Householders Meeting at Foxton.

Manawatu Herald, 24 April 1894, Page 2

Householders Meeting at Foxton.

* The usual annual meeting of the householders within the Foxton School District was held at 8 o'clock last night in the State School. The attendance was very small, owing, perhaps, to the very stormy weather, a tremendous gale blowing accompanied with sharp showers of rain. The Chairman of the Committee, Mr Thynne, tool? the chair, and explained the reason for its. being called. He mentioned that as no nominations had .been received the whole seven members of the Committee would have to be nominated. The voting would be by ballott, and the consent of candidates must be produced in writing or given verbally. Previous to proceeding with the election, Mr Thynne read the report on the finances of the school, which summarised as follows : — SCHOOL FUND ACCOUNT. Receipts — £.s. d. Balance beginning of year 7 16 11 (•i rants from Board ... 24 4 0 Voluntary contributions 8 15 0 Sale of old harmonium 110 0 Total ... 42 5 11 Expenditure — Cleaning ... 16 12 9 Fuel 2 14 11 Repairs to school, &c. 4 8 8 Furniture 5 1G 8 Advertising and stationery 2 10 0 Miscellaneous items 514 7 Balance 4 18 11 Total ... 42 5 11 Mr Thynne said it would bi noticed that in addition to the balance of £4 13s lid there was a quarter's grant-due from-(thj $Q&rjL He then called upon Mr ttay to react the report. REPORT OF THE FOITON SCHOOI/ COM« MITTEE FoR THE YEAR ENDING 81fJT MARCH, 1895. „<Y w „,. pf „ . r _ r? The retiring committee consist" of the following gentlemen : — Mr SJ. ' S. Thynne (chairman), Dr Dermer, and Messrs W. T. Little, Edmund Osborne, Bernard Spelman, T. P. i Williams and J. T. Eay (clerk)'. Thsy have held office since April I 24 :i, 1898. 'J he consequence of serfeti^f^lDes3 prevailing in the townshij^^^fl^ptt 1892 necessitating the cloaipl^p^i school for a eonsiderablrperic^^^ annual examination of the; scholars did not take place in that year, but was postponed. It was held on April 27ih and 28th, 1893. The interruptions oaused by the, closiug of the school necessarily thivw the children back in theifc studios and they wove therefore nofc fully prepared for the; eXfrffllfifijtiiM Had they only remained awiiy daring the days that the school was actually closed most of them would probably have recovered the ground lost, bud as a matter of fact after each reopening the attendance was .small and intermittent. ..;:.'-.: ' fri The number of chUdi^h; pr^ais^ted for examination excluslv^^i children in the infant claweiß" w»^^|S|^^ Of these 74 passed showing apecc^nfege of passes of 66.1 and of failures 88.9. In the 3rd and 4th goatees** of last year the work of the#Qhoqlj|f aB interrupted by v;an;^|ipnjj]ra||c^ of measles. A a >eoial nieetiogj^tthe committee was b^dld.,on.r4.H^w^^rd when a report was t ec©iVdd.^)^%r Stewart the headmasteri I^^fc^iiag that measles had Apj^r^i ani. 19 : fami ies having omldren ;to aggregate of 60 attending tlifllloliool and in consequence of this : .axj;d the fear of infection the attendance- of the school had been greatly re^noed. The committee resolved that owing to the prevalence of meases In the town, a <d the consequence of «mall attendnnoe in the school, thfl aphpoJ should be closfed until /xhe/jr^ Monday in September. When that date arrived, however, it was found inadvisable to re~open the school, in oafc£eo^&£< tfft tffe o ntinuanoe of the epidemic^ ana tire school remained closed until Sept. . 25th. On its being re-opened on that day there were still a grest many children either suffering fr6m, or recovering from measles, th*t 'it became necessary for the protection of the childreu attending the school to forbid- the attendance of any child residing in a house Whelk measles had existed within less than a week previously to the child returning. After the re- opening of the sohool th<M attendance was very small, and tljfl effect of the epidemic influenced tfl^j attendance of the school for a great many weeks, and infaot, the uormal attendance was' not regained up to the end of the year, The average

