A CORRECTION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 671, 26 February 1875, Page 3

A CORRECTION.

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUNSTAJJ TIMES.) SIR, —The report which appeared in your last issue of meetings of School Committee held here last week, does me injustice, in completely omitting to refer to one of the subjects which was the principal cause of my meeting with the Committee, and in conveying a mistaken view of other matter laid before the Committee. lam unwilling to believe that anyone in Alexandra could do so willingly and intentionally. I incline to think rather that this has arisen through misunderstanding. As the Education Ordinance provides that no School Teacher shall be at liberty to relinquish his engagement without giving to the School Committee three months' notice of his intention so to do, and as the Committee of the School to which I have recently been appointed had fixed the lst~of March as the date for taking charge, it was necessary, before I could decide whether I was to go or remain, that I should ascertain from the Committee here, whether they would be disposed to accept of shorter notice than three months. Ou meeting with the Committee this matter was accordingly referred to them ; but there is not the slightest reference to this in the report, and anyone reading it would suppose that I had met the Committee for the sole purpose of laying before them an entirely different matter.

When asked the question by tbo Chairman. whether the Committee were to understand that I should remain in the event of certain alterations being made, my reply was, that I would not pledge mjself to remain even in that case. These were exactly the words 1 used, and 1 am utterly at a loss to understand how they could be interpreted otherwise unless on the suppositiou that I misunderstood their question, or they my answer.

The school fees . are •at present paid weekly, and the efforts made by the parents of the children attending Alexandra School, to pay the fees regularly, as well as to keep the children in regular attendance, is beyond all praise ; yet it so happens, that on Monday morning when the fees are taken up, some may not find it convenient to pay. The fees then unpaid are, as a rule, paid during the week; and when a child brings the money, it must be received and marked, otherwise it might be forgottten or lost by the child. In whatever the teacher is engaged at the time, he has to receive the money when it is brought to him. This implies much loss of time and distraction in the midst of his work.

The plan suggested to the Committee was intended to save much of the time at present spent by the, teacher in collecting the fees and giving quarterly accounts of them to the Committee. It did not necessarily increase the teacher’s salary. It admitted of being so modified as that the salary might remain the same amount as it is at present, or it might be raised or lowered according to the amount of the sum deteimined upon by the Committee to be banded over to them out of the fees for defraying all necessary expenoes connected with the carrying on of the work of the School. The amount of that sum could be determined from the annual returns of expenses for years past. It was proposed, that instead of the LIOO paid from the School fees as teacher’s salary, he should have the surplus fees. The sums mentioned in the report were intended as a sample, not as the whole amount to be taken for current expenses.

It was not intended to take out of the bands of the Committee the disbursement of any sums required for Schoolmistress’s salary and current expenses of the School. The usual report made to the Education Board at the close of the year would be all the return of fees that would be required.

lu laying this matter before the Committee, however, 1 admit that I may not have conveyed exactly the same idea of my plan, ■especially with regard‘to the amount to he handed over to Committee. It was not in writing, and 1 had not had sufficient time to mature it.—l am, &c., George Reid. Alexandra, Feb. 22nd 1875.

Tho American Government pay LSOOO annually to Chinese intreperters. In Khiva when a woman goes out she always wears a beggar’s dress iu order to escape notice.

A man who stammeicd was accosted by a traveller with: “ Say, friend, bow far is it to Smithville ?” The tongue-tied man began: “ S-s-s-six m-m-mi—:” and then losing all control of himself in his anger bo roared: Go along straight down tho road damn you.” -

Fair Flay.—An Irishman who was very near-sighted about to fight a duo 1 , insisted that ho should stand six paces nearer Lis an! agonist than the latter did to him and that they were both to fire' at the same time.