The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, SEPTEMBER 5, 1901. A BOARD’S REPRISAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 205, 5 September 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, SEPTEMBER 5, 1901. A BOARD’S REPRISAL.

By our special message from 'Wellington we are pleased to notice that some action is likely to be taken to check the high-handed conduct of the Wellington Education Board in seeking to dismiss the Chief Inspector. A Wellington correspondent writes in regard to the position of affairs The Wellington Education Board has placed itself in an unenviable position in regard to its dismissal of Chief Inspector Lee. Mr Lee has been in the service of the Board for the last twenty-eight years—that is to say, the best part of a man’s lifetime —and he had admittedly done good educational work, the influence of which has been felt not only in the Wellington district, but in other parts of the colony. It is claimed of Mr Lee that he was the means of introducing the kindergarten system— ; the most valuable means extant for the tuition of the infantile mind—into the schools of Now Zealand, and if such be the case, he has performed a service which cannot be overlooked. But Mr Lee has not got the faculty of being all things to all men, which gets many people so easily through the world. For some years he has pointed out with growing emphasis in his annual reports what he considers to be defects in the administrative methods of the Wellington Education Board, and though the Board has J thrown out hints to its Chief Inspec- < tor that it doesn’t want its methods ] criticised, he has persisted, and this 1 pear his annual report has got more j sting in it than anything that nas GVT' • gone before. When giving evidence ’ oefore the Teachers’ Commission, too, ; Mr Lee came out of his shell, and a lealt some very unkindly, if well f leserved, blows at the heads of c us superiors on the Board. The e atter body has decided to hold 1 .n inquiry into Mr Lee’s allega- c ions in his report and before the Commission, but it has weakened its j, ase, and shown its own innate ineom- j, etency by, first of all, appointing it- a elf a Committee of the Whole to try p

the Chief Inspector’s charges against itself; and, secondly, by dismissing Mr Lee with contumely before the charges which he has made have received a hearing.' The Board has, in fact, acted in a thoroughly and consistently wrongheaded manner throughout, and its latest deeisiou is meeting with very strong criticism on every hand. The action that is being taken by the School Committees is open to grave objection, but the cause of complaint is such that a drastic remedy is needed. The Board should at least be compelled to give good reasons before dismissing such an old servant in the peremptory fashion decided upon.