attendance for the September quarter was 140.9 and for the December quarter 178.9. The Inspectors have thought fit to allow a year to elapse before holding another examination and the examination for this year will take place early in May. At, the last annual . meeting the roll number was 281 being 128 boys and 7 188 girls and the present roll number is 254 being 128 boys and ;j2d girls being 7 less than last year. •"Since the beginning of this year .the attendance has considerably increased. The average for the ' March quarter was 188.3. The educational advantages offered at the State School do not appear to be greatly appreciated by the parents of this locality. In Standard V there are only 9 . boys and no girls and in Standard VI there are only 2 boys and no girls. Daring the year the committee have lost the services of Miss Bailantine who was promoted in July last to the position of assistant mistress at Norman by. The following extracts from the niinutes of the meeting of the •'Bchool Committee held on August 3rd last indicate the appreciation in which Miss Ballantine was held: — " The various members of the committee express their appreciation of her coustant interest in the progress of the pupils under her charge, and of her bright and cheerful manner with them." It was stated that her pupils liked her well and that she was very popular throughout the school. It was felt that she had well earned the promotion she had obtained and although the Committee regretted to lose her services they considered she had done right to herself to seek an advanced position. The following resolution was unanimously passed : — That the Committee desire to express their regret at Miss Ballantine's resignation and desire to thank her for the attention and consideration she has given to the scholars under her charge during the last four years. On Misß Ballantino's removal, Mr Arthur 0. Buchler, pupil teacher, was added to the teaching staff. On a Friday without any intimation to the committee the Board ordered Mr Buchler to proceed to a school near Normanby and hs left the next day. The committee disapproved of the removal of Mr Bnchler, and expressed their views to the Board in a lettor of which the following is a copy.;— iWon School Committee, ' Februarj- 10th, 1894. ' Rir,— l am desired by the Committee to protest in the strongest terms against the removal of Mv Buchler, pupil teacher, from the Koxton Sohoal bo suddenly and so suddenly \,belore the examination. Mr Buohler/iyas doing good work, and his removal 'af: the' present time is seriously injurious to, the Well-being of the schoo . Had it been foand necessary to reduce the teaching staff, the Committee think that the Board would have consulted the best interests of .the children had the change been postponed until after the examination. As it is Mr Buchler's removal has necessi tated a shifting of some ,ol the teachers most 'necessarily retard the progress ot tnegcholarß affected by the ohange, and P&yig&J^-ptroiQg by some of them of a su*C(J6ftsfnl examination. If Mr Buchler's • removal was' brought about in consequence oi the<B»op'iri:the f itten(lance last- quarter, the Hoard arc aware '.hat this drop owinjr to sickness prevalent m the district. The Committee are aware that the Board claim ! to have the lpgal right- to make changps in ! the teaching staff without any regard whatever to the wishes of the Committee, buf the Committee consider that to use this assumed right, and to ignore the Committee in contemplated changes, oannot | but militate against the efficiency of the j sohool, I am, sir, Your obedient servant, J. T. Rat, Hon. Clerk. The Secretary, Board of Education, Wanganui. The amount of capitation grant allowed by the Board to the Committee to meet the expenses of keeping the sohool clean and supplying firing and other necessaries to the .school amounted for the year ending 81st March last to the sum of £24 4s. The sum allowed is too small to pay an adequate sum for the cleaning of the school. The Com mittee have not been in a position to pay more than 6s 8d per week to the school cleaner. Mrs Allen and her daughters are now doing the work.. The Committee would like to be in a position to increase the wages.: as they are quite aware that if the work is well done the pay is insufficient. • If the present average attendance is kept up the capitation allowance will it is hoped be sufficiently increased to permit the Committee to advance the school cleaner's wages. The parents of the scholars should he Interested in having a clean school, but unless the attendance is |ept up the sohool fund will continue inadequate for this purpose. &#he Head master has brought the subject of the playground appliances before the Committee with the view of having the swing and giant stride repaired" and the Committee have ordered the work to be done. If the sohool fund had allowed it the Committee would have availed themselves before this of the offer of the Board to pay half the expense of building another shelter shed. They recommend to the incoming commifcte the undertaking of this work "funds i will allow it. Ray added that the Committee considered it was right the attendance- *t sohool by all the children of i Foxton should be enforced. The { CommiltM had taken up a flagrant

I case of non-attendance of two 1 children of one family and had given . the statutory notice to the father re* quiring them to attend. They considered that if the notice should be disregarded the father ought to be summoned before the Stipendiary Magistrate at the next sitting of the Court to answer for this neglect. . The account of receipts and expendituro for the financial year show a balance in hand of £4 18s lid. The total receipts, Including a balance in hend at the commencement of the year of £7 16s lid, amounted to £42 5s lid, and the expenditure to £3? 125.; . The report was received with much I attention. Mr Thynne proposed, and it was cordially carried, that a hearty vote of thanks be accorded to Mr Ray for having aced as Clerk to the Com* mitte during the past year. A vote of thanks to Mr Thynne as chairman and Mr Gibson as auditor wa^also carried. Messrs Littte and Westwood were requested to act as scrutineers. ■The following -gentlemen were nominated and received the number of votes placed aftea their names, viz, — . E. S. Thynne, ... 18 J.T.Ray, ... 11 T.P.Williams, ... 8 J. Walsh, 8 Dr Dermer, ... 7 W. T. Little, ... 7 B. Spelman ... 7 They were therefore declared duly elected. Prior to the declaration a second ballot was taken between Messrs Spelman and Wesfcwood who had both polled 6 in the first ballot, which resulted in the first named re • ceiving 7 votes and the other 0. A vote of thanks to the chair coueluded the meeting.