THE NORMANBY SCHOOL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 233, 11 March 1915, Page 3

THE NORMANBY SCHOOL.

ME GARDEN'S EXPLANATION. Mr R. 0. Garden, of Normanby, writes at considerable length to correct and augment our Normanby correspondent's report of the enquiry by tiie school committee into his complaint against the master. Mr Gardens account of the proceedingg-\sets out that lie complained to th e committee that just before the Christmas holidays the headmaster had referred to his boy, in the presence of another teacher and some of the scholars, as "half an idiot," and that a month ago the boy had been dismissed from the school—at any rate, he had come home. Mr Garden called on the headmaster at his house that night for an explanation, and Mr Mitchell at first refused one, but eventualyy said the boy had been impertinent. Tlie complainant stated to the committee his ability to prove that it was not his boy who had thrown an offending plum stone in school, for which the lad had been punished, though innocent. The finding of the committee, as reported by Mr Garden, does not coincide with our correspondent's report, arid, moreover is in a form which might be the ground for an action if published. He and "our own" agree that the committee decided that it would be in the best interests of the discipline of the school if the master would use the cane more frequently and severely, a finding which* the complainant acknowledged as "being largely what he had expected. Tho letter concludes: "I think you will see that the heading, 'An Irate Parent,' was unnecessary. I made my statement before tho committee in a cool and rational manner. The committee gave me every satisfaction."