BOARD OF EDUCATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5020, 26 April 1877, Page 2

BOARD OF EDUCATION.

The Education Board met yesterday forenoon at the Board’s offices. Present;—Messrs. Toomath (in the chair), Dalrymple, Rosa,. Bunny, Fleetwood, and Watt. MINUTES. The minutes of the meeting were read and confirmed. FINANCE. The Secretary stated that there was a balance of £2130 17s 7d. to the credit of the Board, and that he had made an application to the Government for £ISOO, which would be received at the end of the month. AUDITOR. The Secretary stated that' owing >e death of Mr. Dawcett, who had occulted the position of auditor of the Board’s accounts, his son, Mr. Arthur Dawcett’ had been appointed temporarily by the Finance Commit ee to perform some work requiring to be done. On the motion of Mr. Bunny, Mr. Arthur Dawcett was appointed auditor;, at a salary of £2O per annum. MOSTON. An application for repairs to the schoolhouse at Moston was granted. MABTON. With regard to the Martom school-house application, the Secretary stated that the committee were anxious to have a room built, as it was very much wanted,', but desired in the meantime to be allowed to rent a room. The matter of renting a room was left to Messrs. Watt and Ross, and the Inspector was ordered to report on the subject of a new school-house. TSNUI. An application fer further expenditure at Tenui in the way of putting up new chimneys and gravelling the ground, was postponed tUI Mr. Andrew should be in attendance. JOHNSONTILLE. A letter from Mr. J. Weston as to the purchase of a piece of land at Johnsonville was referred to members of the Local Board. MASTBETON. The question of additional accommodation at the Masterton school having come before the Board previously, was referred to the Inspector to report. In a letter received from the Chairman of Committee, and read yesterday, certain other suggestions were made as to cutting off a slip of the ground for a footpath, etc., which was referred to the member for the district. KABOEI. With regard to the late discussion touching Mr. Marten and the School Inspector, a resolution by the Karor! School Committee was read to this effect:—“That inasmuch as the Education Board has already expressed its entire approval of Mr. Lee’s report, and as they thanked him for his zeal and ability, the committee feel that it would he entirely useless for them to report upon the matter, and therefore simply refer the matter to the testimonials received by Mr. Marten from parents of children attending his school and the Local Committee. The letter was ordered to be NORTH MAKARA. A deputation, consisting of Messrs. Trotter, Longburst, and Robinson, was introduced. The object of the deputation was to urge upon the Board the necessity of establishing a .full time school at North Makara. They explained that if the school were established, and the people of South Makara would send their children to it, there would be about thirty-sis pupils. The Chairman said he had no doubt the full time school would be established at North Makara if an attendance of twenty-five could be guaranteed. It was resolved,—That for three months after May Ist the North Makara school’ be opened in the morning instead of the afternoon as at present. The deputation expressed themselves satisfied with the arrangement, and, having thanked the Board, withdrew. STONBY CREEK. Mr. Carl Ferguson’s tender of £136 17s. for the erection of a schoolhonse at Stoney Creek was accepted. TAONUI. The tender ef Mr. Sutton, for £149,. for erecting a schoolbouse at Taonui, was accepted conditionally on the site for the building being obtained from the Government. AWAHDBI. It was resolved that tenders for t&e erection of school buildings at Awahuri for. GREATFORD. The Board decided that the Greatford School ground should be fenced at a cost not exceeding £lO. REAVE OF ABSENCE. Miss Scott's application for a month's leave of absence was granted. '' MOUNT COOK. A letter written by Lieut.-Colonel Moiile in reference to a school site at Mount Cook was laid on the table, and ordered to be acknowledged, THE REES BEQUEST. In reference to the above, which has so frequently been before the Board, the Secretary was instructed to take whatever steps'were necessary. OBABUI. A letter from Mr. E. Darby, chairman of the Local School Committee, taking exception to Mr. Inspector Lee’s report oh the school in the Oharui district, was referred to the Inspector to report on. KAIWABBA. An application was made by MR Harley, the teacher of the Kaiwaira school, for house allowance, as he had been obliged to leave the house provided by the Board (which was ia bad condition) and rent another. It was agreed to refer the matter to the members of the local committee, and if they reported favorably, Mr. Hurley will be allowed the ordinary house rent allowance, namely, £2O per annum. AN AFPOINTMENT. It was resolved that Mr. E. H. Wright be appointed to act as overseer of works in connection with four country schools ia Wanganui, at a salary of £25 per annum. MR. SINCLAIR AND THE INSPECTOR; ’ The Board having determined to consider Mr. Sinclair’s case, that gentleman was called in. The Secretary, for the benefit of the country members who had been absent when the subject was previously under consideration by the Board, briefly explained the position of the case, after which The Chairman asked Mr. Sinclair whether he had a statement prepared? . Mr. Sinclair replied in the affirmative, and on being requested to lay his case before the Board, made the following statement:—

