182

Notwithstanding the obvious disadvantage which attends the making of appropriations
beyond the current financial year, on the basis of the previous year’s estimates, without
knowing how far the action of the General Assembly may alter our financial position in
the future. The necessity of obtaining supplies for the period which must in all probability elapse between the 30th September and the time when it will be convenient to
meet after the rising of the Assembly will be sufficient justification for the trouble to
which I have put you, and the expense which will be incurred by the present special
session. Having in view the season of the year to which the ordinary session will be
postponed, and the inconvenience which would be entailed upon you by any lengthy detention at that time, I shall propose some other appropriations than those included in an
ordinary Imprest Bill, which I consider necessary to prevent delay in the execution of
works of considerable importance in the Province.

I shall be unable, in the present address, to draw your attention to all of these,
especially as it was only yesterday that I received a letter from the Colonial Secretary as
to the refund to the Province of the expenditure on the Northern Railway, which will
render further recommendations necessary.

A Bill providing for considerable changes in the existing Education Ordinance of the
Province has been prepared and submitted to me by my Executive Council.

Whatever may be your decision in respect of this measure, there are certain points
connected with our educational system which are not dealt with in the Bill, the importance
of which I venture to press upon your attention.

The Report of the Board of Education, which will be laid before you, shows that the
Board has, so far as the funds at its disposal have allowed it, gradually promoted the
existence of schools as the growth of the population required them; and the report further
shows that the annual increase in the number of those taught in assisted schools has, on
the whole, been very satisfactory.

I would, however, ask your consideration of the desirableness of setting aside a further
provision for the purposes of education in its several branches, “with the view,” in the
words of the Board, “of placing the available income for educational purposes on a permanent footing, in such a manner as to ensure its continuance during any period of temporary depression.”

For this purpose, further reserves of waste lands are recommended by the Board, and
I venture again to press upon your attention the advisableness of vesting the management
of all educational reserves in a body of trustees.

The necessity for the provision of more efficient teaching in the towns and municipalities of the Province has pressed itself on the attention of all who have interested
themselves in the promotion of education for some years past.

You will be asked to provide a sum of money to assist the inhabitants of municipalities
in the erection of school buildings, in which a more completely organised system of
instruction may be introduced, commencing with the rudimentary teaching of the infant
school, and leading on to the higher branches of learning, belonging to what are termed
the High Schools.

Such a school exists in the neighbouring Province of Otago—in the town of Oamaru.
The advantages to be derived from the establishment of such schools are not confined to
the localities in which they are placed, which are thereby enabled to secure better and more
systematic teaching, but they extend throughout the whole educational system. These
schools are those to which the Province must look for the efficient training of pupil
teachers and of candidates for masterships of outlying schools, and on these it must depend