THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1886, 10 March 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1880.

Education Boards in general are held in no small esteem in this country. They are formed of the leading men in the several educational districts, and a mingled odour of benevolence and scholarly erudition is supposed to permeate their precincts. And among the Boards which hold the highest position is usually reckoned the Nelson Board. The educational system of Nelson had long been pointed at by many as a thing to be copied or wondered at, and although the Education Act of 1877 has superseded the Nelson Act, and has, according to the opinion of the Nelson Inspector of Schools, ground the system into a dead level horrible to contemplate, as leaving no play for individual genius on the part of masters and inspectors, yet the spirit of the old times still hovers over the sleepy province, and gives its Board a standing and a history. The Board has of late, however, come to considerable grief, and has unfortunately been held up to the ridicule of both the just and the unjust. And the way in which this terrible fiasco eventuated was as follows: —Mr. Hodgson, who had for years been Inspector and Secretary to the Board, determined to resign, and the Board forthwith resolved to separate the two offices and to advertise for a Secretary, whose salary was to be £350 per annum. An advertisement was duly inserted in all the leading papers in the colony, stating the terms of the appointment, and requesting applicants to forward testimonials, &c. Ninety-one gentlemen from various parts of the colony responded te the call. Each one of these ninetyone gentlemen no doubt pestered at least six or seven of his friends for letters of recommendation, in which the said friends were entreated to describe the said applicants as heaven-bom secretaries, peculiarly adapted by temperament and the force of circumstances to such an appointment as that of Secretary to the Nelson Board. So that altogether rather a flutter was occasioned by this advertisement, ninety-one individuals becoming temporarily decided bores in the matter of waylaying their friends, while several hundred other individuals were straining their consciences in the direction of writing flowery descriptions of those ninety-one applicants. Up to the day when the applications were to bo fopened expectation was on tip-toe. The berth was considered a rosy one, for the idea of hard work in Sleepy Hollow was looked

upon as absurd. Surely the most to be done would be to write a few drowsy letters, compile a few sleepy statistics, interview occasionally sonnambulistic schoolmasters, and onco a month nod over a table in the board-room in company with a number of worthy old fogies whom it might bo necessary to prick if an answer were required. But when the applications were opened, the ninety-one applicants who had been thirsting after this official Goshen felt decidedly small, for to none of them had the coveted apple boon handed, but the brother of the late Inspector and Secretary was found to be the chosen man. However, ninety of the unfortunates rose to the occasion, and magnanimously laid the choice down to the fact that the brother was perhaps one of these geniuses to bo sometimes found in places far removed from the busy hum of men. Ninety copies of Gray’s Elegy in a Country Churchyard were referred to. and therein was found the fact that the cultured author was of opinion that in many quiet corners is to be found much talent which, if developed, might astonish people in general, for he proceeds in the course of his poem to remark: — Perchance in this neglected spot is laid A heart once pregnant with celestial fire, and observations to a similar effect immediately follow. So that the ninety copies were replaced on their shelves, and a satisfied calm stole over their possessors as they turned to their ordinary duties. But applicant No. 01 rudely broke their dream. He was a Mr Hart, late Senior Head Master of the Birmingham School Board. Determined to do the thing thoroughly he had gone over to Nelson in order to make himself known personally to the members of the Board. In a letter to tho “ Nelson Evening Mail” he described the outcome of his journey:—“ I was an applicant for the office, but being a perfect stranger in Nelson I was advised by very high authorities to mako myself and my antecedents know a to the various members of the Board, so that when my name came before them in conjunction with the names of other applicants, I should not appear as an entire stranger. I adopted this plan, to a certain extent, for I was suddenly cut short upon my visit to one member, who astonished mo by stating, * that it was of no use for me to apply for tho vacancy, as the matter was virtually settled, inasmuch as he and four other members had privately pledged their votes to a Mr. Hodgson, who had solicited the same; that ho was under no pecuniary obligation to that gentleman, but if he did not vote for him he should be doing him a great injustice; that the situation became vacant on a certain Thursday, and by the following Saturday morning five votes ont of eight were irrevocably promised; that Mr. Hodgson had the best qualifications, that he was a brother of the inspector, and that the latter was a brother-in-law of the chairman of the Board.” Here was & pretty state of things to happen in a respectable body. Imagine these eight worthies solemnly opening the ninety-one applications sent up after infinite trouble by gentlemen thoroughly trusting in the bona fides of tho Board. It is almost inconceivable that five gentlemen holding positions of trust could lend themselves to such a transaction. Three members of the Board certainly told Mr. Hart that it was their intention that they should vote for the beat man when the time came, and among these three we trust was the Bishop of Nelson, but it is impossible to acquit tho other five of a gross dereliction of their duty to the constituents who elected them, and of a total disregard of the very rudiments of honorable fair play. But uneasy lies tho head that wears a crown. The new secretary did not stick to his post for even a month, for we find that the Board has issued a fresh advertisement calling again for applications for the post of secretary. Whether the Board repented of their bargain or whether the new secretary’s life was rendered miserable by visions of the ninety-one applicants in the stilly hours of night, or whether a new and still more screaming farce is to be placed on tho boards by tho management does not appear. Tho Board are at present without a peimanent secretary, and have lost what is worse, namely, that high character which should, above eve',ything, characterise a body of men possessing such a high trust as that of tho education of a rising generation.