New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4974, 2 March 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1877.

The members of the Education Board have acted very sensibly in dealing between the Inspector, Mr. Lee, and certain masters who disapproved of _ his report, and complained of his action in reference to their special cases. We were naturally prohibited .whilst the matter was as it were sub judice from writing either pro or con.; but we believe that the opinion we all through entertained —namely, that the masters were quite in the wrong—was shared in by all but persona partially disposed through honest prejudice or motives that the word honest would be inapplicable to. In the case of Mr. West, the Board has very properly condemned the action of that gentleman in flying for the redress of a fancied grievance to the columns iof a newspaper, and not in the first- instance seeking his redress at the hilnda of the proper body, the Board,’ In the cases of Messrs. Holmes Marten, and Sinclair, of Wellington, Karori, and Taita, respectively, the Board has proforma deferred its final conclusion until the Local Boards in each case shall have had before them the complaints of the schoolmasters together with the replies of Mr. Lee. But the Board has nevertheless patiently investigated all three cases, and in a general resol action has affirmed its full confidence ‘in Mr. Lee. The case of the Karori Local Board and Mr. Marten has in Wellington received more prominence than that of either of the other two, in consequence of what it is impossible to avoid terming the somewhat foolish conduct of the Local Board. The members met on a Friday night, and on the following Tuesday what purported to be a viva voce report of their proceedings was forwarded to us, with the information that the Board had resolved on its publication in the New Zealand Times. As the report appeared in other papers previously to its possible insertion in the New Zealand Times, we declined to publish it, in accordance with an invariable rule, which would be stringently applicable if similar circumstances occurred again. But’wej may say, as we said at the time, that even if the report had reached this paper in time for its publication by us prior to its appearance, we should have refused to insert it under the somewhat to us inexplicable circumstances that it professed to be a full report of proceedings at a meeting taken without the services of a shorthand writer, and requiring three full days subsequently for its preparation for publication. We do not say that the report was untrustworthy, but we do assert that the circumstances surrounding its publication were not such as would have justified us in publishing it, despite the resolution of the Karori Local Board that it should be published in the New Zealand Times. In the full report of yesterday’s proceeding at the meeting of the Education Board, which will be found elsewhere, the whole circumstances of Mr. Marten’s case are detailed, and most people we fancy will entertain the opinion that it would have been much better for that gentleman’s position as a schoolmaster had he and the Local Board contested Mr. Lee’s report on some other foundation than that they used. We write without any intention to depreciate Mr. Marten’s professional attainments, or his reputation as a successful schoolmaster, but it seems unfortunate for both that he should not have come better out of the present matter than he has done. It may be said here that the New Zealand Times knows nothing of Mr. Lee except what may be derived from the records of the good work he has done in the late province and present provincial district, and that the opinion this journal has formed of the gentleman is in concord with that entertained of him by other newspapers of repute. Quite recently the Dunedin Evening Star, a paper whose excellent reputation fully justifies its possession of the largest circulation in this colony, had an article which, after speaking of the Wellington Inspector of Schools in most commendatory terms, stated the fact also that here in teaching matters he had succeeded in producing order out of chaos. It is well for the district moreover that the Educa-tion-Board is apparently fully alive to the merits of its officer, and that the public which that Board represents are equally disposed to place trust in him, despite the honest but decidedly foolish complaints of gentlemen with fancied grievances, or some persons who advocate their causes from motives which it is unnecessary to characterise.

Mb. Climie’s report, submitting a proposal for the drainage of Wellington, came up for reconsideration at yesterday’s meeting of the City Council. The whole question as raised by Mr. Climie, and the plan proposed to be carried out by him, have been before the public for some time, and have been made the subject of wide and critical discussion. Several members of the Council—Mr. , Mills and others—spoke Very sensibly oh the subject yesterday, pointing out how much public feeling had set in in favor of' something being done to relieve Wellington from the imputation of outdoing Cologne so far as a hundred and one stinks were concerned, and how necessary it was, now that a definite project was before the Council, that the members should decide upon something. A letter was read from Dr, Newman, as secretary of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Medical' Association, suggesting that, before the Council decided upon adopting Mr. Olimie’s, report, it should be referred to a species of mixed commission, composed of members of the association and of the engineering profession resident here. Had the Council agreed to delay decision on the report, on the ground that members had not had time to make themselves sufficiently acquainted with it, we should, whilst pointing out that members were themselves to blame for this, have at the same time admitted the plea. But on the persuasive pleadings of Councillor Dransfield, the members resolved to postpone their decision until the precious com-, mission aforesaid should have made its decision. The formation of the Wellington branch, &c.,* was not, aa our readers doubtless remember, an, unqualified success,, It was alleged against it that it was distinguished by partiality, and the exclusion of at least one leading medical man through what seemed to be personal motives. At present the Wellington branch, for aught we know, may be composed of Dr. Newman himself, who is ever coming before the public, either to prove that as a colonial-born youth he is not equal in stamina to the imported article, or to show that, like the gentleman who suddenly. dia-

covered that he had been talking prose all his life, the members of the Wellington branch have been great sanitary authorities for a long time without knowing it. As for the engineers who are to compose a portion of the commission, we have nothing to say, except that the Council is not- likely .to gather much good from their dissection of a brother engineer’s report. However, the Council have come to a decision for delay, and all that the public can do now is to wait for a while.