REVIEW OF THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EDUCATION BOARD OP SOUTH CANTERBURY FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2611, 3 August 1881, Page 2

REVIEW OF THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EDUCATION BOARD OP SOUTH CANTERBURY FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1880.

Public documents are public property, and so are public men in relation to their public work. When, therefore, such documents are criticised, and those who are responsible for them are awarded the praise or the blame they deserve, the critic cannot be complained of as meddling with what does not concern him, or what he has no right to make the subject matter of public criticism. And when criticism is honestly done it is of the greatest public utility, tending to the improvement of the public service and the exercise of greater care in the discharge of their duties on the part of public officials. The Education Board of South Canterbury and its officials have from time to time been subjected to a good deal of criticism of an adverse kind, provoked by their strange ways and the extraordinary character of much of their handiwork ; but at the present rate of improvement it will be a very long time before they get beyond the lowest grade of the lowest standard. A continued application of the spur may, however, in time induce them to mend their paces. The. first issued report for 1880, in the number and character of its mistakes, calls for a somewhat vigorous application of both whip and spur, and if there be any crying out under the application we can onlf say learn not to deserve it. The report contains 38 pages of printed matter, executed at the ‘‘Timaru Herald” printing office where all the printing of the Board is done without contract, or tenders being called for from other offices. This is not how other public bodies act, but there is a peculiarity in this case preventing the Board acting in the ordinary business manner of giving all a chance and getting their work done at the lowest cost. The peculiarity is that the Chairman of the Board is the proprietor of the “ Timaru Herald ” steam printing office, and if tenders were called for he would by the disqualification clause of the Act be prevented from tendering, or he must lose his seat at the Board. The letter of the Act is therefore kept, in no lenders being called for; so no member of the Board is interested in a “ contract ” under the Board, but at the same time a member gets all the printing work without a contract, and has a considerable interest in the work done for the Board. The printing bill for 1880 was only £lO3 4s 8d 1 The first part of the Education Office bluebook is the report of the year’s work signed by the Chairman, and is the most creditable portion of the whole production. There is one misspelt word which should have been corrected in the revision of the proof, “ reports ” standing for reports. This would not have beei worth taking notice of, but in after parts of the bluebook such mistakes occur so frequently that the work of revising the proof must have been done most carelessly, as we shall have occasion to point out. The only other point in the Chairman’s report calling for notice is in the table which he gives of the particulars of the scholarship examinations. The winners of the sfcholarships in Class D for this y'ear are sot down as pupils of the public schools of Waimate, Geraldine, and Timaru, whereas they were and had been for the year previous pupils of the Timaru High School, and arc so set down in the table appended to the examiner’s report, while in the body of that report the two young gentlemen are credited as pupils of the High School, but the young lady is left uncredited to any school. So that in the one blue book we have three readings on this matter, and educationists in other parts must feel somewhat perplexed to make out to what school these precocious youths really belong. Table No. 1 gives the names, status, and emoluments of the teachers in December last, from which we learn that £8725 was the amount paid to teachers during the year ; £lll9 the incidental expenses of the schools, and £3046 the expenditure on buildings, furniture, and apparatus A goodly total of £13,000. From table No, 2 it seems that the average attendance for the year was 2403 pupils, and the working average 2478. So that taking the total expenditure on salaries of teachers, the cost per pupil according to the working average, was about £3 10s. But in Mount Gay School the average cost was about £l2 4s while in Timaru it was only about £2 18s. In this table there occur the vvkwardly worded headings, “ number belonging at beginning of year,” number belonging at end of year ” for number on roll at beginning of year, number on roll at end of year. On looking at the table we could not make out how the number on the- roll at end of year could be 3506, when the number at beginning of year was 3035, with 865 admitted during the year, and only 387 left. These figures should have given 3513 at end of year ; but on checking the additions of the columns wo found that the total number left should be 394, thus accounting for the missing 7. In the next three columns, giving the average weekly roll, for December quarter, the totals are given—Boys,l663; girls, 1622 ; total, 3285. The correct

additions, however, give—Boys, 1792 ; girls, 1652 ; total, 3444. So that the additions in all three columns are wrong. A nice state of matters in an education report. This little taste of the quality of the Education officials in the matter of simple addition, whetted our appetite for a little more, and on testing the other columns wo found other three wrong in addition, viz., total square feet of floor-room is given as 35,800, the correct addition of the column gives 36,324. Then under fourth quarter column, boys, the total is given 1381, whereas the figures only add 981, and the average of the four quarters is given 2478.75, whereas correct addition shews 2488.75. in this one table,seven sums of simple addition out of twenty are wrong. Would the Inspector of Schools think this a sufficient proportion to pass a child from the infant department to the first standard ? In Table No. 3 we have a general statement of receipts and expenditure for the year. Hero the word “ capitition ” for capitation at once catches the eye. This table shows that the South Canterbury Board received £1893 from the School Commissioners, being the share of rents of education reserves payable to this district, which, with £6BOO paid to the North Canterbury Board, from the saue source, represents a- goodly saving to the consolidated revenue of the colony, out of which, otherwise, these amounts would have had to come. After our experience in connection with Table No. 2, we could not face the addition of the tables of quarterly attendance, but we hope they are all correct. An uucorrected misspelt word, however, stares

us glaringly in tho face at the top of the first quarter’s summary, thus—average “ attennance.” Passing on to page 14, the eye alights on “ receipts ” for receipts, and when we come to page 15, it sparkles with a glorious confusion of shall and will. Wo read that “ pupil teachers will be,” but “ the hsad teacher shall be,” and ,f all teachers will.” Then “ payment shall be ” but “ the bonus will bo ” and “ the vouchor will be,” but again, “ the teachers shall,” The distinction and idiomatic use of shall and will are neglected, and the Inspector of Schools might find it a capital test for the next examination of pupil teachers to set them to correct the “Pupil Teachers’ Eegulations ”in this point. The Board, however, for its own credit and as a good example to its pupil teachers might reasonably be expected to see that its regulations for these budding instructors should at least be a model of idiomatic English. On the same page there occurs the first instance of an unnecessary use of the distinguishing adjective “ the,” of which another instance occurs on the next page, while the Inspector’s report on a later page supplies at least half-a-dozen instances. Here we read of “ subjects for the examination.” On the next page under needlework for the fourth year “ the preceding and the more difficult cutting out.” So on page 20 the Inspector writes t: where the instruction in any subject, &0.,” and again, “ There is an almost universal tendency to bo satisfied with the rote knowledge which should form but the basis of the instruction.” In that sentence two out of three times in which the word occurs it is superfluous. So on page 21 there are other three instances of this, which is a pure vulgarism in‘Victorian English. The Inspectors strong affection for “the” comes out also in his using it instead of “ a ” in the clause “ leaving the balance of £42 and his dislike of “a” in its being left out in the further portion of the clause which simply reads “as charge on the Board’s funds,” instead of “ a charge, &c.” In the syllabus of subjects for “ the ” examination appended to the pupil teachers’ regulations we have the name of the publisher of the Science Primers printed three times over with a capital letter in the middle, thus: MacMillan. We have always thought that when Mac is written in full in the first portion of words where it occurs, and not abbreviated into Me the following portion is not begun with a capital. Fancy writing Mackenzie thus : Mackenzie. Another unusual mode of printing a word occurs under the heading “ Composition for Fourth Year,” where we have the French term “ Precis ” in the same type as its companion English words. The Usual mode is to print such terms in italics. We did not expect on taking up this report to find occasion for giving the Education office and the “ Herald ” office a lesson on printing. (To he continued.)