EAST CHRISTCHURCH DISTRICT SCHOOL.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1426, 10 September 1878, Page 3

EAST CHRISTCHURCH DISTRICT SCHOOL.

Election op Committee,

A meeting of householders was held last night in the East Christchurch district school, Gloucester street, for the purpose of electing a committee in place of the late committee who had resigned. The attendance was numerous. The Rev. H. C. M. Watson proposed that Mr G. L. Lee should take the chair, but Mr Lee objected, as he was a member of the outgoing committee. It was then proposed and seconded that the Rev. Mr Watson should take the chair. This was agreed to, and that gentleman, consenting to act, at once read the advertisement convening the meeting. Ho said they must be all aware of the circumstances which had led the late committee to resign. A dispute had arisen between them and the Board of Education with respect to the salary of the head master and to the control of the finances. In consequence of the action taken by the Board the whole of the committee had resigned, and he believed they had resolved to decline reelection. Mr Lee said that such was the fact, as the committee felt that it would bo undesirable that they should be in office while the present state of things existed. The Chairman said that it would of course be open to the meeting to give an opinion us to the action taken by the committee. The meeting would be held under the (53rd and 64th clauses of the Act. [These ho read.] He took it that the committee had no report to submit to the meeting. Mr Lee considered that the clauses read did not apply to that meeting, as they referred only to the annual election of the committee. He presumed there was some clause of the Act which dealt with an extraordinary meeting. The Chairman would read a memorandum which had been sent by the secretary of the Board of Education. (This said that the Act prescribed no special mode of proceeding, and that the meeting might make any arrangements to suit itself.) Mr Lee still thought that the clauses referred to applied only to the annual meeting. He had supposed that the Board would have made some regulations which would deal with an extraordinary meeting of the kind then being held. He considered that the Act had no provision for the present meeting. The Chairman said that the meeting was an extraordinary one, Held, for the purpose of filling an extraordinary vacancy. Under ordinary circumstances when a vacancy occurred, it was filled up by the remaining members of the committee, but in the present case, the committee having resigned in a body, hod put the ratepayers so to speak in a quandary. The Chairman then read the 66!h clause of the Act, which provides that when an election is questioned, the Board has power to consider it, and decide upon its validity or otherwise, such decision to bo final. If the meeting made no election, tho Board hud potver to appoint a commission. Mr Lee had a doubt as to the power of the meeting to make a legal election. Ho might

say that ho did not object to the meeting, either on his own part or on the part of the late committee. It struck him, however, that there was a defect in the Act, as no provision was made in it for the present state of things. The Chairman considered that the 66th clause dealt with that, as, if objection was raised to the proceedings, the matter could bn referred to the Board, whoso decision would be conclusive.

Mr Leo had considerable doubt about the matter, but had no wish to interfere. Mr Flesher thought that if there was provision in the Act the Board had power to take the necessary steps. This they had done by culling that night's meeting. If the election proceeded, and anyone objected, ho could complain to the Board. He might say that he was extremely sorry that the late committee had deemed it advisable to resign. He would have preferred seeing them appeal to the ratepayers before taking such an extreme step. He thought however that the first business of the present meeting should bo to pass ft vote of thanks to the late committee. Ho would move—“ That the best thanks of this meeting be given to the retiring committee, and that this meeting desires to express its regret that they should have felt it necessary to resign their seats.” Mr Widdowson seconded the resolution.

Mr Harris thoroughly sympathised with the resolution, but would like Mr Leo to withdraw his declaration that none of the Into committee would act again. He felt that the committee would best consult the interests of the district by consenting to bo re-elected. A new committee would be entirely in the dark as to what had taken place between the school committee and the Board. He considered that such an arrangement as that proposed by the late committee was desirable. The Board should allot a certain sum to the use of the school, and leave the committee to disburse it, as to them seemed best. If the late committee were re-elected that fact would very much strengthen their position. Mr Lee know that the other members of the Committee were extremely sorry that they could not be present. They had intended to be there to explain matters to the meeting. The trip to Dunedin had carried them all away except Mr Kirk and himself. With reference to their offering themselves again for election, the question was settled very positively in the committee that it would bo improper in every way for them to do so. The proposal they had made to the Board had been positively refused to be entertained, and their wishes had been entirely ignored, and it seemed to them —he was speaking in behalf of the other members, there was not a dissentient voice amongst them —that it would be impossible for them to carry on the duties which should pertain to a committee of that description, with satisfaction to themselves and to the householders. They all took great interest in the question of education, and nothing would have delighted them more than to carry on the business of the committee, but they felt that they could not. The particulars in dispute with the Board, he did not consider it worth while going into, as the whole matter had already appeared in the papers. They were very important questions, and the committee felt that it was absolutely unnecessary to have a committee at all if matters were to bo carried on as the Board proposed. The business might all be done by a clerk appointed for the purpose, and paid a small salary. It would be useless to take up the time of a number of gentlemen who would have no option but to obey the orders they received from the Board of Education. The members of the committee had not felt disposed to submit to that, and until an alteration was made, not one of them would wish to be re-elected, otherwise they would be willing to devote their time to the service of the householders.

Mr Sandstein quite agreed with the views of the committee. If an entirely now committee found themselves unable 1o work with (ho‘ Board, it might have a good effect ; but if even one of the past committee wore reelected the Board might say that it was animated by the old committee. If the incoming committee received the same treatment as their predecessors had, the best plan would be for them to call a meeting of the rafopayers and lay their grievances before it; and

it would be for the whole district to support them in maintaining their rights. He had much pleasure in supporting the resolution.

In answer to a question, Mr Lee said that Mr Stevens, though he had not gone to Dunedin, was unable to bo present, as he was leaving that evening for Wellington, The motion was then put and agreed to unanimously. Mr Kirk returned thanks. In doing so ho expressed regret that the Board of Education had not waived their opinions at least in some minor matters, and thus allowed the committee to carry on till the end of the year. The Chairman said he would like to explain that the scale of payment to the teachers had been drawn up by Mr Habens, Mr Wynn Williams, and himself. Previously a teacher received some £IOO a year, but they had made it up to £SOO for head masters, and that scale had been adopted in the province—at Timaru, Lyttelton, and West Christchurch. Ho thought it would have been a good plan for the East Christchurch committee to have drawn up a now scale and submitted it to the Board for approval. It appeared to him that the new committee might well do that. There was a more important matter than the payment of masters, and that was their appointment. He was sorry to see that the Board hod appointed a head-master —bo was not going to say a word against the gentleman appointed, whom he believed to be a first-class man—but he thought it would have been well had the Board waited at least till after the new committee had been elected.

A gentleman present asked how it was that the Normal School was made an exception to tho scale ?

Tho Chairman said that ho could not explain it. He thought, however, that the head-master of that school received the same salary as did the head-master of East Christchurch School, viz., £350 with additions, bringing it up to £SOO. Tho election of the committee was then proceeded with. Thirteen candidates were proposed, and Messrs Wheeler and Samuels wore appointed scrutineers. The following were declared to have been elected —Messrs Matthew Henderson, S. C. Farr, Rev. 11. C. M. Watson, A. Candy, A. Ayres, W. Harris, and W. E. MeDougall. A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded tho business.