CANTERBURY COLLEGE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 904, 18 May 1877, Page 3

CANTERBURY COLLEGE.

A special meeting of the Board of Governors was held at 2 p.m. yesterday. Present Mr Montgomery (in the chair). Dr Coward, Mr Fere day, Hon. John Hall, Venerable Archdeacon Willock, Mr Potts, Mr Inglis, Mr Tancred, Eev. C. Fraser, Mr H. F. Gray, Eev. J. W. Habens, Mr Veel, Mr Malct, Hon. E. W. Stafford, Mr Stevens, and Dr Turnbull. THE governor's visit. A telegram was read from the Hon. C. C. Bowen, stating that his Excellency the Governor would not be able to visit Canterbury until the end of May or beginning of June. His Excellency would have much pleasure in opening the Canterbury College, and the date of his intended visit woidd bo made known in due course. objects of this meeting. The Chairman said that this was a special meeting called principally to consider the matter referred to in the report of the College committee. When the committee met for the purpose of framing an advertisement for assistant teachers for the Girls’ High School, they tliought it such an important matter that it would be better the Board should be asked to have a special meeting to reconsider the whole question previous to the advertisement being put. forth. The report of the committee was as follows : The committee is so impressed with the inexpediency of making a distinction as to taking boarders between the lady principal and the assistant teachers, that it earnestly recommends a reconsideration of the resolution by which that distinction was made. The committee is of opinion that the anomaly might arise that assistant teachers would be more highly remunerated than the lady principal, and further, the committee thinks that the discipline of the school would be endangered. W. Montgomery, Chairman. Ho saw also that by the Standing Orders all business of which special notice had been given should be taken into consideration before the ordinary business of the Board. Therefore the notice given by the Eov. C. Fraser, and other matters, woidd have to be considered tirst.

The Rev. C. Fraser said ho would agree to postpone his notice of motion. The Board then proceeded to consider the report of the College committee. The Yen. Archdeacon Willoek said the committee had found considerable difficulty when they cauie to consider the question. The Board had decided that the Lady Principal should not be allowed to keep boarders. This being the case, the committee felt that they could not cause an advertisement to bo inserted in the newspapers for assistant teachers without first coming to the Board and asking their opinion as to whether assistant teachers should be allowed to take boarders or give private tuition. For his own part, he did not think it would be a wise step on the part of the Board to allow the assistant teachers to keep boarders. If they were, he did not believe that it would at all conduce to the discipline of the establishment, and it would create an anomaly between the Lady Principal and her assistants that ought not to exist. Seeing the emoluments that would be derived from a largo boarding establishment, the granting of that privilege to assistant teachers only would result, perhaps, in the position of Lady Principal being secured by a person who was not so well qualified for it as others who preferred sending in applications as assistant teachers, seeing the emoluments that woidd attach to the one and not to the other, through the assistant teachers, and not the Lady Principal, being allowed to keep boarders. There were many reasons why such a distinction should not be made, and ho therefore begged to move, “ That the report of the College committee be adopted, and that there be inserted in the advertisement the following words, ‘ Teachers will not be allowed to give private instruction or to take in boarders.’ ” Rev. J. W. Habens said he woidd second the motion, not because he agreed with it, but because it was a proper sequel to what the Board bad already done •with respect to the Lady Principal. He believed that if assistant toucher* were allowed to keep hoarders, these teachers would have an inHucnce in the school that would endanger its discipline. The Board had already decided that the Lady Principal should not be allowed to keep boarders, and as this resolution was a proper sequel to their former decision, he begged leave to second it. Mr Stevens —Do I understand that the object of this resolution is to prevent the Lady Principal and all assistant teachers in the school from keeping boarders, and that young ladies from a distance will have to make arrangements elsewhere ? The Chairman —Precisely. Mr Veel said he thought that if this resolution were carried, it would create an impression that the Girls’ High School was intended for Christ church alone. Now, it was very desirable that such an impression should not be created. But if the teachers were not allowed to take boarders, where were young ladies from the country to go to, if they had no friends in town P He contended that the resolution did not go far enough. If the Board prohibited the teachers from taking boarders, then they should go a step farther, and make the necessary provision for young ladies

coming to the school from the country districts of Canterbury and elsewhere. The Rev C. Fraser said he should prefer to see matters remain as they were. He objected to the question of keeping boarders being thrown open to the teachers. He thought that their whole attention should be devoted to the work of the establishment, and unless this was insisted on he did not believe that the Girls’ High School would fulfil the anticipations that had been formed of it. As he said before, lie should prefer to see matters remain as they were. Mr Fercday said he thought it would be better to allow the question to remain open. If the Board at some future time deemed it advisable to allow the teachers to keep boarders, the necessary permission could then be given, The Hon. John Hall said the Board might adopt the resolution merely as a tentative measure, and he would therefore vote for it. If the Girls’ High School was to be a success they must commence with good teachers, and these they could only obtain by giving them good salaries, or its equivalent in other ways. With regard to Mr YceTs remarks, he thought it would be premature to make any present provision for boarders, though it might become their duty to make such provision by-and-byc. If they decided hereafter that the teachers should not he allowed to keep boarders, then it would bo their duty to find a proper place to which they could recommend parents to send their children. Dr. Turnbull said the committee had given this question the most careful consideration, and he felt convinced that the course recommended by the committee in this matter was the proper one to pursue. The resolution was put and agreed to. THE MUSEUM.

Mr Vecl said that during last session of the General Assembly the sum of £875 was passed for the Canterbury Museum for the current six months. He should like to know whether the vote had been drawn upon up to the 31st of March. He did not know whether any vote had been applied for since that date. If not, he would only remind the Board that they were getting half way through the second quarter. The Chairman : We have got the £875 for the half year; and we have applied for the balance of the vote to the College, and we received a telegram asking what account the money should be paid into. Wo replied that it should be paid into the College account. I may say that the various committees will be able to arrange a report and estimates for the ensuing year by the next monthly meeting, and if the Board approves of them, they will be ready to be sent to Wellington in June. THE SUNDAY QUESTION. The Eev. C. Eraser said he would like to know whether the committees interested in the conversazione had yet considered the question whether the articles sent for exhibition should bo open to the inspection of the public on Sunday ? Tbe Chairman : It has not been considered by the committee in ray presence. I will bring the matter before the committee of management. Dr Coward : Do you move that the exhibition should be open ? Eev. C. Fraser : Oh, dear no. THE GOVERNOR’S VISIT. The Yen. Archdeacon Willock said the telegram in that morning’s paper threw a doubt as to whether his Excellency intended to visit Canterbury. The Chairman: Oh, no. The Governor would have come down last Tuesday if the College had been ready. His Excellency will come down to open the College at the end of this month or beginning of next. The Board then adjourned.