A SCHOOL DISPUTE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1829, 9 August 1906, Page 2

A SCHOOL DISPUTE.

3 PRESS ASSOCIATION Wellington, last night. c Sitting in Banco to day Hs Honor the Chief Justice had before him the case of j Lissington versus tho Wellington Education Board, in which tho plaintiff, a membar of the Northland School Committee, applied for an interim injunction to restrain tbo defendant hoard from appointing a stuff of teachers to the Northland school until tbo school committee bad been consulted on the matter, The facts are that the board recently decided to o-eot a eobool at Northland, which was part of tbe Karori school district, and on its own initiative called a meeting in April, 1906, for the purpose of deciding whether a separate district of Northland should be constituted, and to ask the meeting to define the boundaries. A meeting was held and a provisional committee was appointed ; it becarno the dufy of that oommittco to rpport upon jibe school dietrief, and ultimately they in June made a report to the board as to the proposed boundaries- Tbe board replied shat it wanted to make some general alterationa iu the boundaries, and asked the eommjtteo to go into Iho question, but tbo meeting to be held for tbat purpose had not yet taken pisce, and She school district itself was not yat constituted. Since then a school had been erected, aDd two teachers appointed by tbe board. After argument, hi 3 Honor said it was admitted that the Northland Committee had hy status, as lihtre was no setoff district, and therefore no district committee. That being so, then iho sarori' pis- :

triot Committee had a right to have tom consulted. It might be that thp Board thought this was really a sort of "no man’s land,” and that they were not bound to c.nsult anyone, but tbe law assumed tbat there was a school committee before teachers were appointed, and it

seemed that the Karori Committee should have beep oonsult'ed as the committee of the distriet, as it pt'ill was, ’ for it had never ceased to be the comnfftt'ee 0 f tho distriot, although possibly there were memberc of that committee who lived in Northland. As it was admitted that the teachers were not properly appointed, the next question was as to tbs rights of tbo sobool committee. Following the cam of Wilkinson tbat had been cited, 'it was clear tbat they had certain rights granted them fa control qf tbo school, and that the Education Board could not satisfy tho statute by appointing teaehors to a school without consulting tbo committeo, Tao injunction would, bowover, have to bo modified to restrain the Education Board from permanently ap

pointing tho present teachers. If they appointed them tempotaffly, say for three months, which was quite withifj their power, the arrangement would no doubt be aatiafaetory.. His Honor therefore held that the appointment was ultra vires; that the Board cannot retain the present teachers as such, but might omploy them temporarily. He granted an injunction restraining the Board from acting contrary to this decision. Tho plaintiff was allowed £lO 10s costs uud disbursements.