THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1676, 4 July 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1879.

At the meetihg of the Board of Education yesterday a circular, which had been received from the Education Department, Wellington, was read, calling attention to that fact that two Education Boards had reported to the Minister of Education that they had dismissed from their service teachers convicted of falsification of registers. It is most difficult to understand why such a circular should have been forwarded. It is so self-evident that the falsification of school registers is a very serious offence, that the ordinary mind would imagine it unnecessary to send a circular informing Education Boards of the fact. It is not the custom, for instance, fertile Minister of Justice to write to the County Councils with, a view of pointing out to them that murder is a crime of the deepest dye, nor is it the custom for the Public Works Department to write to the various sub-departments under its control showing them that the larceny of railway and other plant committed to their charge is most reprehensible. Even if the members of Education Boards in general were selected because of their crass stupidity, the circular in question would have been uncalled for. But it is to be presumed that the Boards of the various Districts represent a considerable portion of the Cream of the intellect obtainable in those districts, and. to forward a notification such as has been sent, is to insinuate that the Minister of Education thinks very little of the said intellectual cream. It is not as if the Education Department had discovered any particular Board in the act of condoning an offence of the nature alluded to—far otherwise, two Education Boards had dismissed teachers from their services for this very offence, and had indeed been the first to call attention to, and act in the matter. The Minister of Education had merely endorsed their proceedings by striking the teachers’ names off the list of certificated masters. The falsification of school registers is, of course, one of the greatest offences that a school master can commit. It not only shows a depraved disregard for truth, but it is a direct endeavour to obtain money under false pretences. No Education Board could possibly fail to see this, and we cannot believe that any Board would, in the event of an offence of this description being brought under its notice, do anything else than inflict the condignest punishment on the delinquent. A mania for writing circulars can alone have led the Education Department into such a uselessly unnecessary expenditure of postage stamps. Wo trust the mania will not spread to other departments. Should the Public Works Department take to writing essays on the heinousnoss of potty larceny, or the Native Department take to preaching sermons on the moral inconvenience of bigamy, and the other Departments follow suit on various subjects the public would hardly be benefited, however much the Depavt-

merits themselves might rejoice over the light ■which they were shedding on the unofficial world.

The usual weekly meeting of the Sydney Exhibition Committee was convened for Wednesday last, and resulted in no quorum being obtained. The business done, says a report, was of tho usual character, being mainly desultory conversation. Thus does this energetic body pursue its wild career of usefulness. Intending exhibitors send in notice of their intention to exhibit and, when a quorum happens to exist, the committee duly note the fact. At other times they remain pleasingly torpid, unless they have to gird up thoir loins for such an exciting event as happened on Tuesday last. On that day some of the members of tho committee visited tho promises of Mr. Moin for tho purpose of inspecting some samples of preserved provisions that ho is about to send to the Exhibition. As far as can be seen from a hurried glance at the report, the representatives of tho committee partook on this occasion of oxtail soup, noodle soup, mock turtle, pigs feet, brawn, boiled beef, ham and chicken, potted tongue, cured beef, and other viands too numerous to mention. In fact, the committee-men appear to have acted with an energy beyond all praise, to have darted from tho noodle soup to tho rissoles, hack to the pigs’ foot, and forward again to tho minced collops, and so on, proving themselves to ho good and true committeemen, and showing that for once, at all events, they were determined to deserve well of their country. How different this superhuman activity in Mr. Mein’s establishment to the normal sleepiness in the committee room! Tho Hokitika committee have commissioned a local poet to write an ode to accompany the Hokitika exhibits. Might not tho Christchurch committee also ask some local poet to celebrate thorn, and their doings in voi so ? A poem on “ how not to do it” or an elegy on “ a quiet life” might ho ordered, and, for fear the mind of tho intelligent foreigner at Sydney might become too depressed in studying these productions, a lively stave on tho beauties of potted meats in general might be thrown into tho bargain.