Marlborough Times. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1880.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 118, 7 May 1880, Page 2

Marlborough Times. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1880.

Tiros;: of our readers who have paid attention to the proceedings of the Education Board for the past four month" will have seen that a virulent attack has been made on the Town Schools, amounting in reality to a charge of incompetence against the Head Master, both as a teacher and

organiser. To sustain the charges the Insoeetor’s Report- has been quoted in (street opposition to that gentleman’s ( :\v!i rendering of ifs meaning, and a f,.\v parents have boon incited to attemp 10 -o interfere with the teachers in il"ir distribution of school wo:!;, as won hi, had. Ino Education ]>oa; (>: arcodcd totß'ir wishes have made their advocate, dir Geo. Henderson, virtually .Head Master of the Blenheim schools. \\ f* believe no such attcmiit at dictation to the master ol a school is on record in any part of the world outside of .iJ'ciiiicim, and had the Education Board of Marlborough agreed with dir Henderson, it certainly would have distinguished itself in no fiat taring manner. Fortunately the majority of the members of the Board have in their early days attended respectable schools, and, entertaining a due sense of a Hoad Master’s position, have saved Marlborough from a most unenviable notoriety. Much, however, as we feel bound to applaud their action in this matter, there is another phase of the subject, as to which we disagree with their action. It is notorious that for several months Mr G. Henderson and his supporters, have attacked the Head Master of the Blenheim Borough (Schools, not only in his status as a teacher, but also in his character as a private individual in his relation to the Education Board. Jlis letter to the School Committee, which was forwarded to the Education Board, and published in our last issue, clearly and distinctly states that one of the members of the Board has been slandering him, and that they themselves so far gave credit to these representations as to pass a resolution upon them. A point blank denial is given in Mr Macklin’s letter to the various charges made against him by Mr Henderson, and an enquiry is demanded. It might be argued that the members of an Education Board arc so privileged, that under cover of their position, they may with impunity attack the profes-

sional ami private character of any of their teachers. This may he legally the case, but morally tins can never be conceded or demanded, so long as any respect for fair play or gentlemanly feeling exists amongst the members of the Board. H ere we are at issue with the action of the Board, and consider that instead of one month, not a day should have been allowed to elapse until the request “ that the real facts of the ease were placed before the Board and the parents,” should have been granted. This, however, strikes us as at trifling matter compared with the injury done the schools. Every parent in the town is aware that the attack is a, political one, and did the matter rest between Mr Henderson and Mr Macklin it would scarcely be a matter of public concern. But unfortunately this attack of Mr Henderson’s has deprived the schools for the last six months of a third master, and has thrown much extra work on the present teaching staff. The head master says : —“ I would respectfully “ remind the Committee that parents “ should be informed that while every “ effort will be made to educate their “ children, they must not expect that “ much appreciable progress can be “ made until sufficient teaching power “is provided.” Beginning with the declared intention of so reducing ilie salaries of the town teachers that the salary of a third master should be taken from the pay of the present teachers, Mr Henderson lias succeeded in depriving this school for a time of sufficient teaching power. Motion after motion has brought about so much debate that the interests of 300 children seem to have been forgotten, or have become of less interest than the petty political animus of one member of the Education Board. What, after all, is the outcome of all the discussion ? The Southland scale of payments will be adopted, and the Board has discovered, by comparing its Rules with those of other Boards, that a third master is necessary and that the present salaries cannot be reduced. The scale will give to the Borough Schools, reckoning them as one, .£‘B9o, and taking them as they really are, four separate and distinct institutions, .£893. We regret very much indeed the injury done to education in the town by the action of one of the members of the Board . while we admire tho patience witHy which parents of children attending the Blenheim school have borne the inconvenience and loss resulting from the misdirected energies of this mis- ' chief-making individual. It is to be hoped that for the future Mr Henderson will choose some other battle field to fight upon than the town schools, and that the education of the rising generation of the district will not be injuriously interfered with, with no better object apparently than to assuage a feeling of irritation at disappo int e d ambit io n.