The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1879.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 154, 14 June 1879, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1879.

The South Canterbury Board of Education some time ago sent circulars to the various school committees under its, charge, requesting them to nominate, within little more than a week, two gentlemen to fill the vacancies in the Board, caused by the resignations of Messrs Inwood and Tailored. Some of the committees, not wishing to have an open quarrel with the Board, complied with its request, overlooking the fact that the Board were acting contrary to the requirements of the Education Ordinance, which distinctly states that nearly a month must elapse after receiving the notice before any nomination shall take place. Others, who consider it their duty to obey the laws of the land, declined to nominate. This may be one reason why the list of candidates is so meagre. There is, however, anotiier and a far more important reason for all those gentlemen with education and culture fitting them for filling such an office without exception declining to have thennames placed on the list of candidates. That reason can only be explained by giving a brief histrry of the constitution of the present Board. Mr H. Belfield, the Chairman of the Board, is proprietor of the 'Timaru Herald' ; on his right, as another member of the Board, is to be found Mr Edward Wakefield, editor of the ' Herald'; a third member of the Board is a well known critical writer, who is a contributor to that paper ; a fourth is a well-known gaseous blab, ever ready to say amen to anything that the former deem advisable to have passed by the Board. Were it not for Mr Postlethwaite, who we will readily admit is a gentleman who, however faulty he may have been as a member of the Geraldine County Council, has given evidence of being (with better materials to work with) capable of becoming a useless member, which we would not like to see out of the Board, as it would barely be respectable if we must suffer the continuance of that hitherto useful institution, which has by its procedure more often brought disgrace to South Canterbury than raised the character of om ec.ucational establishments. This Board stands, so far as Timaru is concerned, in relation to the Timaru School Committees as the Legislative Council does to the General Assembly, with this difference, that in the case of the Legislative Council it is subject to the Governor—the South Canter.bury Board of Education is subservient ot the ' Timaru Herald.' In its chairman, in its secretary—weal: and selfish—-

