154 EDUCATION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. free, compulsory, and secular, with the addition of undogmatic Scripture lessons. Tasmania. In 1804 36. Tasmania has a little history of its own. the British Government removed the settlers on Norfolk Island to what was then known as Van Diemen's Land. The Island was under military administration, and it is interesting to note that the first school was a Sundayschool founded by soldiers. This was followed by the creation of various Church schools. On the recommendation of the Colonial Minister the system of the British and Foreign School Society was adopted in 1838. Subsequently, on the advice of Mr W. E. Gladstone, grants dependent on the number of scholars were made to the denominational schools without any general system of local management. This unsatisfactory method was eventually abandoned in favour of fixed payments to teachers. In 1856 there were 70 schools with a school population of 3,717. In 1868 a Board of Education was created. 37. A more striking instance of a rapidly created State South Australia. system is seen in the case of South Australia. In 1836 it had not a single school. In 1847 education was encouraged by grants to private schools. In 1852 a Board of Education was created. In 1875 education for all children between the ages of 7 and 13 years was made compulsory, and in 1891 it was made free. In 1899 there were 677 schools. New Zealand. 38. Very little information is given us in the official report as to the beginnings of education in New Zealand. We are told, however, that as early as about 1856 some system of public primary instruction was established in each of the principal provinces. We may suspect that there are earlier signs of State intervention. These brief references to the origin of State help to education in the various Colonies, in New England and in EDUCATION AS A BOND OF EMPIRE. 155 South Carolina, leave certain definite impressions on the mind. It is impossible not to note the extraordinary resource and the determination to secure a system of education that is shown in the efforts of almost all the early colonists. These men and women, had they remained at home, would probably have shown their British indifferentism to the need of education, but, in a new land, the larger air, the more apparent need, and the absence of that atmosphere of learning, which in England is apt to take the place of education itself, seems to have created a determination to reproduce the grammar schools of the old country and to found preparatory schools, such as did not exist in England, for these grammar schools. State control in a new and small community is easier to create than in an old society where the machinery is highly organized and the life artificial. The second impression is the sense of England's debt to her Colonies in the matter of education. They showed her what could be Colonial and education. done with safety in the way of administration Imperial and compulsion, and even of apparent secularisation of schools. They could afford to make an experiment; England could not; for a great and complex society cannot easily repair mistakes. The third reflection is a suggestion. The Colonial educational systems are in their origin the children of England. Could not the Mother Universities bind these systems together to form one great bond of Empire? 39. We have seen that in small communities State control of education is comparatively easy to create. As an instance of this, an island on the British coast may be cited. This chapter would not be complete without some reference were made to the remarkable educational legislation that took place in the Isle of Man before that little kingdom passed out of the overlordship of the Earls of Derby. The date of this legislation is noteworthy. We have seen that in New England, as early as 1650, a statute was passed by which something in the nature of compulsory education became law. Only some 156 Manx education and the State. MANX COMPULSORY EDUCATION. fifty years later in the Isle of Man an Act was passed even more emphatic in its character. The fact belongs to that interesting period of educational and religious revival, in the reign of Queen Anne, when fifty churches in London were built by Act of Parliament out of the Coal Dues1, when many educational foundations were established and when the birth of the modern system of elementary education took place. This period was a brief moment of reaction when all that was best in the nation became visible, only to fade in England for the time from sight in the darkness of the Georgian era. The text of the first Manx Education Act is as follows:"At a Convocation of the Clergy at Bishop's Court, the third of February, 1703: In the Name of our Great Lord and Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Glory and Increase of his Kingdome amongst Men. We, the Bishop, Archdeacon, Vicars Generall, and Clergy of this Isle, who do subscribe these Articles, that we may not stand charged with the Scandals which wicked Men bring upon Religion while they are admitted to and reputed Members of Christ Church, and that we may by all laudable Means promote the Conversion of Sinners, and oblige Men to submit to the Discipline of the Gospel; and lastly, that we may provide for the Instruction of the growing Age in Christian Learning and good Manners, we have formed these following Constitutions, which we oblige ourselves (by God's Help) to observe, and to endeavour that all others within our severall Cures shall comply with the same: Manx Education Act, 1703. "9. For the promoting of Religion, Learning, and good Manners, all Persons shall be obliged to send their Children as soon as they are capable of receiving Instruction to some petty School, and 2 Mills's Statutes of the Isle of Man, pp. 157, 160. 19 Anne, c. 17. THE MANX CHURCH AND EDUCATION. 157 to continue them there untill the said Children can read English distinctly, unless the Parents give a just Cause to excuse themselves, approved of by the Ordinary in open Court; and that such Persons who shall neglect sending their Children to be so taught shall (upon a Presentment made thereof by the Minister, Churchwardens, or Chapter Quest) be fined in one Shilling per Quarter to the Use of the Schoolmaster, who may refuse to teach those Children who do not come constantly to School (unless for such Causes as shall be approved of by the Minister of the Parish), and their Parents shall be fined as if they did altogether refuse to send them to Schoole. "And for the further Encouragement of the Schoolmasters, they shall respectively receive, over and above the Sallarys already allowed them, Sixpence Quarterly from the Parents of every Child that shall be taught by them to read English, and Ninepence Quarterly from such as shall be taught to write; which Sums being refused, the Sumner shall be ordered to require punctuall Payment within fourteen Days, and upon Default hereof they are to be committed till they submit to law. "Notwithstanding where the Parents or Relations are poor, and not able to pay as afforesaid, and this be certifyed by the Ministers and Churchwardens of the Parish or the Ordinary, such children are to be taught Gratis. "And whereas some of the poorer Sort may have just Cause, and their Necessitys require it, to keep their Children at Home for severall weeks in the Summer and Harvest1, such Persons shall not be lyable to the Penaltys afforesaid; provided they do (and are hereby strictly required to) send such Children during such Absence from Schoole every third Sunday to the Parish Church at least one Hour before Evening Service, there to be taught by the Schoolmaster to prevent losing their learning; and if any Schoolmaster shall neglect his Duty, and Complaint be made and proved, he 1 Cf. the Elementary Education Act, 1876, s. 9. 158 THE MANX CIVIL POWER AND EDUCATION. : shall be discharged, and another placed in his Stead, at the Discretion of the Ordinary And every Rector, Vicar or Curate, shall the first Week of every Quarter visit the petty Schoole, and take an Account in a Book of the Improvement of every Child, to be produced as often as the Ordinary shall call for it." "At a Tynwald Court holden at St John's Chappell the 4th day of February 1703-4. The before Constitutions being this Day offered by the Lord Bishop and Archdeacon of this Isle unto us the Governor, Officers and 24 Keyes, for our Approbation, and having perused the same, do find them very reasonable, just, and necessary, and do therefore approve of and consent to them as far as concerns the Civil Power." (Signatures.) "I am well pleased with the before Constitutions, and do confirme the same, and require that they be published at the next Tynwald Court in usuall Manner. Derby." "At a Tynwald Court holden at St John's Chappell the 6th day of June Anno Domini 1704. The beforegoing Constitutions were this Day publickly proclaimed upon the Tynwald Hill according to antient Forme and Custome. As witness our Hands the Day and Year above written," (Signatures.) This is the form in which the first Manx Education Act was passed. It was drafted and promoted by the Spiritual Power, was approved by the Civil Power, and was confirmed by the Lord or King of Man. It was an admirable measure, far in advance, as it seems, of the times, and comparable with the New England Act. It is true that it only dealt with elementary education and religious teaching, but effective means were taken to ensure regular attendance and good continuous |