Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1889. THE LAST MAN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume VII, Issue 233, 11 January 1889, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1889. THE LAST MAN.

Under this title the Wellington Evening Press publishes a leading article on " the fate of those unfortunate men who are induced to come out from. Home to accept masterships of secondary schools in New Zealand." No article appearing in that always excellent paper has given us more satisfaction than this one has done, as it so emphatically endorsed the opinion we have from time to time given expression to, that our Education Boards are as a rule composed of members who are unable to appreciate a capable master when they have secured one in their service. Referring to an article written a year ago the writer states — "We showed that out of twenty of these victims of delusive hopes, all but two or three had committed suicide, died of a broken heart, or been bullied in resigning their position and shaking .the dust off their feet against the colony in an agony of rage and shame at the treatment they experienoed at the hands of the governing bodies." Do we not know of some such oa9eß? When the Wanganui Education Board, after Mr Hulke's resigning charge of the Foxton school, called for applications for a master, they were unable to secure a suitable applicant, and it was only owing to the efforts of the School Committee, that the services of Mr Washington Stewart were obtained. The older settlers will remember the treatment that he received from the Board, and the Board's Inspector, and simply owing to his being in possession of a degree superior to that officer's, it was considered advisable to find fault with his teaching, and he was privately advised to resign. This he did, and before his term of service expired with the Wanganui Board, he obtained a more lucrative appointment under the Auckland one. The writer says: — "Our main object in publishing the article was not so much to arouse indignation against 'Boardism ' in the colony, as to sound a note of warning, or to strike a note of terror, in scholastic circles at Home. We wish to make it impossible for any Board of Governors in New Zealand to procure a fresh victim to

their caprices, to induce any man of standing in the schools in Great Britain to sacrifice his best years and faculties and hopes, in the vain attempt to do justice to himself and his powers and at the same time adapt himself to an intolerable system of official domineering^ It seemed to ( U8 that the only way to bring the Boards and the public to a sense oi the radical wrongness of the mode of treatment to which schoolmasters are subjected in this country, was to make the facts known at" Home so conspicuously that any man who accepted a scholastic position here, and suffered as the others have done, would only have himself to blame for not having made himself safe beforehand." But surely if the ' Boardism ' is of so fatal a character to the master, the same action must recoil upon the scholar, and though the Press is to be congratulated on attempting to save one class of the Board's victims, we trust to see its powerful pen weilded in defence of the school committees and the scholars of the State schools. If the action of the members of these Boards can be seen to be disadvantageous when interfering with secondary education, we may be sure that they are not better guided in their, administration relating to primary schools. The facts are beyond dispute that the present system of education will inevitably break up, unless the feeling of the committees meet -with more considerate attention to that which they now receive, and these useless additions to the governing power, the Education Boards, are abolished. "What adds a special and melancholy interest in these circumstances (says the Press) is that, during the year which has elapsed since that article was written, the Boards of Government of secondary schools in New Zealand have added three more scalps to their former trophies. They are those of Mr Ford, of the Nelson College, Mr Corfe, of Christ's College Grammar School, Christchurch, and Mr Halkett Dawson, of the Timaru High School. Mr Ford, one of the most valuable men who ever came to this country, not only an eminent scholar with great teaching aptitude, but a man possessing in an extraordinary degree that hidden power of innuajpce over young minds which distinguish^. Dr Arnold and all the really great schoolmasters, has been driven away by what is practically a threat of starvation." If Boards of Governors do these things how much more will not the Education Boards do ? Let this be a lesson unto us, and may we use our experience before it be too late, by brushing aside the influence wielded by the members of these Boards and the vested interests of those who are desirous of upholding them, and thus so clear our national system of education from the reproaches heaped upon it, and save it from becoming a total wreck.