NEW PLYMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 54, 22 July 1912, Page 4

NEW PLYMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL.

To the Editor. Sir, —From the many inaccuracie* in> your leader of Saturday in reference tothe High School Board of Governors, I beg to ask for space to place the matter fairly before the public. You say the Xew Plymouth 'High School Board cannot plead poverty. I contend we have always .been in an impecunious state, that is, short of the means necessary to bring the school up to the highest state of efficiency, which has always been the desire of the Board. Having decided tobuihl a hoys' boarding department the Board found that in addition to the funds they had accumulated for that purpose they had also to mortgage their securities to the full limit to properly carry out the work, and are now far from being in that affluent position which you imagine. With reference to the appointment which the Board requires to fill, allow me to say you havealtogether taken a mistaken and exaggerated view of the duties, and I hope it will not lie a shock to you to learn that some of the largest schools in tko Dominion fill such positions for the sal- | ary we advertised to give. It is altogether wrong to say the Board had no applicant; they had an applicant who 1 was well recommended, but the Board considered him too young, and they arc now considering another application for the position.—l am, etc., E. DOCKRILL, Chairman. [The fact that the Board has been able to build a boys' boarding department clearly shows that the funds of the institution are much more buoyant than they were in the past. As a matter of fact, since the rich Waimatu Plains endowments were re-let at greatly enhanced rentals the Board has been in a position of comparative comfort financially, and there is no excuse for is not offering or paying any member of its teaching staff a living wage. It is no justifi- ! cation to urge that other schools employ teachers of the kind the local school is desirous of obtaining at a salary utterly inadequate for a position of responsibility and requiring the qualifications demanded. It only demonstrates how parsimonious some of our scholastic institutions are, and fully explains the dearth of suitable men in a profession that should be filled by the brightest and best intellects in the country. If i by reason of its impecuniosity a Board ia ! unable to offer an adequate or living I salary, it should content itself with a ] smaller staff, for even a teacher is i worthy of his hire. We have nothing to { retract from what we have written on | the subject.—Ed.]