TAIHAPE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3320, 25 October 1919, Page 5

TAIHAPE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

To the Editor. Sir, —As all interested member of the public, may I be permitted a few observations on the doings of the Taihape School Committee as reported in the “Times” of the Bth and 21st inst. "When the question of a memorial to those ex-pupils of the school who fought in the Great War is being discussed whose opinion and advice should be sought? Is it that of the chairman, Mr Swindells, backed by a long residence in our midst of perhaps three years, unknown to probaihly 99 per cent of the pupil-soldiers, and knowing of them only what he could gather from having 11 consulted” the headmaster? Is it that of the. committee of which the majority had no interest in school affairs when those soldier-pupils were young, and of which several, have an acqaintance with our town perhaps as long as the chairman? If those soldier-pupils brought honour on their country, their town and their school, who is responsible for the forming of that character that made them soldiers second to none? Was it du© to the efforts of the chairman? Was it the work of the committee whose “bravery” evidently consists in a rigid adherence to a “previous resolution,” right or wrong. Ask those pupil-soldiers who have come through that awful hell; ask the proud parents of those who have been spared to return; ask those sorrowing fathers and mothers whose boys found a last resting place on Gallipoli or in France; ask the general public who have “no former resolution to adhere to,” and whose source of fairness can always be relied on Unless I am quite out of touch with public feeling the answer will always be “See Mr Thurston, see the teacher who made men of his pupils, and whose instruction and training stood the tiery test of battle?” Docs the committee realise in what position it stands to he public? Has it overlooked the fact that it represents us and its attitude towards the headmaster should he the same as ours? Does it mean nothing to that committee that the staff of the school should unite in asking that an apology be tendered by it to the headmaster. Before the matter has gone too far let the committee remember the principles those soldier-pupils fought and died for, that it shows it realises to the full those principles by tendering a full and ample apology, and by seeking the advice and help of rhe headmaster on a matter in which no discordant note should enter. —T am, etc., ONE OF THE PUBLIC.