BURDEN OF THE BACKBLOCKS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 102, 27 May 1909, Page 4

BURDEN OF THE BACKBLOCKS

TUI'ANCY TROUBLES. Latterly it Ims liecn the vxecjiti'm rather tliii.i the iulo lur the Education Board to hold a meeting without lieurin" suinc eorapluiiil coucurniiij; the ditlictUties of admiiiifteriug tile education syetvin ill tiie baukbiocka. ' Mr. L). Maxwell, writing from Toko, laid a leiiglhy complaint before the Board yesterday. It read as follows: "I have recently been summoned to the Police Court like a common thief ai the instance'of your truant inspector, because my girl had not made the necessary number of attendances at stliool. I went to Court, thinking that commonsense would lie listened to, but the Magistrate narrowed the case down to this: 'Was your child absent?—Ye?. Did you have an exemption or a doctor's certificate? —No. Then you arc fined. It did not matter what the weather had been, what the child's health had been, or that the child was a standard ahead of other children of the same age. None of these were considered. He made a general remark that it was a pity that some people did not value education. Mow, this was adding insult to injury, as we do value education. But there is one thing 1 value more, and that is good health." The writer here referred to the fact that he and his wife had reared a family of eight, all of whom were living and occupying good positions. "We have done our duty, but my reward for all this is to foe brougnt li£« a common vagrant to a police cou' t, and have my name appearing in the newspapers ae the father of a presumably neglected child. The Education Act was intended to foe benignant, not malignant. I am speaking now for settlers when I say it is being used not to help us but to crush us." Then follows, the ■writer's idea of the educational system of the present ■ day, which seems to bi that "money is at the root of all evil." Thus: "The teacher wants the attenlance to make up his salary; the truant officer prosecutes to get his salary; the policeman serves the summons to get his' salary and. mileage; the magistrate adjudicates to gel his salary. Now, sir, right along that line every man has a Government salary, and "all that tremendous salaried force is turned loose to crush a struggling settler who has no salary"—the last four words wvo heavily underlined—'• and who dares to keep his child at houip on a wet day. Your official talks in a lordly way about a doctorV certificate. Who is going to pay for it? Take a man with, say, five children at school. Every time they have little ailments is the father io leave his work and go perhaps ten miles to bring a doctor? Surely, sir, your Board is composed of wealthy men who don't know the struggle an ordinary working man has to rear his family. I would also like to poratfout tliat the conditions between town and country arc very different. Town children hav*e ' payments to walk on, verandahs t;' cover them. Contrast that with our back country, one instance being children crossing the Mangaehu river in ~t cage. . . . What I wish to say is

that as we and our children are making a land, not only earning a living-in the present, but making a country for future generations. To turn us over to th e tender ministrations of a truant officer, -who is himself living in comfl i t in town, seems to mc a cruel injustice, and I may conclude 'by saying that every summons lie issues' will leave a sting that will rankle for years." Mr. Maxwell waited on the Board in support of his letter. He stated that his reason for doing'so was that unless the people of the remote districts made themselves' heard they were apt to be forgotten. Ho would like to [rive bis opinion that ofttimes a child who wis very bright and highly strung needed to be kept back bv the parents rather than pushed on by a truant officer. But it seemed that attendance, and not progress, was required. He knew of a case where a girl of fifteen years was in 'he second standard; whilst another of eleven years, was in the 'fourth. The parent of the latter child was .summoned to the Court because she missel a few attendances, whilst the other would he patted 011 the back. It would be better to have a standard set ~p, and to punish those who failed to reach that standard. . Tli© letter was received.

TEACHERS' TRIALS. There was an even larger batch than usual of complaints from the teachers in respect of the condition of their residences in the remote districts. The Tongaporutu teacher wrote: "Yon state that I might occupy the whare m the la-ad. I am afraid I can't, as the chimney has blown down and the whole place is infested with hou»e-bu»s and rats." Writing of the Okuu who >!. which i* also under his charge, h fl says that it '•seems to be in a worso condition than the Tongaporutu whare. lher« are several very bad leaks in the roof, and all waddles, rugs, etc.. have to be put in the room under mv table " A male teacher's pitiable plight- "J have lieen stopping wit], jj r . t'—. lmt as his daughter has conn- home lo liie he is reluctantly compelled to ask me to seek another place to live." Here is another: "Even the house allowance is not granted, but in place of it is given a beggarly set of room* that even the rats would scorn to live in. . . It is enough to make a saint swear."