Speeches on Various Occasions Connected with the Public Affairs of New South Wales, 1848-1874

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...Q. Then your Lordship admits that the responsibility would be greater in the case of a single Minister than it is under the present divided system of the department? A. 1 think it would be so. Mr. Lingen, the Secretary to the Committee of Council, states his opinion thus: --Q. Would you concur in the opinion that it is impossible for the advocates of general education to rest content until some system reaches the whole of the country? A. I should have, I think, to answer that question rather at length if I stated what are my views on the subject. It has always seemed to me that the present system was adopted on the theory that the main part of the education in this country would continue to be voluntarily maintained, and almost in despair of arriving at any national and complete system. I have always understood the idea of its framers to have been that it was possible to improve a certain part of the education which was voluntarily maintained, and so to create throughout the country a standard of education, and promote a desire for education, the means being a very direct and a very minute action on part of the Government. The system seems to me to be essentially a provisional system, and good from that point of view; but its continuance must depend very much upon the state of public opinion. I never expect to see it become a complete and national system without (to say the least) great modification. While some of the Continental nations have made such rapid and commendable progress in popular education, those offshoots of the mother-country across the Atlantic, the United States, have also done a noble work in this cause. Without troubling the House with more than a mere glance at the state...