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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 553, 11 September 1869, Page 2

The remarks made in our last issue with reference to the destruction of the school-house and school-master's residence in Westport have aroused some of the less dormant of the inhabitants, if not to a state of action, at least to a condition of loquaciousness. A Nelson contemporary also ventures upon a slightly suggestive comment on the subject. The Examiner says:— " A telegram was received yesterday morning which stated that the schoolbuilding and master's residence at Westport was carried away the preceding by the sea breaking in against it. The building was erected on a very insecure spot, but who was responsible for the blunder we cannot say." The responsibility for the double blunder—tinst, of erecting the houses on the most insecure Bectiou of all the sections set aside as Education Reserves, while others more secure were leased, to add a paltry pittance to the Exchequer of the Central Board of Education in Nelson ; and, secondly, in allowing timely warnings to lie ununheeded until the tides swept the buildings away —is certainly that of the Nelson Government. No one in Westport—not even the Education Committee —had the slightest voice in the selection of the site, and, as has already been stated, no one was provided with the smallest authority to expend one shilling in the protection or removal of the buildings in the event of any emergency. Ey the Charles Edward, on Thursday, the following reply to the letter of the Secretary to the Local Committee of Education was received from the Secretary to the Central Board : Nelson, Sept. 3, 18f>9. Deae Sib, —I am instructed to reply to your letter of August 28th, applying for j£s(), that .£l2 was yesterday placed to your credit to cover the cost of moving tho teacher's house. No further grant can be made at present, the account of tho Central Board being considerably overdrawn ; but tho Board would be glad to receive a detailed estimate of the probable cost of re-building the school-master's house on a suitable site. I am, dear Sir, yours truly, W. C. HoDasoN, Sec. C.B.E. Tho steamer Charles Edward, be it remembered, left Nelson on Wednesday morning, the day after the school

and house wore washed away, and no farther communication in reply to the telegrams sent has been received. Under the circumstances, the members of the Committee may well congratulate themselves that they avoided a not improbable event —individual litigation between them aud the Central Board, or between them aud any contractor who might have been employed.

Let us look into this matter a little further. In the Appropriation Actof last year, under the head of" Education," the amount voted for " Provincial Schools " is £6500. This is the amount supposed to be expended, and which, doubtless, will be expended, on Provincial schools during the year ending March next. What infinitesimal proportion of the £OSOO, may we ask, has been allotted to the West Coast ? £l5O per annum for the school-mas-ter's salary at Westport, a similar amount at Cobd.cn, and £IOO to Charleston, form the West Coast share, which is dealt out with the occasional intimation that the account of the Central Board is " considerably overdrawn." It must be borne in mind also that Westport contributes annually the amount or nearly tho amount of the master's salary, in direct taxation, termed the "Education Rate." Has Nelson contributed its quota in proportion to the amount disbursed from the £0500? We fear that it will be found that it has not done so, and by a very large margin. In the Education items the various proportions of revenue received, compared with those disbursed during the year, are quite in keeping wiih the other Provincial votes and appropriations of the Curtis Government, and such, it is feared, will be the method of distribution for time to come, unless the name and administration of the Government bo in some way altered. An opportunity of, at least, attempting somo alteration will soon present itself, when it is to be hoped tho WestCoast electors will give their undivided interest and exertions to the re-modelling of the foundation of the present parliamentary structure, which during the past few years has been upheld chiefly at the cost, and to the detriment, of the West Coast.