FEATHERSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1470, 30 August 1883, Page 2

FEATHERSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

(TO THE EDITOR). Sir,—As I perceive you have published the proceedings of the Featherston School Committee at their meeting on Friday last, I you. will spare me a little spacfethat the public may hear both, sides'-of- this* matter. The committee at an ordinary meeting on the 29th June, passed a resolution that home-work should be discontinued forthwith,' Mr Bunny, who was in the Chair, moved this resolution. He did not put some one else into the Chair before moving it, neither had he or anyone else given • previous notice that he intended to move. it. A few days after I received a very curt notice from the Secretary (Mr Campbell) of this motion. I had just finished my report for the previous quarter to the Committee, and I added to it a request that they would reconsider that resolution. The Com- ; mittee had agreed to meet again on the 13th July to decide about some school requisites whioh they- intended.. to ask the Board to provide, and at that meeting my report was read, and my request that they would reconsider the question of homo work was discussed, and it was moved, seconded, and agreed to, that the aforesaid resolution should be rescinded. Mr Bunny was not at that meeting, but I apprehend that ho had a tolerably early interview with Mr Campbell, as I met him just outside the bank (Mr Campbell's residence) soon after 10 a.m. Mr Bunny assumed that I was going to ask Mr Campbell what the committee had done and stated, without my asking, that tho committee had done nothing about the question of homework, because the meeting was held for a special purpose and they had no power to deal with other matters. On my asking Mr Campbell if this was tho case, he said that it was. I did not learn the truth of what had taken place until a fortnight after. Neither, I think, did any one else, as it was kept out of the papers and no publicity was given to it. It iB quite possible that the committee were not quite in order in the action they took when they resoiuded ' the obnoxious resolution, but it is certain their proceedings wero not one whit more informal than those of the '<J meeting on 3lst June, and if they , were, what right had Mr Campboll to. tako upon himself to decide in the matter, to pronounce that a resolution, properly moved, seconded, and agreed to, was informal? And still moro why did he not tell me what had really been done instead of confirming Mr Bunny's statement and letting mo go away completely deceived 1 I make no remark as to Mr Bunny's share in this transaction, but one does expect truth aud honorable dealing from a bank manager. I certainly accepted Mr ■ Campbell's word without the slightest hesitation, and, as a matter of fact, I discontinued homowork up to the time tho Education Board met at the end of July, and Mr Bunny unsuccessfully attempted to' get from the Board their authority to school committees to deal witii the home-work question. I did this for the sake of peace, not wishing to come to a breach with the committeo, though I felt certain that they had no' right to interfere with md in- the matter and that other head masters would probably resent my yielding to it. The Committee met again about a fortnight ago, and Mr Bunny moved that 1 should bo reported to tho,Board, (I suppose for my contumacy,) and Mr Campbell seconded it, After that 1 took occasion to tell Mr Campboll that he had allied himself with Mr , Bunny to thwart and annoy me. Those were the words T used, and that is the violent, unbecoming, and insulting language, spoken of in your paper, and those are the grounds on which the Board is to be requested to give me notice lo quit, I distinctly assert that this is done, not because the school is otherwise than in a thoroughly satisfactory condition, not becauso the parents wish me to leave, for not (4. '. child is kept away in the whole district •' out of dissatisfaction to mo, but because I have incurred the ill-will of Mr Bunny, and of three other members of tho Committee, neither of whom has a single child in the school. I wish also to state that I havo never in any way attempted to influence any mGuibcr of the Committee as to their voting; or said; one word on the subject either good or bad as to votes given, I fear I have taken up an unconscionable amount of room in your paper, but I believe I am not mistaken iu thinking that a great many of your readers will be interested in hearing the teachor's Bide of the question as woll as that of the Committee, j I am, 40., ■'• I '." H.E.TUCKKY,

