PUBLIC INQUIRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2382, 21 January 1922, Page 4

PUBLIC INQUIRY.

THE CASE OF MISS PARK. ALLEGATIONS DETAILED. The detailed, allegations made against Miss Park, the Carterton school teacher whose case is engaging much attention, are contained in a letter from the Education Department to Miss Park as follows: —

“Madam, —The Carterton School Committee has/Communicated with the Minister of Education protesting against the methods of the inquiry recently held by the Wellington Education Board at Carterton .into your conduct as a teacher, and asking him to cause a full and public inquiry to be held. The Minister has ordered such an inquiry to be held, at which Mr A. D. Thomson, formerly Stipendiary Magistrate, and latterly Assistant Public Service. Commissioner, will preside. Yon a re'hereby requested to attend this inquiry, which will commence at the Agricultui’al Hall, Carterton, on 30th January, at 11.30 a.ra. The inquiry will cover the following allegations made against you: — “(1) That you di/1 write and cause to be published a letter in the journal, National Education, in its issue of October last, which is in the following words: —‘Sir, —After reading your paragraph under the heading “Sedition in the Teaching Profession,” I am of opinion that you have not taken time to consider more than one aspect of the case. Personally, I am convinced of the evil of any form of, violence, but, firm as that conviction is, it does 'not bind one to the issues raised by the action which the Minister is reported to be taking, and with which you are evidently in sympathy. It ■is said that political control of the teaching profession, from the university down, made the people of Germany as putty in the hands of her war lords. It is just this principle that I see in the reported action of the Minister. If we strip the case of newspaper headlines and popular fears and hates, this, I think,'is what we see: A student is convicted of a. political offence committed quite apart from the school or college, without inquiry into her character and influence as a. teacher; she is, it is reported, deprived of her certificate and dismissed. Moreover, the law “did not defer to” is, if my memory serves me right, one of those iniquitous Orders-in-Coun-eil, and therefore not n law made by the people for the people. “A nation that would leaven and regenerate the world” —that is the vision that comes to some of us. Do you think, Mr Editor, that your paragraph or the Minister’s reported methods will help to _ keep that vision clear?—l am, etc. (signed), Jean Park.’

“(2) That such a letter should be written immediately after and because of the conviction and dismissal of Miss Weitzel from the teaching service.constitutes under the circumstances a grave impropriety, insubordination, and serious misconduct on your part as a teacher, resulting in a request being forwarded from the Carterton School Committee to the Wellington Education Board to remove you from the Carterton School.

“(3) That you have made utterances to your pupils at the Carterton School at various times which were of a character off ensive to the general community and repugnant to the sentiments commonly held by British people, and . tending to create disloyal, unpatriotic and unBritish ideas in the minds of your pupils. In this respect you are alleged to have been guilty of serious misconduct as a teacher. Examples of these utterances are to be found in your references to the conduct of the British Navy during the war, and also to the execution of Nurse Cavell.

“(4) Other matters indicating an unsatisfactory attitude of mind on your part which were brought, up at the recent inquiry by the Education Board at Carterton are also alleged to constitute on your part serious misconduct as a teacher e.g., the proposal to introduce into the school the Maoriland Worker as reading matter, your objection to taking the children to the War Trophies Exhibition at Masterton, your 1 opposition to the Navy League, your attitude with regard to the regulations requiring the weekly salute of the Hag, and the singing of the National Anthem, \and your attitude regarding the action of the British Government in Ireland.”

The letter is signed by Mr .J. Caughley (Director of Education).

MISS PARK ADVISED NOT TO ATTEND.

In reference to the case of Miss Park, the Carterton school teacher, the following letter has been sent to the Director of Education by the Educational Institute: — “Sir. —I have the honour to, inform you that the case of Miss Park has been referred, to the executive of the New Zealand Educational Institute for consideration, • for such action as may seem suitable. I have been directed by the executive to acknowledge on Miss Park’s behalf your letter of the sth instant informing her of a projected second inquiry, into her case. The executive does not see in your letter'mention of any matter that was not fully dealt with at the inquiry held by the Education Board. Miss Park has already undergone &ne inquiry by the proper authorities, and it is contrary to all standards of British fair-play that a prosecutor, having failed at one trial, should be given an opportunity of a second trial for the purpose of bolstering up the weakness of his case that the first

trial disclosed. Against such a proceeding the evecutive enters its most emphatic protest, and has, therefore, advised Miss Park not to attend the proposed second inquiry. “With the subject matter of your letter it is not the executive’s intention to deal at this stage, except to say, in reference to Miss Park’s letter in the National Education, that the executive does not in any way excuse the letter, which, in the opinion of the executive, contains expressions which are injudicious and of doubtful propriety, but do not justify some of the injurious inferences that have been drawn from them. As far as the other matters are concerned, the executive is preparing, for publication if necessary, a statement covering the whole history of the case.”