The Globe. TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 326, 29 June 1875, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 1875.

It was only to be expected that at the final meeting of the Board of Education the chairman should make a farewell speech, Mr Inglis did so, and in the course of his remarks made a very remarkable charge against the present Executive. He stated that “ in no “ instance had the Government ap- “ plied to him, on any matters neees- “ sary to frame their statements upon, “ with the exception of the manner in “ which the estimates of expenditure “ were framed.” This being the case it sliows that the present Government were no sooner in power than the members of it determined to sweep away the Board of Education, which it is allowed on all sides had done its work very fairly, and supplant it with an appointment to be held by a follower of their own. Even if the present Government considered that the Board of Education should be dissolved, yet it would seem to the unprejudiced that ordinary courtesy would have led the new Executive to consult the chairman of the institution they were about to destroy, although such consultation might be only on matters of small detail, and would not delay the proposed abolition. The Chairman of the Board must be allowed from his position to have been as well acquainted with the working of the late “ Educational Ordinance” as any one in the province, and ii would be an insult to common sense

to suppose that he could not have given ■valuable information to the new Executive. Courtesy, however, appears to be a virtue which the occupants of the Ministerial benches entirely despise. They can cry out, loudly enough, if any charge is made against them; but they treat those who happen to differ with them in opinion in a manner which makes us wonder what sort of Educational Ordinance was in force in their younger days. That the province, if it remain a province, will show the present G-overnrnent, at the next elections, what an entire mistake they have made in meddling with the system of education, we feel certain ; but, as valuable time must elapse before that event can take place, we can, for the present, only hope with Mr Inglis that something may yet interfere with the carrying out of some of the provisions of the present Ordinance. Mr Knight will have all his work cut out for him to persuade the Canterbury people that he is an efficient substitute for the late Board.