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Government, schools may be suddenly closed, and the education of the district brought to a stand-still. Taking all the circumstances of the case into consideration, it appears to the Commission that the most reasonable mode of regulating the relation of the Government to the denominational schools would be to appropriate a fixed sum out of the rates levied in the districts in which the denominational schools are respectively situated, towards the salaries of teachers employed in them, and to confine state aid exclusively to this object. The amount to be so appropriated would be the difference between the sum to be received in fees and the stipulated salaries of the teacher in each school, provided always that the rate levied in the district was sufficient for the purpose. Thus a fixed charge would arise on the educational revenue of each district in which a denominational school has been established, the surplus, if any, becoming available for the general purposes of education, according as the Provincial Council might direct.

Besides the salaries of teachers provided for by the fees and grant conjointly, there would be incidental expenses for repairs, fuel, &c., which it might be fairly expected, would be defrayed out of local contributions, or at least from sources other than those out of which the regular income of the school arises, and thus a first step would be made towards the introduction of a system, more similar than the present, to the denominational system in England. It should, however, be clearly understood that grants of State aid to denominational schools were merely temporary in their character and liable to be withdrawn as soon as a school should be established wholly under the control of the Government, or rather of the ratepayers of the district; and further it should be understood that the Government would be at liberty to withdraw the whole or a part of the grant on account either of inefficiency on the part of the master, or of defective arrangements with regard to the buildings.

The Commission are fully conscious in making these recommendations for the regulation of matters relating to finance, that the plan here proposed could not be brought into operation immediately; many preliminary details will require to be entered into, in order to set the machinery in motion; but whatever the length of time may be before this can be done, it is important that no administrative act should be performed at all calculated to place obstacles in the way, which do not now exist. In order to pave the way to the attainment of the objects here pointed out, it is of all things most important rigidly to adhere to the rule of making every future school entirely the creature of the legislature of the province; that its whole organization should be the result of principles approved by the whole people through its representatives, and as a means of ensuring this, that no new school be established by the help of public funds, the site of which is not vested in the Superintendent of the province.

IV. Religious Instruction.

The statements given in regard to the religious instruction in Canterbury present a view of the general features of the system of education hitherto pursued so far as it is immediately connected with this question.

The arrangements adopted would seem to have been from the outset of a tentative and temporary character. The Government, recognising its duty to provide for religious as well as secular instruction in all schools to which it gave assistance, availed itself of the existing organization of Religious Bodies in the province, as channels through which it might readily administer the funds at its disposal.

It was considered that by entrusting these functions to bodies of men bound together by community of religious interests, a guarantee would be obtained that the religious instruction of those educated in the schools under their charge would not be neglected.

From this consideration sprang the arrangements which have hitherto subsisted in Canterbury—arrangements which, from their very nature, could not but involve considerable inconsistencies and complications, but which have done good service at a time when a more settled organization would have been premature.

The facts as given above with respect to the distribution of children of different denominations through the various schools show, that however anxious the Government or the religious bodies might be to provide parents with facilities for having their children instructed in the peculiar tenets of their own persuasion, it would be impossible to satisfy the requirements of the case in any school. It is evident, however, that scruples on religious grounds are not as a rule a difficulty which presents itself to parents in their choice of a school.

The parents are for the most part careless, if not ignorant, as to distinctive points of Christian doctrine, or otherwise they are so anxious to secure the benefits of a generally useful education for their children as to be ready to merge all religious differences in order to attain their object. It is principally in the minds of ministers of religion and other leading members of religious congregations, whose sympathies are more or less closely enlisted in the promotion of the interests of their respective communions, that what is called the “religious difficulty” assumes any magnitude. Parents in selecting a school for their children look for a general efficiency in the teaching, and do not concern themselves about the inculcation of special points of religious doctrine.

Even in Christchurch and Lyttelton, where it might be supposed that the children would range themselves under teachers of their respective denominations, such is not found to be the case. In both places the principal Presbyterian schools are conducted by certificated masters, men of more than ordinary ability and experience in teaching, and in both cases the number of other religious denominations considerably exceed those of Presbyterians. In all cases where there is a choice of schools, the