The Management of Schools in New South Wales 1848–1880: Local Initiative Suppressed? Available to Purchase

In his article “The Management of Schools in Ncw South Wales (1848–1886): Local Initiative Suppressed”, E. J. Payne has argued that “The distinctly centralised pattern of educational administration did not evolve but was deliberately imposed, acceded to, and perpetuated, by reasonable people with varied motives, but their compromise was such that it has restricted the exercise of local initiative and the development of local institutions”. The purpose of the present article is to understand Wilkins and his employers' administrative problems and decisions rather than to judge them. The complexity of the historical situation in which they found themselves, the range of their possible decisions, and their day to day dealings with teachers and Local Boards as contained in archival records form the basis of the story told. This is mainly a story of the failure of many of the Local Boards to fulfil their responsibilities and the assessment by the Central administrators of the circumstances of their educational enterprise in country areas. To illustrate the financial, administrative, and geographical problems facing both the central and the local Boards a case study which is both typical and a‐typical of Local Patron performance is presented.