EDUCATION.

These objections, however, do not hold in the case of education—that is, in the case of secular and industrial education. By establishing a school in each parish, and placing therein a schoolmaster, you do what I desired to have accomplished in the case of the clergyman. You have placed an educated man in every parish, and thereby opposed an obstacle to that downward tendency which belongs to all new communities. All the people are willing to permit their children to be taught such elementary knowledge as can be imparted in a school. Land, therefore, might, without any danger of an imputation of injustice, be devoted to the purposes of such education. In every parish, a central plot of ground might be set aside for the school-for the house of the schoolmaster-and a lot might even be reserved as a farm for industrial teaching. Besides this, other lands might be sold, for the purpose of obtaining a fund for the purposes of education generally. A wise legislator (and he who founds a colony ought to be a wise legislator) would in an infant society, when he has really the means in his hand, provide amply for a system of education, commencing with infant-schools, advancing upwards to industrial and normal schools, and even to a university. The funds of a people could not be more wisely employed; and the Secretary of State, who in the time of the SETTLEMENT thus laid the broad foundations for the education of the PROVINCE, would deserve and would receive the grateful thanks of the generations who, through all coming time, would inhabit the land. I am not in

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this case indulging in a mere flight of the imagination. A system of the species I am speaking of exists in all the New England States, and in New York a still more magnificent provision has been made for the purposes of education. The state legislature has dedicated to that object landed property already of immense value, and which bids fair to be worth many millions annually. In Massachusetts the infant and other state schools are so excellent, that the children of all classes attend them, to the great benefit of all, as the attendance of the children of the rich insures for the children of the poor the best education that can be attained; and the association of the little children together creates among them feelings of kindly sympathy which last through life, and make the people truly brethren.* What these states have done, we surely may do in our new colonies, where the field before us is without obstruction, and an efficient, ample revenue in our power.

* In the "Geography of America," published by the Useful Knowledge Society, in 1841, there are various tables of statistics, very carefully compiled; among them Number XII. relates to Education -I give some of the items.

I have now before me the twelfth annual Report of the Board of Education in Massachusetts, kindly sent to me by Mr. Charles Sumner, of Boston, and from this I learn that the sum of money appropriated by the State of Massachusetts is much larger

TIONS

OBJEC

STATED AND ANSWERED-THE UNITED LEGISLATURE

FORM OF LEGISLATIVE-ADMINISTRATIVE-JUDICIAL-POWERS OF LEGISLATURE-POWERS OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE BODYPOWERS OF JUDICIARY SKETCHED.

From the explanation which has already been given, the reader must have seen that I contemplate something more than the existence of one single colony-something more than the existence of several separate colonies. It so happens that the three divisions of our colonial possessions, of which mention has before been made, are all in different states of advancement, and surrounded by very dissimilar circumstances; but they resemble one another in one particular: they are all so large as to require to be divided, and yet so compact in themselves as each to form one complete country. I shall have, therefore, hereafter to advert to what I may call the peculiar political condition of each, but I now proceed to give a description of the circumstances and arrangements which are and may be made common to them all, and which, indeed, result from that common property of vastness of which I here speak.

as will be seen by a table placed in the Appendix, and marked (C). A perusal of this report excites in my mind two feelings-one, of painful humiliation-the other, a hope that we also, though it be late in the day, may labour in the right way; put down sectarian opposition, and educate our people in spite of all opposition, whether of interest or ignorance.

It appears to me that New Zealand, on the contrary, is not of a size to need more than one PROVINCIAL government. Though there are three islands, yet the two southern islands are only nominally divided, if I may so speak. The strait of the sea which divides them is so narrow as easily to be bridged, and the two islands are no more divided than Middlesex and Surrey-certainly not more than the Isle of Wight and Hampshire. Cook's Strait, which divides the northern island from the others, is a more marked division, and really separates the islands. The strait, however, is not so wide as the Irish Channel, and now, when steam makes the two shores as near, in fact, or perhaps nearer, than two places on land at the same nominal distance, we need not adopt institutions which, in spite of every precaution, induce a notion of separate interests. We have all of us seen the evils arising from the existence of an Irish, as distinguished from an English legislature. We ought to take warning by that experience, and not plant England and Ireland anew, with a channel between them, in the southern hemisphere. The people who are destined to inhabit those countries will speak the same language, they will enjoy the same institutions, they spring from a common stock, and, while they remain colonies, will probably be subject to the same metropolitan dominion. The institutions which I have already described would be amply sufficient for the good government of this country—the parish, the township, the county organization, will provide all needful security, and so soon as the united population amounts to the number requisite, the islands will constitute a PROVINCE, and have a legislature which will fairly represent the whole country,

and be able completely to govern the people. What I am, therefore, now about to describe in no measure applies to the islands called New Zealand.

British North America, Australasia, and South Africa, are in a very different condition. These are enormous portions of the globe-centuries may pass away, not only before they are settled, but before they are even marked out into colonies-before they are in my language even SETTLEMENTS. Take Australasia for example, as I have before described what I mean by that word. The territory thus designated is as large as Europe: already we have planted several colonies within it. There are already existing therein Sydney, Van Diemen's Land, South Australia, Port Philip, Western Australia, and Swan River and lately a new colony north of Sydney, intended to be called, I believe NEWCASTLE, has been established. My present plan contemplates, not only the union of these several colonies into one federal community, but also the reception into that union of all such colonies as may hereafter be formed, and become provinces within the territory called Australasia.

So, also, British North America is so vast as to require to be divided. Already, within the territories denominated British North America, several colonies have been formed, and, indeed, communities exist within them, which, though consisting of descendants from Europeans, subjects of England and Christian people, yet are really subject to no one of the governments which have been established by us in British North America, but are at this moment left to take care of themselves, without law, and without any organization. The consequences of such a state of things must be in the highest degree