LOCAL SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

Kumara Times, Issue 2010, 7 February 1883, Page 2

LOCAL SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

A meeting of the Local School Committee was held in the Town Hall on Monday evening; present —Mr R. J. Secldon (Chairman), Messrs F. Barrowman, Burger, Stanton, Cain, Campbell, and Voysey. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. The inward correspondence was read and received. It was resolved that the election of three members for the Central Board of Education stand over until the 26th instant, when a special meeting of the School Committee will be held for that purpose. A letter was received from Mr C. J. Patrick applying for repairs to the school-house at Greenstone.—lt was resolved that the latter be forwarded to to the Central Board, with a request that the Board will give the letter special consideration. It was resolved that the Central Board be informed that Mr W. A. Patrick has commenced duties as teacher in the Westbrook school ; also that the Board he asked to pay his salary from the Ist January. The sub-committee appointed to draw np a reply to the Central Board’s circular re giving notice to teacher brought up the following Report : To the Chairman and Members Kumara Local School Committee. Gentlemen—At your last meeting you passed a resolution appointing a subcommittee to draw np a memorial to the Board of Education regarding the new regulation, and as to the injurious effect the same would have upon the Kumara School. The committee have gone carefully into the whole question, and submit the result in this report, and we are of the opinion that if the Board will dispense with the book depot and reduce its administrative expenses that they can increase the grants of School Committees, increase the salaries of teachers to the 88th clause schools, and generally conduct educational matters satisfactorily. The more the new regulations are looked into the more glaring the inconsistencies become ; besides, all confidence in the Board is shaken, teachers are afraid that their tenure of office is so uncertain that in selfdefence they will assuredly seek engagements elsewhere. The Board did not even take the trouble to rescind the old regulations before passing the new ones, thereby stultifying their proceedings and violating their own bye-laws. Now for comparisons :—Taking Nelson, our neighbouring educational district, we find Nelson has 70 schools and 3170 scholars as against Westland’s 35 schools and 2276 scholars. Nelson has 15 schools, the attendance at which is between 15 and 20, whilst Westland has only five such schools. Nelson has only one school where the average attendance is over 150 and under 300 pupils, whilst Westland has two such schools. Nelson has no schools the attendance of which is over 300 pupils ; Westland has two such schools. Nelson has rine aided schools as against Westland’s 15 ; so that the most profitable schools are in Westland whilst the clerical and inspectoral works required in Nelson are twice that of Westland. Nelson employs 104 teachei’s, Westland 90 teachers. In Nelson there are no pupil teachers; in Westland there are 31

pupil teachers. The number of teachers in Nelson receiving less than £IOO per annum is 59; in Westland there are also 59, receiving less than £IOO per annum. In Nelson there are receiving £IOO and less than £2OO per annum, 39 teachers ; in Westland, 22 teachers. In Nelson there are receiving £2OO and less than £3OO per annum five teachers; in Westland seven teachers. In Nelson there is only one teacher receiving £3OO per annum, and none over that amount; in Westland two teachers receive over that amount. In Westland 22 teachers receive L3O and under ; in Nelson five teachers only receive L3O and under. In Westland 17 teachers receive LSO and under ; in Nelson eight teachers only receive LSO and under. From this it is quite clear that the teachers in Westland are not overpaid as compared with Nelson, except as regards the salaries of the head teachers of Greymouth and Hokitika Schools, who receive over L3OO per annum. Again, taking the salaries paid by the Board of Education as compared with the salaries paid by the Westland Board, for schools having an average attendance similar to Kumara, it will be found by perusing the following table that the Westland Board is not paying more to the teachers than is paid in other places, and in places where the cost of living is far less than it is in Westland. These extracts are taken from the returns furnished to Parliament by the various Education Boards :

Now, since these returns were compiled, Mrs Horneman left the Kumara School, thus reducing the number of teachers to seven, and reducing the amount paid in salaries for the Kumara School to £621 Is 4d. The Board’s new regulations would further reduce the cost of this school for salaries by £l6O, so that all that would be paid in salaries would be £461 Is 4d ; and the number of teachers would be reduced to six. The head teacher of the Kumara School, in his report to the School Committee, dealt with the question of the proposed staffs for the Kumara School, and also, by comparison with schools of a similar class in other parts of the colony, proved that Kumara was at present undermanned ; also that it would be next to impossible for him to attempt to work the school with any degree of satisfaction should the Board insist on carrying into force the new regulations. The Committee would, in supporting him in the view taken, like to know what would happen the school, supposing through illness or other causes he was absent 1 It would be impossible for Mrs Williams to take charge, even though the infant department were closed. With the present staff and salaries paid, together with allowance to Committee, the Board of Education makes a clear profit of £250 per annum from the Kumara School. Surely this should be enough. Now having shewn that so far as payment of teachers and grants to Committees are concerned, we find that the Board is in no way lavish, but if anything niggardly, for we hold that no adult male teacher should receive less than £IOO per annum, nor adult female less than £75 per annum. The next question we turned our attention to was the book depot business. Here we find the Board, with a stock valued at L 2175, received for the year for books only £4Bl 6s 5d ; whilst, under the head of expenditure, school books, requisites, stationery, &c., we find expended £635 19s 2d, or £154 12s 9d on the wrong side of the ledger. The Board are annually losing money by the book depot. The stock, valued at over L2OOO, would not fetch LIOOO if put in the market to-mor-row. The books are lying rotting all over the district; many of the works are out of date and useless. But, simply because the Board has them in stock they are foisted on the schools. As a proof of how the Board’s books are recklessly selected and then distributed equally as foolishly, there are some half-dozen volumes of the “Merchant of Venice” lying on the shelves at the Greenstone School. Now, the young Greeustonians are not all in-