os a who'e it may be truly termed a portion of the 'Herald's' staff; iincl as like produces like, falsifying in ifs reports and correspondence, holding 1 up to ridicule in' tilths reports ail and sundry members of cummiltees or others who maydare to write or speak of it in any other' way than as a most, honorable body of gentlemen, or who dares to say it is a branch of the ' Timaru Herald,' carefully picking out and in every way endeavoring to damage in the meanest manner the reputation of anyone who presumes to" expose the unjustifiable dealings of the Board in its disbursement of public money. Whenever an opportunity occurs it tries, by singling out the correspondence or writing, to put down any individual, whether a public man or a private gentleman, who stands up for right and justice to the public, or who dares to denounce its nefarious practices in handling the funds voted by the Government for e iucation in South Canterbury. When such is the constitution of the Board and such its manner of c|r4|iQ_ting the public business entrusted||te| 4ts care, is it to be wondered at tilkt gentlemen who could not school themselves; to wink at these things shrink their names to be mentioned ihs connection with it 1 Is it to be wondered at that there is such an absence of the names of gentlemen of education and training from the list of candidates put before the committees from time to time for election as members of a Board who should be at al! times worthy the name of honorable 1 The very indecency and connection of the component parts is enough to bring a blush of shame to anyone who may be directly or indirectly connected with it, and who possess were it but a small modicum of fine feeling. Yet the ' Herald ' demands that the finger of scorn must not be lifted up against it. Every knee must bow and join with it in its worship of Mammon. Anyone who dares by writing or speaking to insinuate that the proprietor or editor of the ' Herald : are not honorable in their dealings, or who are not careful in the smallest particulars due only to an honorable body, is doomed to come under the ban of that journal ; and were it not that the whole colony are well accustomed to gnage the weight and influence of that journal, individual sufferings of those who denounce this trickery would be no trifling matter. We have some times been accused of want of respect to a body of gentlemen such as our Boards of Education ought to be. Could it be shown that the South Canterbury Board of Education is such ? In this, as in other instances we could name, we could show that we have been careful to give honor to whom honor is due. But a sham and a mockery we will not put in the place of honor ; we will not bow our necks to the yoke of the ' Timaru Herald' to call an institution—so constituted as this Board is constituted —the glory of the land, and honorable will not do—we will not be guilty of such abominable hypocrisy. We sometimes wonder if Mr Beltield, the proprietor of the ' Herald ' and Chairman of the South Canterbury Board of Education, thinks the people of South Canterbury are fools because they take no notice of him month after month voting himself a good purse of sovereigns. He must chuckle over the success which his attended his schemes from the first election of the Board until now. He must =• wonder that no one challenges this- Disappropriation of public money. We ;often wonder when the editor of the ' Timaru Herald' writes such strong articles against the present Government for giving its patronage in the way of advertisements to its supporters (which v,-" may here state was by public tender) ever thinks of the way the South Canterbuyr Board's advertisements are dealt with 1 We often wonder if the proprietor of the 'Herald,' when he buttons up his coat upon the monthly cheque for which he himself sits down and signs for his own behalf; we often wonder if he has any qualms of conscience or sees any inconsistency in this part of his duties as chair man of the Board of Education. It would be unjust to blame the secretary for this part of the business of the Board. He is only a subordinate, and like any other officer on the staff, has simply to act according to the orders of his superior officer. He cannot afford to go against the wishes of duch an august body, who would at police vomit out its anathemas against him if he did, to such a man as the Secretary of the Board, it must appear a serious matter to break with such a high and influential personage as the editor of the 'Herald.' A frown from that well-balanced, broad-browed, high foreheaded gentleman would be destruction and death to the meek and humble secretary, nor dare he break with that Colossus of modern times, the proprietor of the far-famed daily. To do so might at any time call down the wrath of that great Goliah, the great leader of the educators' people in South Canterbury. Whafr? Is not the 'Timaru Herald,' which belongs to me, the same as this Honourable Board, of which I am the head, and which, after great agitation, I was successful in establishing to the great benefit of tbe people at large, but in particular for the great benefit of my own bank account in these hard times ? Sir, you must be careful of what you say. It will not; do for him to say this same far-fetched agitation .vas purely for the benefit of the ' Herald.' It won't do for him to point out' the contrast between a H. J. Tancred, a Montgomery, a Veel, or a Habens, and a Belfield, a Wakefield, a Howel, or a—well, we will say no more about it, suffice to say Mr Hammond is not fit for the situation as Secretary of a Board of Education, and knowing well his unfitness he is wise enough to hold his tongue and say nothing about it. Mr Hammond may.be a very good inspector, we will not. say he is not, but it requires a good business man, trained to business, and a man who has a mind of his own, to fill this office. From the one end of the district to the ether there is but one cry, the Secretary takes no notice of our correspondence, months pass before re plies are received, the whole machinery is out of joint, but the disbursement of the funds goes on for ever, the Board is ruled by the ,'Herald's ' staff .for its own advantage as ever. Genllcinen ! ,fitted for office areas dilatory of becoming candidates as ever ; discontent prevails everywhere, and the remark common by almost every committee is can we get back to the Christchurch Board. In all this we see a total unfitness of the offices to accomplish what the people were taught to believe would be for the good of South Canterbury. In our opinion the same motive as prompted it to agitate for opposition to the Geraldine Council existed here, tobringgristtoitsowii i -.ill ? How long the people will stand

tin's we are not prepared to say; on thing we will say, it is a perfect disgrace to South Canterbury to have a Board of Education so constituted as that it may he truly designated an establishment for the special benefit of -Mr. Beliield's paper. Few gentlemen would have the effrontery to vote supplies to himself in such a bare-faced manner. We had ourselves an opinion that Mr Belfield was a man of a different stamp from his editor, now we are forced to the conclusion that they are all tarred with the same brush. . We repeat it is a d ; sgraee to this part of the Colony to have the editor and pioprietor of a daily ■jouruarfv'ho professes to be the educator "of the people, sitting and deliberately voting the means for its own sustenance from the public fund, to the exclusion of other journals in the town.The whole thing is perfectly ridiculous. The suggestion made by the Mayor of Timaru at a meeting of the School Committee put a climax upon the whole affair, yet it had a justness in it, which must be admitted by all, the proposition to nominate Mr Ball and. Mr Fisher as members of the Board was we say just and reasonable in a sense, as it would give that gentlemen a chance of proposing that the printing and advertising of the Board should be let by contract. Of course the present Chairman knows he could not tender, and consequently would have to resign, hence the shelter he provides for himself unde;r the legality of the Act, it allowing him' to vote to himself the lion's share of the money. To call that body honorable who can aid and abate such unjust proceedings, to call that body a pattern of refinement, to say that its members are gentlemen of refined feelings, is a mockery and a sham. The sooner it is swept off the face of the earth the better for this part of the Colony. Comparing the Board to the Board once in existence in Christchurch, we may well exclaim how has the gold become dim, and the fine gold changed, how has the mighty fallen. In the days of Christchurch we had gentlemen with refined feelings who would not have soiled their fingers with such dirty work as we have shown is performed by the South Canterbury Board. . . ■