The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1889. The Education Board

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 77, 19 December 1889, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1889. The Education Board

The Wacganui Education Board appear to manage the affairs under their control with the exercise of very little of that very excellent quality called tact. The relations between local Committees and the Board are, at the best of times, and with few, if any, exceptions, very strained. Taking the members of the Board iudividually they are, we believe, men of some educatiou and social position, and therefore persons who ought to be deemed uulikely to be guilty of either discourtesy or favoritism, especially towards those who, from their positions as employes of the Board, are unable to resent injustice or rudeness. Yet, in their collective , capacity, they have been guilty of many acts of both tyranny and discourtesy. For a long time the Committees, either from timidity, or from ignorauce of their own powers, have submitted quietly to the snubbiugs inflicted on them by the central authority, and rested content to merely superintend the sweeping out of the schools, and attead to the cleanliness of the back premises of the same. A change, however, has " come o'er the spirit " of the hitherto meek Committeemen, and a flag of revolt hoisted by the men of Karere, which will doubtless attract a host of rebellious followers. It is needless for us to give a history in detail of the cause of this trouble, but we may summarise it. Mr Flood, the popular and respected teacher at Karere, insisted on ' his right to apply for any vacancy in the service. The Board resented this, and censured Mr Flood. Not deeming his action deserving even a reproach, Mr Flood appealed to his Committee, who, to their honor be it spoken, have supported him in the attitude he has assumed against the Board. We do not mean to imply that discipline should not be maintained, and proper obedience exacted from the teachers by their official superiors. What we commend is active resistance by Committees and Teachers to unjustifiable and unnecessary abuse of power. This may have the effect of compelling the Board, and their mouthpiece the Secretary, to remember that by the exercise of a little common politeness in tlieir communications with the Committees and Teachers, savored with a modicum of common sense, they will stand higher in tbe estimation of the geutlenieu who come under these headiugs, and, as a natural consequence, with their masters — the general public.