Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1881.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 29, 3 February 1881, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1881.

The Wellington College Board of Governors have recently held a meeting, at which they contradicted a statement made in a letter to the Evening Posf— which we republished a few days ago, together with some comments thereon — to the effect that the s cholarship funds had been diverted to the general account. As we gave publicity to the letter it is only fair to do the same to the contradiction, and with this view we quote the following extract from the report of the proceedings :— ■" There was some discussion upon a letter which had been published, accusing the Board of diverting scholarship funds to the general account, a statement wbich was characterised aa untrue. Mr. Bunny thought newspapers Bhould be more careful than to publish damaging statements without truth. Birds should not dirty their own nests, if they could help it. Such letters would, when a vote was asked in Parliament next session , be quoted by those hostile to Wellington. He thought the statement should have been contraditted by the secretary.— Dr. Hector said the letter referred to not having been contradicted, had been reprinted in Nelson in large type, and a leading article written upon it. Mr. Levin said it was preposterous to cay the scholarship funds had been diverted. The £1000 was lying ia the bank as a deposit — it could not be touched, and was not in the general account. At the time the letter was written the real fact was that one boy bad applied and been paid, and another bad not applied."— A little later on there was a discussion on the very unsatisfactory state of Affairs prevailing at the Wellington College, in the course of which Mr Brandon, one of the Governors, made the following candid admission : — "There is certainly something wrong. The College gets more and more unpopular, and the attendance gets less and less." Dr Hector, also one of the Governors, had something to say ou the matter, and having recently been on a visit to Nelson

he gave the Board the result of his observations on the management of tho Nelson College. Ho is reported to have said ; — " There rihould be a Committee appointed to see what is done in other places. I was at Nelson, and wont through the books of the College, and got a lot of information which I could give the Committee. They manage a larger College there for less money, and, I believe, quite as well." We have heard of " damming- with faint praise "' but never so clearly appreciated the full import of the expression as wo did after reading these few words of Dv Hector's. '• They manage a larger College in Nelson for less money, and. J believe, quite as well." Was this quite honest oC the Doctor ? Having- jusfc returned from Nelson, whore, ifc appears, lie had every opportunity of obtaining " a lot of informal/ion," would it not have been fairer to .say, whab he must have ascertained for himself, that the management here is infinitely .superior to what it is in Wellington where the College, on the showing of one of its Governors, in, -nuclei: tho present regime, '•' getting inoro and more, unpopular "'? When it may be fairly Paul that the management of Hie Nelson College has sunk to ?o miserably low a level that all that can Vjc said in its favor is thai; it is quite as good as that of the sister institution in Wellington, it will be high time to do here what is now suggested as being necessary there, namely, to commence a complete re-organisation of the system under which it ia carried on.