ing of the measure have not altogether been
realised. When it received the Royal accent,
there were visions of the rising generation all
over the land being gathered together in the
new schools, even as wheat is gathered into the
garner; learning those truths of virtue and
morality which so closely border uponreligion ;
and received that instruction which would
qualify them to take their places upon the great
stage of human life. When an objection was
made that all tilis splenflil machinery would
cost money, the caviller was put to silence by
the assurance that if an education rate of three-
pence extinguished a poor-rate of a shilling,
then the ratepayer would be ninepence to the
good—a proposition which would, of course, be
unanswerable supposing it to be true. As in-
struction made its way amongst the masses of
the people, there would be less drunkenness and
crime—fewer inmates of prisons and workhouse
—and consequently a very apprecible reduction
in the weight of the rates. The population,
thirty years hence, would be all educated and
refined—our mechanics able by training to deve.
lope the intellect with which they had been
endowed, and the daughters in humbler homes
being no longer compelled to pass through
life as domestic drudges. All would henceforth
be new.

No one would for a moment deny that the
Education Act has done, and will continue to
do, an immense amount of good. We must not
look for its full results at once ; for these, in-
deed, we must be content to wait another
twenty years, when the children of to-day have
gone out into the world. No intelligent mind
can deny that the object of the statute is one of
the most beneficent which it is possible to con-
ceive—the imparting of education to every
child, however poor, so as to enable him or her
to made a way in life such as in times past has
been made only by those possessing advantages
belonging to birth and position, and denied
to poverty. At the same time it would be vain
to deny that there are defects in the machinery
of the new law, which must be remedied in
order to remove the gradually-increasing
prejudice against it. The ratepayers of London,
for instanc, very soon found out that a School
Board was a more costly luxury than had been
counted upon. Upon a vacancy arising amongst
Its members, and a contest taking place for the
succession, the expenses amounted, on an ave-
rage, to £7OO. This was a sum out of all pro-
portion to the status of the position sought to
be attained, and many a member of the House
of Commons, where, it will be recollected, they
pay their own expenses, has been elected, for.
less. IVarylebone and Lambeth very soon be-
gan to open its eyes at this, and on learning
that any of its representatives on the School
Board contemplated resignation, entreated him
to hold on to the end of his terms, even if he
did not attend the meetings. He was better
absent than to elect a successor at a cost of
several hundred pounds. Incidents like this
have not been confined to the metropolis. An
Essex parish found that it cost .£574 to elect
its first School Board, and £6BO its second, a
progressive speed which filled the ratepayers
With dismay. In a Yorkshire village the expen-
ses of the second election were more than double
those of the first. In the port of Hull, while
the ballot for the Town Council cost £360, that
for the School Board wos £7OB. A deputation
from rural boards waited upon the Education
Department a few days ago, and made the start-
ling statement that in many instance of unop-
posed elections tho returning oflicers charge has
been equal to a rate of twopence in the Pottha•
Ought such things to be ? PQoplo in both
town and country find the locol as well as the
national burl hens increasing annually, and they
Will not be disposed to look favourably upon a. :y
proposal for the univer,al establi-lreent of
:ftehoot hoards if the Education Act cannot I),
w6rkhd wiih a less expensive machinery. Tiv:
ditllculty ought to be removable, and with it a
great objection to School Hoards would paw,
away. There can be no doubt that the costly
proccss of deetion creates much prejudice
against the Act, nnil himpers the work of edu-
cation ; i reform is therefore essential bet on
the Seeool Board system is made universal. A
leaxening 4,f , xpen.ii:nre ia this respect, :Ind th,,
exercii,e of tact and congitkriti.in iii pirtih_f
provisions in to operation :rniorgA.the 1:11!„bl,„.
classes ould
vi:nci; that iolport atid
w
work of insti tet Ii ii l,ieh the Legislature called
into existene. , and v.iiich is so essential to Ll,e
woli-being of the old ire cofithathiLy.

-1 he throat and windpipe ere
. THROAT 1 HALT ITIt.N.
- v lir4loe to infinnmation e.using k;or..ness and
tickl'itg &ft., I:HAP:mg
-11;mting the voiee 14'or o'i,t,>,.•s
the form 111‘ret ;hit, the,e :tgret.. ble eon-
Ton;ty to /Irc gl,t,ids tot the
they ire eleited by the liet 411 SqlAllig ornos activly
he:11,11g. 111.1. auk' la. I),u:A ts (by post S 'r 15 'll"nlPs,
lab-li: " .J 111114.11 Epi. line path in Cloniii,t,
Threndheedle htreet, ;tad I 7u, Pirradioy. London."

A htLu iil 14.4ty not ioqtly b colopared to A house
withatt A thatching. it &tAposed to the Cold, and is alto-
gmthier iiincglitly ill x 11,1,4.; t.. Resort way hi: had to a wig,
,Calp, ats 1...t.,114i/laget4 forei44,4 liz,irs intermingled
with the 14.1,ttrial slt vr,4wth still vouch-
t.• e•Tut; 44r kat tit:. tfoot it itoor and tit,
app.ire;tt. 1.41 lls.. Wirrur assures
I, • t,, 4,f t•• s•)%l•,o';ti'lt .•: II Is.. 441. th 44 stealthy march
~! wey . 55550 &I 5 t•Ist.III 141 0111, Is t tht.oll
•. ti. 111411.41.," r. hlorativt; 101.wri ctm Ntru. S. A.
N 1 1-...iti.l4.smicitit. and litg4l, to s"r"
Os sear, attsit.t to rob and
~ilgttli; illovabily. 1.. bd ohtaiu4,l uf all 'Ci. iota aud
refluuteis throughout the world. Prico fid. Ley‘4l :41
awl kid, aoutiapaipton-row, Loudon.