ADDISON'S FLAT SCHOOL.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 593, 14 December 1869, Page 2

ADDISON'S FLAT SCHOOL.

{To the Editor qftlie Westport Times.) Sir, —I beg to draw your attention to one of the greatest grievances complained of in the district of Addison's Flat, viz.: the manner in which it has been dealt with by the Central Board of Education in Nelson in respect to its school. They have treated this district most shamefully by refusing to supplement the efforts of its inhabitants to support a local school. Addison's is distant some eight miles from the town of "Westport, and the large river of the Buller separates it from the town, yet Westport is the only place in the whole of this large district provided for out of the public purse with the means of public education, and Addison's is thus practically shut out from all benefit. It is nothing short of tyranny to draw so much revenue from this important gold-mining district, and yet to refuse to aid to the extent of even one penny the local endeavours of its inhabitants to educate the children of the place. The Nelson Board of Education appears to think that mining populations do not stand in need of, or, at least, care nothing for the advantages of education, but to regard them as mere machines—as one of the primary sources of a nation's wealth, labor, for which nothiug is to be returned or provision made to teach them to be good and useful citizens of the commonwealth. It is a very unfortunate and lamentable state of things to see a school, towards maintaining which the people are very willing to contribute, actually starved out through the unjust and beggarly treatment of the Board, by their denial of a subsidy in its support. I am convinced that the present inactive, circuitous, and cumbersome body called the Nelson Central Board of Education is a complete failure in its operations on the "West Coast of this Province. It is an effete and incompetent body, and quite unequal to perform the noble mission for which it has been created in the education o? the people. I think that the subject of subsidising schools in the mining localities is one most deserving the attention of our Eepresentatives, and I am glad to see that they have announced their intention of bringing the matter under the notice of the Provincial Council at its next sitting. If you, Mr Editor, would lend your influence to the subject, I have little doubt but that some temporary provision may be made by the Government to nourish and sustain this school until the action of the Council would devise the necessary measures for the establishment and support of local schools throughout the mining localities of the Goldfields. In this opinion I am justified by the liberal acts of his Honor and of his Executive in causing a special grant for the support of Father (3-aran's school in the town of Nelson, for which I, as well as my fellow-countrymen, am neither unmindful nor ungrateful.—l am, yours &c., * Timothy Sheahan. Nelson Hotel, "Westport, Dec. 9.