Matamata High School.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 73, 23 March 1918, Page 4

Matamata High School.

To the Editor. Sir,—Wo are all intelligently proud that Matamata school shall l>e known iu the future as the District High school. But the birth of this institution has already given much mental [>ain and heart depression among those who have been its most pronounced promoters. In all other relations of life the.man. who Ims been the chief brain .force in bringing about a distwJf advancement in business, or iu any other sphere in which he moves, is, or ought to he, the first to come into the possession of the rewards of his successful endeavours. I noticed from a paragraph in your last issue that Mr (1.11. Malcolm, whose genius for teaching, his tact and unwearied energy, has levered the Matamata school to the high altitude it now occupies, may possibly be leaving. All who are interested in .Mr Malcolm’s achievements would like to have before them a tabulation of the reason, why. In the circumstances, and being the most deeply interested party we surely have a right to know. Now, sir, do you think the abomimablo thing known as red tape figures largely in Mr Malcolm’s possible leaving? Or has lie not a sufficient quantity of the letters of the alphabet at the tail of his name to fit him to head the school? A man with an exceptional memory can parrot the subjects set for degrees, but that fact does not prove that he has exceptional brain force. I am sure, sir, that you have found iu your study of men that

those who have done the greatest things iu the past, and are doing them in the present, are not those, as a rule, whose names have been adorned, or otherwise, with two, or three, or four capital letters whatever their meaning may bo. In short, sir, what we are out for is to makd sure that Mr Maleolm’s exceptional teaching qualities, and fruitful past services, are not to be sacrificed on the altar of red tape or alphabetised proper names. — Yours etc., ANTI HUMBUG.