A SCREW LOOSE.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 67, 1 September 1880, Page 2

A SCREW LOOSE.

Where there is an effect one may logically -'infer. there i»,also a cause, and consequently to those with a thirst for knowledge the reason why Education -Boards and Committees should always be m hot water, should prove a curious enigma. TV?* \^ ' s s0 > however, has been most unmistakably shown not only m this di*tri.rt v ;b,at wherever the,d e Parfc.ment holds sway. As "is well known, a regular vendetta has existed between the members oijtheF V^ar.ganui Board and their Inspector ; then again the teacher of the Nor,minby .Sfhool, Mr. Hilt.— a •gentleman not unknown m this district —has been at loggerheads twith his chairman, and columns of attacks and "counter-attack*' cram the papers. ' The Maiwell.town Committee are divided as to whether their teacher is a fit and . ppaper person for th« position, and a deputation from the two sections interviewed the Board and' argued the matter pro andms. Happ"ily~~the' atmosphere above TMiaui has brightened, and as tlie clouds of contention passed away, peace and happiness a£am reign supreme j but the ,Wan?.tniji District has had a narrow 'escape from 'hiving a fourth hau,«e . V- divj^ed affni^Rt itself. 1 ' T}o"thV credit oE tliis district.'hovrever; b|°. it sa.id, the battle has heen a wordy, or at most a -papery arid peppery one ; .but Education t-hasi apparently made ! more rapift strides elsewherr, and the suaviles' m mado has;.been superseded Jjy the -f arbiter m re. It has not been long- since ihe^intern pe»>a..te. ißpu.G^jSßTy got twelve tnotitln' iuipiusonment for criminal libel ; while during the present moon an irascible dominee was sent to pvijson for twice that term for horsewhipping a Ooramitteeman. Down South, the developed 'Education. is r even more, markedj for, we have a teacher talcing forcible possession of a school, and the Goraruitteemen going with olubs and staffs to draw the badger. Even m l&e yery scwMMt 4anQ(orn»i—tk? Wei'

lingtou Education Board — there i» not unfrequently a slight xippl* which threatens to land them on a Lee shore ; and the- sister Board at Dunedin is m blessed m having a Fish vrho doli^hts •wiuiuiing m troubled waters. And this leads us to the point why should an institution which should refine the feelings of men, and curb their evil passions, act only as a repression of the one and the development of. the- other? Are we to look for the cause to the injudicious election of Board and Com mi tteemen, or the appointment of. improper teachers ; or perhaps both. Are the examples, muMplied as they have been throughout the colony, s«t t-"> untrained pupils, of a nature to teach, them m the way they should walk?