“Sin,—When Mr. Lee wrote me on the 17th January, 1876, about the necessity of doing my best to improve the state of the Taita school, I replied on the 18th that unless he could frame some rules to enforce more regular attendance, I did not see how I could make it much better ; and 'I told him, too, that some of my advanced pupils I only got on very wet days* Unless when sickness thinned the number, the average attendance has generally been 20 below the actual number of pupils on the register ; but last month (March, 1877) the average attendance is only 10 below the actual number on the roll, and this is the highest average compared with the actual number that I recollect having bad. " In addition to the drawbacks caused by the excitement among the pupils by the ploughing match and its attendant sports on the occasion of the last inspection, I tiou the questions for Standard 11. Candidates were more difficult than they had hitherto been, I inquired of Mr. Lee the reason of this, and he told me 'that previously the •pupils had smuggled through.’ “ With reference to the members of my family that I do not think have been well treated, I shall take the case of my son first. “ In December, 1874, my son went to compete for the common school scholarship at the Wellington College, and was second to the hoy Field, who gained it. Soon after, Mr. Charles C. Graham told methat Master Field would not take it up, and that we would have to get our son ready, who was second. After waiting for some weeks, I called again at the .Education Hoard office, and found that Field had come up. Mr. Graham then asked Mr. Lee who had put the report in circulation that Field would not take up the scholarship, and Mr. Lee said he could not tell him.

“ Before the pupil teachers’ examination in 1875, I had some conversation with Mr. Lee relative to my son. I told him his age, and from a written memorandum and information he gave me, 1 was induced to put him up for examination. But on the first forenoon of the examination, Mr. Lee snubbed him and told him he was unfit to be a pupil teacher, because he could not rivet an official pin—the hoy never having seen the thing done before. Copies of the statements made by the boy, his irister, and myself at the time, and written .down, are in my possession, and can be seen by s* any members of the Board who desire it, “ On the 20th August, 1875, he attempted to pass Standard IV. at the annual inspection of the Taita school, when the following arithmetical question appeared second on Mr. Lee’s list ;—“ Find compound interest on £350 for two years at 8 per cent, per annum interest paid yearly,’ and this my son said was an attempt to make him do a question in simple interest by a compound rule. “ After the pupil teachers’ examination in 1876, Mr. Lee called me into his room in the Board of Education office, and showed me the arithmetical paper of my eldest daughter, on which had been written the word ‘ Failure.’ I found that in the fourth sum of section 2 she bad made a mistake by pointing off the decimals from the right instead of the left when she extracted the square root. I stated this to Mr. Lee, but he pointed to where she had divided the numerator by the denominator, and said • Look what she has done.’ I said that was the only way in which she could have done it, but Mr. Leestemed to think differently. On the fourth sum of section 3 had been written the word * unintelligible.’ I told Mr. Lee she had given the banker’s discount instead of the true discount. And in the fourth sum of section 8, she had given the factors instead of the ultimate factors. I copied the paper, and pointed these matters out to my daughter when I came home, and on comparing my copy with her scroll I found she had copied a wrong solution instead of a correct one, which she had on her scroll of the fourth sum of section 2. She was perfectly amazed when she found that banker’s discount was unintelligible to the examiners of the Board, and that Mr. Lee had apparently forgotten that to extract the square root of a vulgar fraction the ordinary way is to convert the vulgar fraction into a decimal, and she indignantly asked me what chance she could have in future examinations under the Board. All I could say in reply was that the Board would be likely to stand by their officials. The paper was a very poor one, and could only have been favorably viewed had she copied from her scroll the correct solution of the fourth sum of section 2.