tended to be actors; neither are their parents so fond of Shakesperian works as to speculate in the Board’s dead stock. However, the loss from this source is small; and we were, therefore, compelled to pursue further inquiry into the workings of the Board to find out how it was they were, year by year, drifting into debt and always hard up. So we turned our attention to the office staff, clerical assistance, departmental contingencies, inspectors’ salaries, and travelling expenses, and compared them with other Boards. The Wellington Board distributes L 29,034 13s 2d at an expense of LllOB 15s Id ; Westland disburses L 16,705 5s 2d, and it costs them L 1403 9s lid ; whilst Nelson disburses L 18,367 19s 4d at a cost of LB2l. The table speaks for itself and is accurate :

From the above table it will be clearly seen where the screw is loose. The following extracts from the Report furnished to Parliament by the Minister of Educacation goes to prove that great extravagance exists : Westland. Nelson. £ s. d. £ s. d. Board management 0 7 0| 0 2 4 Inspection ... 0 4 4 |) 3 0 Maintenance ... 3 18 3 9 41Totals ... £4 9 7 £3 14 8j The cost of Board management per scholar in Westland is, therefore, over three times that in Nelson, and nearly twice as much as that of any other Board of Education in the colony. Under these circumstances, although it may appear presumptuous on the part of any Committee to point out to the Board its weak points, still, in the interest of the children attending our State Schools we have done what we consider our duty. If the committee endorse this view and adopt this as their report, we believe it will be a step in the right direction. Many members of the Board will have information placed before them which it was impossible for them to know previously, except after great research ; and members have not the time or data at command to look into details. In conclusion, we have the honour to bring under your notice that the functions of the Committee have been usurped by the Chairman of the Education Board having oi’dered notices of discharge to be sent to all the assistant teachers, contrary to the Board’s regulations and the Education Act. We can only designate the transaction as a piece of effrontery, and it is

ill strict keeping with other high-handed proceedings of the present Chairman of the Westland Board of Education. We are, gentlemen, Yours respectfully, RJ. Seddon, 1 Members F. Barrowman, W. S. S. Stanton, > H. Burger, Committee. A. C. Campbell, . J Kumara, February 5, 1883. The report was adopted, and it was resolved to forward copies to the Board of Education ac its first meeting, together with the head teacher’s Report on the same subject, lb was also resolved that a copy be sent to each member of the Central Board, and to each Committee in the Westland Education District. The passing of a small account concluded the business of the meeting.

Educational District. Name of School. Average Attendance. Amounts paid as Salaries. Number of Teachers. North Canterbury Rangiora 242 £ s. d. 779 1 0 9 Auckland Waiokaraka 230 898 12 0 11 Wanganui Wanganui Boys’ High School 185 1037 13 4 6 Wellington Hawke’s Bay The Terrace 242 839 3 4 7 Gisborne 258 717 0 10 8 Otago Palmerston 210 820 0 5 8 North-east Valley, Dunedin... 215 741 17 6 6 Lawrence High School 245 1033 0 0 8 Westland Kumara 245 761 1 4 8

Wellington. Westland. Nelson, South Canterbury. Marlborough. Southland. Hawke ’s Bay. W anganui. Taranaki £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. Office Staffs’ salaries 270 0 0 306 0 0 286 3 2 112 10 0 279 0 0 250 0 0 Secretary’s salary 231 5 0 , 302 10 0 150 0 0 Departmental contingencies 254 8 1 495 18 3 127 5 0 236 i5 7 59 5 1 226 io 3 107 19 1 160 7 4 85 4 3 Inspector’s salary 500 0 0 • 360 0 0 ( Aao -1A of 300 0 0 125 0 0 372 0 0 500 0 0 370 0 0 192 10 0 Traveling expenses 184 5 0 144 6 8 °j 95 3 10 64 13 0 130 0 0 150 0 0 66 13 4 Allowances to Members of Board... # ,, • • • / # . 113 4 1 Clerical assistance 17 5 0 16 12 q 4 18 0 13 6 0 8 12 6 To this must be added— ( House provided for Secretary 50 0 0 House allowance paid Inspector ... • 40 0 0 .V* Totals 1,108 13 1 1,403 9 11 821 0 0 934 14 7 361 8 1 1,012 8 3 1,007 19 1 1,026 0 9 436 6 8 Amount disbursed 29,034 13 2 16,705 5 2 18,367 19 4 13,818 18 0 4,962 15 2 19,496 4 2 14,637 14 10 15,900 19 11 7,069 14 6