THE ANDERSON’S BAY SCHOOL.

Evening Star, Issue 3993, 11 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ANDERSON’S BAY SCHOOL.

To the Editor. SIK, —As “ Observer ” has elected not to comply with my request that ho should disclose his identity, I have no objections to his enjoying the dignity of inrorjnifo. If you please, I would like to say a word or two in reply. I quite agree with him that the Education Board, prompted, as was very apparent, by a genuine cl* sire to do nothing in this matter with precipitate haste, acted wisely in submitting the case to the inspectors. I do not know whether “ Observer ” was present when the con mittee presented themselves Cii masse before the Board; I am not sure that ho was not present on the occasion. If he was present ho could not have been otherwise than strongly impressed with the fact, as I believe everyone present was, that the School Committee, bearing no resemblance to the Board in their manifestation of desire to do justice, had not given the matter their calm and dispassionate consideration. Their intimations to me, which were communicated to the Board and read by the secretary, indicated only too plainly the committee were prepared for

anything ; and if tcey could affect their purpose without investigation and without affording me oppoitumty of being heard in ray defence, bo much the better. They dismissed me most arbitrarily* and went forward fully-inteu , tioned to have rae disposed of vt d armist. 'lhat lire case was introduced to the public arena waf no act of mint, I would have been a veritable craven to have remained silent under the cir curastances. The charged which I venture tc affirm, 1 can show to bo so, were wrongfully and unjustly preferred against rae. I was forced to challenge and contradict—a painfu task. Let me ask “ Observer,” or anyone what ho would have done in the circumstances with character in an unjustifiable manner assailed, position amongst one’s felowmei about to be taken away, the present and futun prospects and well-being of those very dear t< him ruthlessly marred—would ho have player the part of a mute and been silent. Will Ir pronounce these as not worth defending or con tending for? I tiow not. The committee’ charges I claim to have met in a fair am straightforward manner, and it only remain for testimony of genuine character to do th rest. All I asked for was fair play, and that oul; will bo fair play to one which is fair play i both sides. “ WbaerverV remark about “utmost for bearancc” on the part of the committee toward myself and deficient altitude on my par towards the committee, I would say, regardin it, I anr prepared to disprove the former am will allow' “ Observer” any latitude he likes t prove the latter. To his assertion iu respect c attendance I would say the same. My ow statement I adhere to, and have direct evidenc to substantiate it thoroughly. “Observer’s, notwithstanding he would clinch it with th expression, more bold, however, than correct i “ without fear of contradiction,” I take i ! upon me to contradict, and will prove cor viucingly that it is not correct. In all th: [ matter I intend to support my case by a I appeal to facts,and these,whatever “Observer may say to the contrary, will not fail mo wit ! regard to returns for two quarters to which n j fer<-nee has been made ; it is not required tha ; I should do more than state that there wer [ obtainable at any moment, and are availabl now, ami will evidence in due thro a not ver unflourishing state of affairs. I “ Observer ” comes much short of stating a that might be said in reference to the appropr ating of LlO of the school fees to pay the di tricts quota of the serving teacher’s salar; “ Observer” will see, if he turns to inyjprcvioi letter, that 1 say distinctly I did not object l this reduction, although for reasons, which r person would pronounce other than satisfactor 1. declined to agree to the reduction at thetin of Miss Brown's appointment. When tl Board was applied to to sanction the appropr atiou, I did not appear on my own behalf, at took no stO( s to record any objection. It is m fair, it is not honest in “ Observer ” iu bringir up this as an example—the worst I could sele —of thecommmittce’s “tyranny, &c.” To show how little I regarded this as indc< an instance at all of “tyranny, &c.,” as soc as it became apparent to me that it would 1 for tho benefit of the school to have a puj: teacher appointed, Mr Hislop, at the time of i inspection approving of the api ointment, proposed to pay the district’s portion of tl expense—a third of L2o—off tho fees. Win the schoolmistress was appointed, Lls add tional, or L2 : > ia all, were required to make r LIOO, the amount payable to tho schoolmi tress, and ju y income from this source w lessened by that sum. Neither do I rega: even this, nor now set it forth as an example “tyranny, injustice, and oppression”—“] who steals my purse steals trash but for man, or a body of men, to deprive another character and position, and to blast the pre poets of a family by unwarrantable and bar. proceeding, this I do call an examp of tyranny, injustice, and oppression. Wh think you, sir, was the utterance of committee man’s child in school before my ov little daughter and other school children, aft school hours to day—“My papa will got J Clark out of the school somehow,” Who w not recognise in that remaik the germ of tyra Meal, unjust, and oppresssive capability ai determination? if “Observer” would n have himself regarded as a diviner rather th; an ingenious and fair narrator of facts, p<

hops he will explain what ho means by the term “ pretty extensive operations as a farmer’ p being carried on by me or at my instance. lor S my own part Ido not understand him. Those n who know the actual circumstances are n amused, but strangers are likely to be mis- li led. Let me set him a sum In arith- o metic, and thus afford him an oppor- c tunity, as he has put forth tho state- f ment to exemplify its signification in his own way. It is this Given, a mother, with i: a family of five children, the eldest of whom is 1 just turned eight years of age, to attend to and c instruct, without ministerial assistance of any 1

kind, sans agricultural implements., save a rake and a Dutch hoe on the premises to show the answer in pretty extensive operations as a farmer. As “Observer” is somewhat of n diviner, let him divine the result in operations as a farmer, and I will give him the result in benefit which change has wrought in the health of a delicate little boy, and which the trip to Portobello, where Mrs Clark is temporarily residing, is effecting in my own health, which, as “ Observer ” —if he have any claim to the name he has chosen to go by—well knows, has for some time been far from satisfactory. Of whats“ Observer” has written and published, I think, without being thought to be too hard upon him it may be said, cd rox cf pvodtrea nihil. Whose tongue (or pen) soe’er speaks false, not truly sneaks ; who speaks not truly, lus.” —I am, &c,, Sd. M. CI.ABK. Schoolhouse, Anderson’s Bay, December 5, ([This correspondence must now cease. — Ed. , * K. S.’] I