The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1883. In a False Position.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 24, 2 August 1883, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1883. In a False Position.

o If evr an important puMic bo<ly eat a rood <!"se of hiMn!)'e pi'- 1 , it was the Wa.iyu: vi Pdiicafion Toard at its meeting on Tu ■ sday last 'lhe Inspector rashly made certain diarizes a"-;iinst a Feilding teacher, wliicli tlie Hoard si ill more rashly adopted and acted upon. lA.tice of dismissal was given to the teacher, and the Hoard actually resolved to make a c-mplaiut regarding- her Mtpp> sed incompetency to' ibe Kducntif n Department at VVel'inu'fon. But, afAr the Board had taken action, it occurred to smit 1 . of the members that a li; tin previous enquiry ought to have been made Tbe steed was stolen, but the Board proceeded to lock the stable door, and ! appointed a committee, ir ade up of three of the ablest and most disinterest el members, who came out to Feilding, investigated the matter, •bund tbat ihe . nspector bad beeu inexcusably hasty, that the matter complained ut by him was simply an unusual, but not necessarily unsound, method of teaching the children enumeration, and that Mrs Browne, the unlucky teacher in question, had been very hardly treated. 'Ibe coii^nittee reported in favor of her competency, and for several hours on Tuesday afternoon the Education Board occupied itself in undoing the mis •!•:<■!' it had been induced by the Inspector to commit, and in making the amende honorable to an unjustly aspersed teacher. As might bave been expected, this amende honorable Wiis nof done grncefu'ly, though the stern common sense of Sir Wm. Fox insisted on its beirg done completely. Mr Watt, thechairm.in, who was brought up from his legisla ive duties' at Wellington specially to " see into " the matter, made a lame apology for the Inspector, and cast an insinuation ayainst Mrs Browne's reason for altering her mode of teaching — which insinuation bir Wm. Fox promptly pointed out was absurdly groundless. The Rev. Mr Ross, who is nothing if not technical and pedagoguish, indulged in an insinuation of tha same character — of which, by the way, no one at the Board took the slightest notice — and "slated"' MiAßnowNr. because he disliked her m"tbod of im parting the multiplication table. Mi Watt, in thi;! as in several other matters which have come before the Hoard, was evidently actuated by that strauire and unreasoning hostility to the wishes ot School Committeewhich he bas bAore displayed in the casea of Wanganui, Hawera, and other places. But in the end 'the Board did the right thing; they rescinded the notice of dism ssal, and countermanded their co.nmui ication lo the Government. Whether the matter, so far as the Inspector is concerned, will rest there we have grave doubts; hut no public body could eat humble pie with greater gusto than did the Education Board in this matter of the Feilding School.