The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1882.

Temuka Leader, Issue 923, 4 March 1882, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1882.

The great storm in the teapot of the Terauka School Committee boiled; over hat Tues4ay evening, when, a resolution was, passed to the effect that newsshall npt in future be allowed to publish anything which does not updergo revision by the Compiittee. To put it in other words, nothing shall appear in print ip future except, reports “cooked” by the School Committee. W.e have great respect for the intellectual capabilities of, the School Committee, and we have no doubt that their assistance in choosing matter for publication would be a great acquisition to us, but we must decline it in this instance. Either the. Committee will allow us to exercise sonjp little discretion in the Conduct, of, our, own business, or else, shut us out altogether. We have a, duty to perform which we owe to the

public, that is to give them a fair account of what is going on, and that duty we will perform so long as we are given facilities to do so. At present this paper is handicapped. The representative of the Timaru Herald is a member of the Committee, and no matter what resolutions may be passed they cannot expel him, but the Committee cap at any moment order the repor.tig of this paper out of the room. \ye must be excuse!, ' therefore, if orir reports of the proceedings will not be as full as tfiose which may appear in other papers, as if the Committee choos.e to order oifr reporter to withdraw from the meetings, he has no optiqu but to comply, while, as a member of the Copunittee, the reporter of another paper reports whateyer he likes in defiance or whateyer resolutions may be carried . We think that too much altogether has been made ot this matter. It had a very small beginning, but now it involves a principle—that is whether the proceedings of the Committee are to be made public or not. Tne storm commenced in the reporter of the Timaru Herald, who is also a member of the Committee, giving to that paper an account of rqeetiug, of which account some members of the Committee did not approve. This was brpught qp at the next meeting apd djscpssed in very moderate language qntil Mr Mendeison plunged iqtp f,he and rpade statements about tfie Committee qf 1880 which Messrs ffarrop and Bolton said were not frue ? Aftpp this, order was restored by passing p resolution which was tantamount tq a yote qt censure on Mr Bolton. for the next half hour or more the business of the Committee wap tranjicted in the most orderly mapper, aqd pnyone who had not witnessed the previous scene would have looked upon them as the happiest family iu Xemiika. Mf M en lelson, however, must bring fhe. tnaUer up again. Some matter of a personal, nature was being discussed, when Mr Mendeison said that if it were reported it lyould not look welf. Mr Bodtop looped that reporters had comtnou sense enough to suppress matters of that kind, Tips was all the provocation which Mr Mendeison got to jump to his feet »n,d make use of language which could not be looked upon otherwise than as an outrage, upon de cency and good taste. Only for Mr Men • delson the whole affair would; passed over, and it would have been forgotten by this time. We reported Mr Mendeison,’s spcecli, and this constitutes the. head and front of our offending. No member of the Committee can say we favored one side more than the other, or that the report was net a true and correct one, and all that can be said against us is that we reproduced the utterances of Mr Mendeison just as they were spoken. As regards reporting the proceedings, of the Committee, anyone of commonsense will admit that it is undesirable to publish in newspapers everything that may occur. For instance, if a charge was made against any of the teachers, it would not be fair to publish it until such time as it was ascertained whether it was. true or not, and many other things crop up at meetings of public bodies which it would not bp desirable to report at any rate uutil some definite conclusion is come to. The Chairman in such instances intimates, to, the reporters. present that he does not wish the matter reported, and that is always sufficient. No reporter will publish anything tire Chairman of a public body asks him, to suppress, and if the School Committee adopted this plan, we feel certain they would spare themselves a great deal of annoyance. We would therefore advise them, to take things a little more quietly, and to adopt tire course, we have pointed out to, them, until such time as they find that they cannot trust reporters. To, expect that they will compel newspaper, representatives to, submit their notes to them for revision, before they wHf allow them to publish the, proceedings of the Corn, mittee is going, a little beyond their power No reporter will submit to this—they may ap well not expect it—but if they, treat reporters a 5 ’ other bodies do, they will find that things will work more, satisfactorily. Tne whole affair is too trifling to make so much noise.about it, and for their own credit, and the credit of the town, we now ask them,to calm,down and forget all the bitteraqs which the bickerings of the past few weeks have created.