THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1882. THE NORMAL SCHOOL.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2480, 18 March 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1882. THE NORMAL SCHOOL.

Mr. John Inglis is not a gentleman remarkable for any large amount of wisdom, though in some mysterious manner ho has been pitchforked into the Chairmanship of the Board of Education. A Lord Burleigh manner of shaking his head, an affectation of sagacity, and a thorough and complete appreciation of Mr. John Inglis as a heaven-born leader, have combined to place him in a position for which he is about as much fitted as to take charge of tho Flying Squadron. A question of considerable importance to the public—one indeed in which the parents of tho children attending a school, more particularly under the management of the Board, have a deep interest, was raised. A complaint was made, and immediately Mr. Inglis, following the illustrious

example set Him by the Chairman of s kindred institution, burkes the whole affair by going into committee. Thus the public journals were in honor bound n . ot to J a k o notice of a scandal in connection with one of our largest educational institutions. It is no fault of ours that we have not, ere this, commented on the extraordinary conduct of Mr, Inglis, and the members of the Board; now, however, the subject has been made public by the Chairman himself, and wo cannot but express our astonishment at the conduct of tho Board in this matter. A serious charge—which if only partially true proves that the moral perceptions of oar young people are being surely undermined—is made. The Board tries to cover up the matter hy not only discussing hut deciding upon the matter with closed doors. Of course this injudicious course has had the only result that could be expected. There is no doubt, whatever Mr. Inglis may say, that there is something very rotten indeed in the management of the Normal School, and the secrecy attempted to be preserved by the Chairman simply led to the most exaggerated statements being circulated. It was as well known as that the Cathedral stands in the square that a charge of immorality in the Normal School had been made. Bat the attempt, unwise as it undoubtedly was to keep out of the public papers any reference to the complaint made, caused this to be made far more of than really there was any need for. Statements found their way into outside papers, and generally tho public mind became exercised. This seems to have excited the ire of the worthy Chairman, though it is precisely what he must have expected from the un-English proceeding adopted by him. The Chairman seems to be very much troubled in his mind as to how the information got into the papers ontside Canterbury, and he has not yet apparently solved that difficult question. He took the pains, so he explains most particularly, to call at the office of the “ Lyttelton Times,” where his mind was relieved hy the assurance that no intelligence as to the scandal had emanated from that pare and guileless 1 establishment. This appears entirely to have satisfied the Chairman, and he does not do the simple justice of inquiry at the office of the other morning journal represented on the occasion. While he does not, however, do what any person of ordinary sense, not possessing the transcendant mind of Mr. Inglis, would do, he makes a statement at tha Board exonerating the very party who, if guilt there he, is the guilty one, and, by implication, laying the burden on innocent shoulders. Now Mr. Inglis said—- “ I have been informed that the Press Association have telegraphed to various parts of the colony that a grave scandal had occurred at the Normal School.” If Mr. Inglis had taken as much trouble to assure himself of the true facts of the case as to assert the innocence of the “ Lyttelton Times” ha would have discovered that the only depot of the Press Associati n in Christchurch, for tha collection and distribution of news, is the “ Lyttelton Times” office; therefore it was undoubtedly from that establishment, and that only, the assurance of whose innocence in the matter was so glibly swallowed by the chairman, that the reports so bewailed about by Mr. Inglis unquestionably emanated. So much for the sense of fairness and justice which form such striking points in the conduct of the wonderfully gifted chairman. This appears to us to be on a par with the way in which the complaint was investigated. The Head Master, Mr. Malcolm, was the party accused, really because the whole management of tha school rests with him. The sagacity displayed by the Board and Chairman in this matter is well worthy of note. They do not appoint an unbiassed sab-com-mittee to investigate the charges, hut they leave the matter entirely in the hands of the principal party accused, and then the Chairman, with that beautiful disregard of the public interest which has characterised his reign, comes to the Board, and this is the cool way in which the Board dismisses an enquiry fraught, it may he as we have pointed out, with the most serious consequences to the rising generation : “ The complaint, which was made to the Board at its lost meeting of alleged indelicacy on the part of some of the infants has been thoroughly investigated by Mr. Malcolm, while the gentleman who made the complaint was allowed the opportunity of questioning the infants said to be implicated.” Could anything be more monstrous or more delusive than a sham inquiry such as this, hidden away from the public and conducted by the very official whose management of the school is impugned ? It was, throughout, a farce well worthy of the genius of Mr. Inglis, but we much mistake the public if such proceedings as this are allowed to pass without comment, now that the seal of secrecy is removed. No other result could have been looted for hut that the report should state that there was no evidence at all. Of course not. But how would it have been had the proper course been taken, and an impartial tribunal appointed. That there was something in it more than meets the eye, is most significantly shown to our mind in the remarks of the Chairman, where he says, that “in future a teacher will take charge of the infanta during dinner hour.” On the whole, we cannot but think that a gross abuse of power has taken place in this matter, and we hope to hear yet more of it.