The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. wEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1883.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4583, 12 September 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1883.

The Auckland Education Board, in its relations with the teachers under it, does not occupy just now a very enviable position in the public mind. For some months past, since a certain new regime assumed the reins of office, the proceedings of the Board of Education hare not been marked with either common sense or wisdom— rather the rererse. Theorising and experimentalising oddities and whims, quips and cranks, from the measuring of /'sympathetic accord " to the tightness of ladies' dresses, form indeed but a small portion of the history of the delectable doings of this body. The perusal of the reports in the public Press of what has engaged the attention of tbe Board at; its usual meetings, has been to us, as it must have been to our readers, for months past food for laughter—nothing else. We need not occupy any space in repeating the strange doings; they are fresh in everyone's mind. It would be a mistake, however, to overlook the serious results to the community at large of tbe mischief that has been and is being done to the cause of education in this wide provincial district by the vagaries adverted to. This will be evident when we state that there are close on five hundred teachers and sixteen thousand children affected by the doings of this Education Board, who within six months has " run amuck "at every thing, from "religion " and "sympathetic accord," to "petticoats" and "preparing school-doors to meet panics," and are now head-over-ears engaged in tilting at the teachers in its service. Of the latter i body, it does not appear indeed that the Board—their " employers " as the Chair* man would have it—entertains a very exalted estimate. The teachers do not appear to be sufficiently impressed with awe and admiration, or aware of the i astounding erudition, and experience in scholastic affairs, of the new Chairman of 1 the Board. What does their knowledge, 1 experience, or training for the profession of teaching, avail with a Board with little, or none of such qualifications ; but full of " sympathetic accord," model " physiognomies," and " ante-natal educations," —vide Mr R. Laisbley's famous pamphlet. The idea of teachers venturing to express an opinion not as teachI era, but as members of the Educational Institute—to which belong some members of tbe Board itself—upon matters concerning seriously the cause of education, is looked upon by some members of the Board as high treason on the teachers' part, and as gross "impertinence," nothing less, in the opinion of/ the tihsirmao. For the . nonce, discourtesy and disrespect, threats of vengeance and acts pf petty tyranny towards the teachers

rale the hoar; and in the words of oar Auckland evening contemporary, " if the Board wilt carry out its threats it will have to dismiss the leading teachers from its service." The proceedings of the Board were several times brought before the notice of the House of .Representatives during the last session—the Minister of Education stating on one occasion that, in respect of the "religious inquisition" attempted by the Board, he would support the teachers in disobeying it. The general public, we have no doubt, would also support them. Quite lately the Board has adopted the fining of teachers for non-attendance at drill, and we find the Educational Institute intend taking steps to test the legality of such a measure. It is surely absurd to fine teachers certificated by the Minister of Education for not doing duties outside those prescribed by the Education Act, and this is what is to he legally tested. It is to be observed, as we pointed out some time ago, that before the last election of school committees, a member of the Board, in his capacity as Grand Master of the Orange Society in Auckland, issued a private circular, some time since published in bur contemporary the Herald, conl taining instructions how to elect a majority of members of that Order on each committee, and there can be no doubt that this circular has not been without effect in the composition of the present committees. In this connection the meaning of the pledge given by the present rulers in the Board, to increase the powers of the committees, to rule the officials, and to prepare a religious roll of the teachers, becomes quite clear. The Grafton Boad episode was a practical illustration on this head. While we say nothing concerning members of the Orange Society, we deplore that the name of secular education should in any way be connected with sectarianism or secret societies of any kind. Secular education knows nothing, and it was meant to know nothing of Sectarianism. We do not assert that it is the spirit of sectarianism that has inspired the Board in all its recent condemned acts; but there can be no doubt that it has inspired it to do some of them. The circular above referred to .leaves no room for doubtastoitaobject. Wecannot think that anything but ignorance would impel the Board to, or would blind it to the ill effects upon educations of, the course it is now pursuing. At the last meeting of the Board one of its members moved that in cases of insolvency among teachers the Board should make an enquiry into each case and it was agreed to as "reasonable." We wonder who will constitute the court of inquiry for this business, and whether any " incidental expenses" will be incurred through it. It is very " reasonable that there should be. Regarding the present conflict with the teachers we quite endorse the opinion, of our Auckland evening contemporary, that "The men and women who are specially trained for teaching, who are actively engaged in it every day, may with public advantage disouaa the educational system of the country. And we hare little doubt that the opinions of the Institute, in the estimation of commonsense men, will have at least as much weight as the fads which have of late found such high favour at the Board of Education." The Board has a highly respectable body of teachers under its control, who have to fulfil a very important duty towards the rising generation—a duty difficult and onerous at all times to discharge, but much more so, if it does not become almost impossible, when committees; parents, and children, are incited by the Board to treat them with disrespect and antipathy. If this be not the result, it will not be the fault of the members of the Board of Education, who are playing sach extraordinary pranks, and bringing themselves and their body into contempt and ridicule in the public estimation.