“ On the 26th February, 1875, Mrs. Sinclair had charge of the junior division in the Taita ■ohool, in order that Mr. Hansard might have Mias Sinclair as his assistant in the school at the Lower Hutt. Mrs. Sinclair, I may mention, has taught in different school, and as a teacher of young children and of needlework has always been highly esteemed. On the occasion of this visit, however, Mr. Lee came up to me, and looking down where Mrs. Sinclair was teaching, said ‘She’s not good for jnuch.’ As I was not usually permitted to say

anything, or make any excuse when Mr. Lee was present, I merely said in a quiet manner, •She has never.been trained.’ I meant that had Mrs. Sinclair been trained she would have shown to greater advantage -with a large number of pupils. “ Some very strong words have been used by two members of the Taita Local School Committee, with reference to the statements regarding Mrs. Sinclair made by Mr. Charles O. Graham at your meeting on the 28th March, and if I should describe these statements of Mr, Graham in an appropriate manner I should also have to use some of the strongest terms in the English language. I may, however, state that when Miss Sinclair became assistant in the Taita school in 1874, Mrs. Sinclair aided her with the junior department andneedlework for more than a year, so that the Board during that time bad the services of three teachers instead of two; and these injurious statements which the Board permitted to be made at their ‘last meeting, and the disparaging remark of Mr. Lee on his visit in 1875, are certainly a poor recompense to Mrs. Sinclair for her educational labors in this district.” Mr. Graham: If I am permitted, Mr. Chairman, I should like to ask Mr. Sinclair whether he means to deny that he stated to me what I said with regard to him at a meeting of the Board.

Mr. Toomath : We must confine ourselves to what appears in the statement just made. Mr. Graham ; But does be mean to say that what I said was not true.

Mr. Toomath read the paragraph referred to. Mr. Graham : Now, I want to know what he means by that. Mr. Sinclair : Here is a declaration, made before Mr. Beetham, a Justice of the Peace, in which I deny the truth of what you state, and I have also a declaration by my wife, which also denies its truth. Tho following documents were handed in, and read as follows >— “Taita, April 5,3877. —1 n the Evening Argus of March, 1877, appears the following paragraph, purporting to be a report of what Mr. Charles Christie Graham said at a meetfag o i the Board of Education on that day : • The Secretary said Mr. Sinclair’s wife used to teach in the school, but she and Mr. Sinclair could not get on together. Mr. Sinclair bad himself told him (Mr. Graham) that he bad had to box her ears in the classroom,’ and those statements, made by Mr. Charles Christie Graham, I solemnly and sincerely declare to be false.— James L. Sinclair. Signed and declared before me, William Beetham, J.P., this fifth of April, 1877." “ I began to pursue the avocation of a teacher in 1853, and since I came to the colony of New Zealand in 1865 have taught in various schools as assistant to my husband, Mr. James L. Sinclair. During tbe time I taught as bis assistant he never interfered ■with my department, and only found fault with me once when I punished a child of our own in school for disobedience to my orders out of school. My husband never boxed my cars either in or out of school. I solemnly and sincerely declare the foregoing to be true. —Mart Sinclair. Declared before me at Wellington this third day of April, 1877, William Hdtchibon, J.P.”

