BLACKS SCHOOL—A REPLY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 304, 15 November 1873, Page 3

BLACKS SCHOOL— A REPLY.

(To the Editor.) Sir, — In your issue of Wednesday, sth inst., you state that Mr. Mollwo has been appointed teacher of the Blacks school, succeeding Mr. Dixon, late of Southland and Victoria. Such statement being perfectly untrue, I request that you will contradict it, as no such appointment has been made ; neither havo I, without the knowledge of the School Committee and wish of the parents, any idea of relinquishing my present appointment. You also state that the parents arc neglecting the school, and not sending as many children as they might. This statement is also untrue. The school has more children attending now than ever has been from its foundation ; and if the river was only passable for children, I can honestly say that every child in the district would be now attending that are within reach. Again, you state that the people do not approve ol the name ot Ophir for the site of the present township. This iB also false. Some may have thought it, perhaps, unsuitable ; but Ido not— the returns from Blacks showing a far heavier return than from larger and more populous districts. But this is an affair I do not consider the public, the press, or any individual has a right to interfere with. If the Government choose to call it Paradise, so be it. As to tho school and School Committee being found wanting, is most certainly a mistako—the present Committee being in* tho act of spending and raising some £150 for a new | school and residence for the teacher, attached j to the present building. ; As '-I do nob .care about entering into a newspaper correspondence with your falae infor- j mant, whoever he may be, I will answer no more, but leave it to the Board of Education, Dunedin, and to my local Committee to eon- ! fute any Biich-likc frivolous prevarications of the truth. By inserting the above, I consider you will j only be doing your duty as an editor. — fam,&e., * Henbt Dixox, Teacher of the Ophir and Blacks School. Ophir, Blacks, Nov. Bth, 1873. [We received our information from a trader who has been for ten years resident in Lawrence, and who is acquainted with Mr. Mollwo. We arc glad to learn that school matters at Blacks are prosperous. We know that, educationally, Blacks should be a prosperous school, because the first Government teacher there produced intellectual effect;, which were, officially and locally, acknowledged to be of a very superior character. But we also know that that first teacher resigned in disgust, because the attendance was not commensurate with his indefattigible perseverance, and because he preforred intellectual pursuits to indiscriminate so-called sociability. By what right does Mr. Dixon stigmatise as " false " that which is probably merely the result of an erroneous impression "? And what guarantee have we that even Mr. Dixon's version of affairs is correct, it being his interest to speak well of a Committee whom he dare not, with impunity, censure, were censure demanded by local facts ? In a court of justice, the unsupported testimony of a witness in his own defence is usually valueless. We sincerely advise Mr. Dixon to beg, borrow, or Pteal a copy of some polite •' Letter Writer." for he stands sudlv in need of a few lessons in epistolary etiquette.— Ed. " T.T."]