CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 167, 12 July 1878, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the -• Evening 3Aaii..' Sir,— l fiad I have a very difficult task to do, so to set forth in the limits of even a long letter the relations that have, existed . between myself and the Committee a& sbttll i render it intelligible to your readers} this • difficulty is aggravated- from the fact that they have never had the candour to say to bite What they disapproved rand whar they wished to hays done; This' arose" doubtless ' from the circumstance that their objection" was personal only. It was I, not my work, that was the grievance; . - . ..-, When I came to kelson, and .took possession of the school I fouud a feud eiisting between the Inspector and the Cprrimittee. I never could fully understand it, but it raged round the refusal of tjie Inspector to sanction the appoii.Unent of a person whom many of the Committee were most desirous to place in the school, and that he had closed with ■ me, without their consent. . Thi3 at least is what I understood.. And then a terrible offence was that I was til lowed four months to pass uiy examination, aud that sore rankles to the present day. It was, however, the only condition upon which I would accept the school, and I believe no Nelson teacher ever asked for any time. The result of this, however, was that from the outset I: was an v offence to very many of the then Com-' mittee; or, in the words of one of them tome, I was " the victim *' of the "disagreement between the parties. And their wlien l"came, I found 1 had been misled as to the position I was to occupy; the advertisement was for a head teacher, but I found it was the anomalous position of being iv charge of the upper classes of a school, having no control whatever over the lower divisions. Now I venture to say that is an arrangement that is purely Nelsonian, and one utterly fatal to all systematic teaching. Against this I protested to tbe Inspector and members of the Committee, which was not received very graciously. Then I found the school regarded as a high or higher school, but id what sense the upper classes of one school should be higher than those of another under the game system exceeded my comprehension. I found however that the boys were wofully backward iv everything, there were not half a dozen boys in the school that a Victorian teaclier would place m his fifth class without the certainty of receiving no result money, and being coudeniued for defective classification, a thing, by the way, that' is never mentioned in your Nelson school reports. I pointed this out to the Inspector, and he quite agreed with me as to the backward and low state of the school. Ido not think lam betraying any confidence ivben I repeat what he said to me on one occasion. Ho said, "I was utterly surprised to. find the boys knew so li tie," and, speaking of arithmetic he said, " There was not one of them who knew what was ineaot by 'antecedent and consequent.' " That is strange, I thought, if you have examined the school for so many years and me so ignorant of its state. That mystery, however, was made very clear when I saw how he examined the school. The method he adopts leaves him unfailingly as. ignorant of the real condition of the. schools as if he had never examined them. \ I soon found, however, that my comments on the state of things existing, and upon ths whole school system of Nelson were very distasteful to the inspector. Then followed our disagreement about my examination — the time in which it was to take place, and the subject matter thereof —and I quickly learnt that I had the Inspector as well as the Committee arranged against me. It will b« of no avail to detail all the case. The attitude of the Committee, however, became more and more unfriendly, and I learnt from many sources that the influence of the majority was used to thwart my efforts, aud prevent my succeeding with the school. I put an advertisement in the Mail calling the attention of the public to the ;subjects taught in the school that ■ enraged them in a most astonishing way. That I could presume to infringe upon what they regarded as their province, and I was given to understand if the offensive advertisement was not removed a special meeting would be summoned, and I should be taught my position, lam sorry to find that I cannot condense into one letter all I think I ought to say on this matter. I must, therefore, beg to be allowed to pursue it briefly iv another communication. lam not; I assure you, anxious to vindicate myself, I did not come to Nelson to have my status as a teacher determined— that was settled under a very different system to that which prevails here— but I think my case involves principles and modes of procedure with respect to teachers', and those in authbrity over them, that are of public interest, and are somewhat irital, at least to the teachers. Therefore I feel tome justification in making somewhat large demands on your space. — I am, &c , ' ; Wat, Pbice. [In his former letter Mr Price led us to believe that this correspondence «?aa to cease with his present communication^ Aj, however, he now threatens us with a third letter we wish to inform him that it most be brief, and that it will be his last. ,' He will theu have had ample .opportunity of stating his case, and, with the few remarks that we shall feel called upon to make upon his letters,,this correspondence, whose leading features have hitherto been the sickening egotism of the writer, and the unpardonable insolence of the. charges he has thought fit to make, will be brought to a close.— Ed.N.E M.]