i (TC- THB BDITOJ.) I'TdM.t^kUjittte.tir, jPwJwadHwtotyonaro. . lJ»a ; pm6ad^n^th"9ikf.' , "'^n^*?■'■%& y° B PUbluhiw I my 1 to in yonr «su* of tho 23rd int. $ J find p»t the well-intsntioned efforts of Mr >' Inspector .hire.Mod w jth your contam. ' porarv thj.StW further than to m»b him Wv.^^.f^nw)wnedtoiii«w«llojv. ! - norW-qne of.the Whareaina incq»UM ylioihoae maybw'elytou4 without Wjiig >n a ineasaw oneself His offon to be" jagonifingly fanny,", and to imitate tho "Secretary to the erJ.P., 1 ' is good. Wo ' may nest have him titompiing to " twinkle,

twinkle I" There is one portion of the artiolo in the Star to which, with your permission, I would now pay a little uttontion. I will not allude to what is said rcspooting tho " Puictoi block consisting of about a quarter of a million acres," "now you are in the Council you must get a deviation of tho road and bring it to our door; mako it a County road," "you must now try and get this Puketoi block _, cut up in Rootions—not small ones, for that ** would be inconvenieut-but big sections of 1000 to 2001) aeros, and thoy must bo placod on the schedule as cash sections," further thantaask your readers, in all fairness, to cone Ane this: that if I ptore all which aputiarTm .the following to be wicked nonfoiise, then all said as q to e 1 ahovo must bo wicked nonsense also;— . t r "Another inattorl have takou notice o( 1 is tho scab, question. I, consider Inspector Sutton has been shamefully used by tl lu small political ring that works tho (lovmimont; The district has nover had the m-s.h----tance of a more efficient officer, but ho does not suit the ring. Why? fieoauao ho apoils the monopoly of tho meat market by a few settlers. Before Mr Sutton took charge of tho district, Whareaina and the East Coast wero shut out from the Wellington market, that part of the district being declared infected. Mr Sutton, howover cleared it; and tho supplies from there deatroyedthat monopoly, that formerly provailed; henco tho action of the ring to get rid of mi officer who was doine his duty only too well." ■ As I understand tho" Whareama and tho East Coast" ate far from " cleared," but thatisnottotho point. The market for sheep and lambs for Home consumption wc all know is limited: our principal markets now are obtained through meat preserving with boiling down ami freezing, both for export. The great complaint of those who have engaged in meat .preserving is that t[ioy cannot qet a sufficient supply of fat sheep, They can preserve fifty or a nundrod thousand sheep at a less cost per sheep than any given less number', and pay a higher price per sheep. With respect to meat freezing [ may safely go so far as to say that somo measure of thanks is duo from the settlers in tho Wairarapa in both County Kast and West to their representatives, i Messrs Buchanan and Bcetham, for their untiring efforts in their endeavor to establish for tho benefit of all. the frozon meat trade . from Wellington with the old countries of | Europe. And yet Wo find the Editor of a

newspaper published and supported in the Wairarapa casting vile muck atthesotwo men: trying to .iiiduco his readers to believe that those two men-Messrs Buokanan and Itefllhiun-aml other interested parties with tliem, aru so infamous and vile as to make it their endeavor to conserve the scab in tho WJiareanro and East Coast districts to the possible ruin of some, and to tho great injury of all the settlers in thoso districts; that thoy may conserve ajjain for themselves tho frozonmeat trade; tho foeding /rem their few sheep and lands the millions—ye (Jods |-of Britain! of Europe! My personal . acquaintance with the settlers of the Wairararapa and East Coast is somewhat limited. ' but so far as it extends it leads me to regard ••■ the settlers of thoso districts as men . possessed of somo common sense, with • self-respect, 't must be cheoring for them now to find t'.iat they have been nurturing in their midsl, and still do nurture, a man so vicious, so degraded, and low as to write—with a paper so utterly debased, as to pub-lish-rsueli infamous and most wicked, such atrocious, most hideous rubbish. " ' lam, <ie,, ' .„„ Sewktarv, Wellington. 29th iugusfc.