THE STAGPOOLE APPEAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 70, 18 March 1912, Page 4

THE STAGPOOLE APPEAL.

CONCLUSION OF TAKING OF EVIDENCE. THE APPEAL DISALLOWED. O’er Press Association.! Palmerston, March 16. The hearing of the Stagpoolo appeal case was continued to-day before Mr. Kerr, S.M., and Messrs. R. McNab and Broad. Two assistants under Stagpoole at Stoncy Creek School, where he was last stationed, deposed to the unpunctuality and want of discipline at that school. Mr. W. H. Guthrie, M.P., member of the Education .Board, gave evidence as to the reports committee of the Board coming to its decision to recommend Mr. Stagpoole’s dismissal. He and Mr. P. O’Dea were the members cf the committee present, the chairman (Mr. Pirani) taking no part in the decision, and Mr. Guthrie, as an old teacher, said the Board’s method of promotion was absolutely fair and just, and the rumours rife as to the contrary had no foundation in fact.

Mr. David Stewart, Organising Inspector, gave a complete denial to all the charges formulated and sent to the Minister of Education by Mr. Stagpoole, and also givep by him in sworn evidence during the present case. Mr. Stewart denied each charge separately and stated that he and Mr. Stagpoole were on friendly terms throughout the visit, and when witness left Mr. Stagpoolo said, “If you return in three months you will see a big change in the school.” A little girl, Iris Priest, a pupil at the school, also gave evidence that Mr. Stewart had not ill-treated any of the children, and had only inserted chalk in the children’s open mouths in order to make them articulate properly. At the evening sitting Inspector Stewart was subjected to a cross-ex-amination by Mr. R. D. Stewart, and in one or two cases he slightly qualified his complete denial of the charges. This concluded the evidence, and at 10.30 p.m. the Court delivered judgment, as follows“ That the decision or the Wanganui Education Board in dismissing the appellant was reasonable, having due regard to the efficient conduct of the Board’s affairs.” The appeal was therefore dismissed, with costs against the Institute amounting to £207 9s 4d. The Court recommended that Mr. Stagpoole be granted three months’ leave of absence on full pay from the date of the decision, in which Mr. Pirani said ho was sure the Board would concur. ENORMOUS COSTS. Palmerston. March 18. h- s r a result of the Stagpoole case, the Teachers’ Institute has to pay, Court costs (eighty guineas), and its own costs estimated at three hundred guineas besides a special fee of two daily awarded to Mr Pirani, Chairman of the Wanganui Edueatiop Board, in;.addition to per-' 1 sonal expenses. The latter is un-" usual and was not applied for. ■' ' 1

ALTFRATION |OF PROCEDURE. ; Palmerston;-March’ 18,’ ‘ It is estimated that the Stagpoole appeal case cost £SOO, and in view of the great expense attached to teachers’: appeals, Mr; Pirani, Chairman of the Wanganui Education Boardj proposes to recommend the desirability of altering the procedure in regard to the dismissal, of teachers by setting up a- special committee for each case, whose, duty would be to hold ah in-'' vGstigatidu.fat which a teacher may. be, present .in person or by proxy,; and ' shall hear the evidence, and only after ’• such committee reports to the Board shall action be taken.