WANGANUI EDUCATION BOARD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1594, 5 August 1916, Page 4

WANGANUI EDUCATION BOARD.

CHAIRMAN’S VALEDICTORY SPEECH. The following is the valedictory statement made by Mr Pirani (chairman) at the last meeting of the Wanganui Education Board: —

“As this is the last occasion upon which the present Board will meet, although, strange to say, there is no legislative provision for any Board to succeed it for...throe days after the expiry of its term of office, I have deemed it advisable to refer at some length to the work of the past: ten years, at which time I had been a. member myself for ten years. With a knowledge, therefore, of the personnel of the Board since 189(5, I can honestly say that there has not in that period at any rale, been a Board with a greater capacity for carrying on the important work of educational administration than the existing one, every member of which has had considerable experience in the administration of education and other local body work as well as being successful business men. Three of the retiring members —Messrs T. Harris, M.A., P. O’Dea, ALA., L.L.8., and I). H. Guthrie, M.P. — have been capable and experienced teachers in the Wanganui Board’s service, and two others —Messrs E, Dixon and Alf. Eraser —are at present Mayors of Hawera and Eoxton respectively. Messrs G. 11. Bennett, E, Furnell, P. O’Dea, N. Dixon, T. Harris and D, H. Guthrie are retiring members, and it is not too much to say that the Board individually and as a whole has displayed a spirit of industry, devotion to duty, and high ideals of the scope of education, which parents and pupils attending onr schools have very good reason to he thankful for. To this Board is due the introduction of a number of education reforms suggested by the chief inspectors which has resulted in placing the Wanganui District in the forefront of advanced educational activity, amongst the prominent being rural and agricultural education, the unique development of technical education, the large number of small centres of instruction for cookery and woodwork for primary pupils, and appointment of an organiser of sehooLwork, the Montessori system of infant instruction, the organisation of compulsory continuation classes, the teachers’ circulating library, the official publication for teachers (The Leaflet) the appointment of an itinerant drawing instructor, the importing of school material, the large, number of school gardens, and the method of classification and promotion of teachers. Unfortunately, the last mentioned reform has to a great extent been stultified by the support given to unsatisfactory teachers by the Teachers’ Institute, the members of which seem to think it is their sole duty to bolster up the inferior teachers at the expense of their more efficient confreres. Although handicapped by the frowning disapproval of the Central De-partment-disapproval based upon ignorance of what constitutes true .education —the Board has persevered with its reforms, and has had the satisfaction of living to sec the Departmental quidnuncs not only confounded by the success of our proposals, but in many instances adopting them as their own without the slightest acknowledgment of the .source from which the experience had been derived. The members have worked cordially together at all times, and even when confronted by the gravest; problems have not hesitated to take the bold plunge necessary to ensure a fair trial of the many schemes set afloat for the improvement of the education system. The last trial placed upon the administration has been the removal of the control of 1 lie inspectorship from the Boards to the Department, largely increasing the cost of inspection and considerably impairing its efficiency. It will lie a severe wrench lo lose the services of so many old members and to miss the close associations and cordial relations existing, which have done so much to make the work a labour of Jove, and I can only express my hope that the new members will he .able to fill the gap made by the retirement of six old members. It is remarkable that there should have been such a change in the personnel of the Board during the last ten years, Messrs Eraser, Dixon and myself being the only members who have continued in office ever since. In 1906, Messrs Guthrie, Purnell and Bennett were elected; in 1910, Mr O’Dea. was elected; in 1913, Mr Harris was

elected; and in 1914, Mr Bruce was elected. The educational, progress of the district during the last decade has been very great: in 190(5 the roll number was 12,980, and last year it was 1(5,332. In 1900, teachers and pupil-teachers totalled 374, in 1915 520. In ten years the receipts have increased by £42,863 per annum, the annual expenditure now totalling £117,000. Ton years ago there was only one technical school in the district. There are now twelve properly equipped technical schools; in 1906 the district was divided into three parts for the purposes of organisation of technical work. Messrs Varney, Amos and Hint/ were the first supervisors, and Mr G. I). Braik was appointed superintendent of technical instruction. There were then 10 centres at which classes were being held. At (he end of 1915 the number had been increased to 35. The expenditure in 190(5 under this head was £6,773, in 1915 £12,394. 1906 was the first year in which Engineering classes were held at Wanganui. The voluntary contributions during (he past 10 years total £7,501. This Board was the first to introduce the rural or agricultural course, and it is in force in eight district high schools. For last year we were the second highest in the matter of capitation and roll number; the order being: Wellington, Wanganui, Otago, Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, South Canterbury, North Cauterburv and Taranaki.

The percentage of schools which have taken elementary handwork throughout the Dominion was 77. In Wanganui the percentage was 94, third highest for Ihe Dominion. For manual instruction (he percentage of schools for the Dominion is (59, and Wanganui, with 7J, is the third highest. In 190(5 there were gardens at 4(5 schools (1233 pupils) and in 1915, 157 gardens (2191 pupils). The rural course pupils are not included. In 1906 the staff consisted of 2 cookery, 2 woodwork, 1 agriculture and 1 dairy work instructors; total 6. Mr Browne was appointed dairvwork instructor in that year. The staff now totals 13 (excluding directors of technical schools or permanent instructors). The Board can claim to possess the most up-to-date school buildings in (be Dominion, the system of central balls and brick buildings having been adopted for all the large schools, while single desks have been adopted since 1906 for all new schools and replacement of old furniture. It would be out of place not to mention the splendid position the town of Wangaui has been placed by the erection of ihe finest technical college in the Dominion for its size, the splendid infant school, and the commodious Board offices from the loan raised on the security of the rents from an acre of land in Victoria Avenue without a penny of contribution from the Government. These buildings, all erected in brick, arc worthy of the high praise bestowed upon them, and will always be an object lesson to the Department njton the const ruction of up-to-date buildings of the best typo for educational purposes. I cannot conclude without expressing my personal indebtedness to the members of the Board for their ready assistance, good counsel, and kindly tolerance frequently under trying circumstances —of the somewhat faulty efforts I have made to promote Jhe Board’s work in the capacity of chairman, recognising no doubt, that any deficiencies should be overlooked in the fact that my one consideration was the efficient progress of the education system. My relations with the inspectors, the instructors, and the office staff have always been of the most cordial character, while with very few exceptions the teachers and myself have always been at one in onr aims and relations.’’