EDUCATION BOARD

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 97, 30 July 1880, Page 3

EDUCATION BOARD

The Board met at Wanganui on Wednesday lest. We give below a summary from the Chronicle of the business transacted of interest to this district : — g.--.... Resignation of Mr A. S. Ross, Otaki, was accepted. Resolved, Tha t, Mr Lee, of Wangaehu be appointed, subject to approval of the Committee. Resolved, That notice be given to the Foxton, Normanby, and Palmerston Committees that their schools are over officered, and that a pupil teacher must he removed unless the attendance increased. The resolutions passed by the Foxton School Committee in re Mr Hulke's charges against the Inspector were read. The following letter from the Chairman of the Board to the Chairman of the Foxton School Committee was also read : — "Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of your letter of 9th March, enclosing certain resolutions, passed at a meeting of your Committee. Ai> the correspondence will be laid on the table at the next meeting of the Board, yon will be duly apprised of the fact ; and if it is thought advisable to take any such action with regard to Miss M'Phee as you recommend, I presume that Miss M'Phee will remain in her position till legally- removed. I most, however, say that I shall not hesitate to express at the time your letter is denlt with the opinion that the Committee is exceeding the just limit of its powers in prescribing to the Board the course it shall adopt with respect to a question which has already been the subject of judicial review at a regular meeting of the Board. The decision of the Board on the various questions raised by Mr Hulke has in no respect compromised Miss M'Phee, and to yield without sufficient grounds to the Committee's demands for this teacher's displacement would be to introduce the dangerous practice of constituting local committees a court of appeal, to which teachers, feeling themselves aggrieved, miuht feel at liberty to resort. I also feel bound to intimate to you that it appears to me that you utterly misconoeive the position you hold in regard to 'the Education Board, and I cannot recognise your claim to possession of papers that are the property of the Board, and which you consider yourself entitled au thoritatively and not courteously to demand. It will, however, al\rays be an agreeable duty for me to furnish Committees with such documents or copies of them as in my discretion they can reasonably require, and by which the Comnrittee may be enabled to promote the interests of the schools under their supervision. — lam, yours faithfully, W. H. Watt." Resolved, that the Board approves of the reply of the Chairman, and that this end the matter. Letter from Chairman of Otaki School Committee, with reference to a resolution passed by the Board at last meeting in regard to the conduct of the teacher of the Otaki School. Ordered to lie on the table. Letter from Feilding Corporation, enclosing account of timber supplied by them for the erection of the Ashurst School, — Resolved that the amount, £171, be paid. i^" Mr Sanson moved that the late pupil teachers' examination at Palmerston and Carlyle not having been conducted in accordance with the instructions of the Board, the Inspector be requested to hold another examination in reading and recitation, and that one competent judge be appointed for needlework. He thought it was placing the pupil teachers on an unequal footing their being examined by different examiners in each different place, who might be more or less lenient than they were elsewhere ; they might also in one place have more scholastic ability than another. He thought the whole affair had been sadly jumbled. — Mr Notman seconded the motion, and, after . a lengthy discussion, it was negatived, Messrs Sanson and Notman voting for, and Messrs Ross, Baker, and M'Gregor against. — Mr Notman moved, That the Inspector be authorised to communicate to the public journals the result of the pupil ' teachers' examination. Agreed to. Mr Notman moved that the telegram from the Government referring to reduction of salaries be left to the Finance Committee, and that a notice be sent to the teachers informing them that, in accordance with instructions from the Government, the scale of salaries will have to be revised, with a view to reduction, and that this intimation be considered as formal notice of same. Carried.