Mr. Geaium : I teg to repeat most emphatically that Mr. Sinclair made that statement to me in my office, that he woe reprimanded for acting os he uaid bo had done, and X also reported the matter to the Inspector. I am prepared to make a declaration to that effect.

Mr. Bunny : I do not think we should consider this matter in the absence of Mr. Lee. Mr. Toomath : Have you anything more to say? Mr. Sinclair : Not now ; but I can come : and support all that is contained in the statement I have just made to the Board. It was resolved to wait until the return of Mr. Lee before any steps were taken. STONEY CREEK. The tender of Carl Fugensen (£137 175.) for the erection of a schoolhouse at Stoney Creek, Manawatu, was accepted. TAONOI. The tender of Mr. Sutton (£149) for the erection of a schoolhouse at Taonui, Bangitikei line, was accepted, conditionally upon the Board being successful in obtaining a site from the Government. AWAHURT. As to the application for a school at the above place a letter was received to the effect that there would be no difficulty about the site. It was decided to send up plans to Mr. Alexander McDonald. GBEATKOHD SCHOOL. On a letter from Major Willis being received as to the necessity of fencing round the school it was agreed to accede to the request. MARANOAI. Regarding the conveyance of the Kaitoke school site a letter was received from Mr. Cameron saying that it had been lost, but suggesting that as the Marangai school was shut and not likely to be opened that the school should be combined with the Kaitoke. Mr. Watt thought it would be a pity to alter the site of the Kaitoke school. He understood that a conveyance of the rite would he given, and he would interest himself in the matter, about which he apprehended that there would be no doubt, the only conditions being that the school site should not be changed. It was agreed to leave the matter in the hands of the local members. The Board then adjourned for an hour, and on meeting again at 2 o'clock, Mr. Pharazyn took the chair. KAIKAKOFU. It was decided that the Inspector should visit the district, and confer with Mr. Watt with a view of reporting on the question of obtaining a school-house. TENDERS FOR SCHOOL-HOUSES. Of the tenders received for the erection of city schools, the following were accepted, subject to the approval of the Local School Committees;—lnfant school, Williams 8r05.,£1920; boys’ school, Goodall, £3350. LEASES. Tenders were received for leasing certain educational reserves. As none of the offers were eligible, it was agreed, on the motion of Mr. Watt, that the question of leasing the reserves be left in abeyance for a time. IMPROVEMENTS. Several small repairs and additional accommodation in a few instances were sanctioned. OOPCKDNARO. The Board accepted a certain alteration made in a school site presented to the Board in Wanganui, subject to the approval of the Board’s solicitor. THE ANNUAL REPORT. The annual report was then read. It showed the progress made during the year in educational matters to have been very great, new schools having been put up in different directions in answer to the demand for additional accommodation created by the increase in population and settlement. The report was drawn up for the Board by the Secretary, Mr. Graham, who made allusion to the report of the Inspector, stating in general terms the effect of the Board’s resolution in regard to it. Some discussion ensued on an objection entered by Mr. Toomath to the latter part of the report, he contending that the Board had never consented to the adoption of the report as a whole, and that he at least had not been allowed an opportunity of expressing his sentiments on the subject. He thought they should not say the report was adopted until the cases of complaint and charges against the Inspector were settled. Mr. Graham pointed out that the Board had passed a resolution approving in general terms of the report, the minutes being produced to prove the record inserted. Other members of the Board thought the annual report expressed what was intended, but aftera considerable amount of talk it wag agreed to strike out one sentence that exercised Mr. Toomath’a mind more than any other, being to the effect that Mr. Lee had not hesitated to speak out boldly whenever it became his unpleasant duty to complain. This amendment having been made, the Secretary read a table of the estimated expenditure for the ensuing year, amounting to £35,642 18s, lid.

The report was then adopted. This concluded the business.