A VIOLATED PLEDGE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 42, 14 February 1874, Page 8

A VIOLATED PLEDGE.

„ WELLINGTON EDUCATION BOABD. In thff ' Independent ' of the 3rd inst , we find the following paragraph:—" In the report of the meeting of the Education Board, •wliich appears elsewhere, will be found a long and interesting letter from Dr Grace, respecting aid to Boman Catholic schools and other matters. We are unable to publish the discussion which took place On the letter, as the meetings of tho Board are not open to the press." The following is the portion of the report referred to in the para graph quoted : — AID TO BOMAN CATHOLIC BCHOOL3. The following letter was received from Dr Grace :—: — "Wellington, January 26, 1874. " Sir, —I acknowledge with pleasure the receipt of your letter of the 19th inst., und in justice to the community which I have the honor to represent, I take this opportunity of drawing the attention of your Boaid to the whole position which obtains, and to the confusion and injustice which have lesulted from the declaration of the Board that they shall decline aid to schools, the mistresses of wbicli wear a particular dress. " I may be permitted to remind your Board, that it is scarceiy a logical proceeding to refuse aid to girls schools on the pretext of the dress of their miMressce, at the very time that the Board is exercising it« functions under the provision* of a clause of the Act admittedly interpreted by the Board as empowering it to extend the benefits of the Act to denominational schools. And this leads me naturally to your former communication of the 13th May, covering " Terms of Agreement between the Catholic community "of Wellington and the Education Board," and uH'ords occasion for my r minding you that the chairman of your Board, in the presence of its members, officially assembled, assured me in the hearing of the deputation of our clergy and laity that our school unstresses would be paid by tho Board. After I had fully explained to him that our girls schools were and would be taught by nuns, and it was on tbe strength of this declaration alone tha the terms of agreement dntcd 13th May were acceded to by us, and in t>rder that no possible misunderstanding might arise, your Board was elcariy informed that this portion of tiie understanding was tl c more impoitant to us, as our boys' schools were te' (-supporting", but our girls' schools at Te Aro might not be so. In violation of this uudcistsnding I find that ull pecuniary aid was withdrawn from our girls' schools and no notico whatever of this intoution, or of the exeeu

tion of this design was commnnicatod to me by your Board. Therefore, on behalf of the community I represent, and whose representatire capacity you hare admitted in your letter of the 13th May; I have b> request a etriot observance by the Board of the term* of the agreement, and have the honor to await such contribution by the Board in pay' ment of schoolmistresses' salaries, as will enable me to see justice done to the parents of children, and the moneys which they have paid towards the temporary maintenance of school mistresses refunded. "Before passing from this part of the subject permit me to direct ycwr attention to clause 2of the written agreement '« That all necessary repairs, additions and fences, be executed by the Board." I feel that I have only to remind you of this to secure the observance of its CDndi ions, particularly as Mr Toomath, your late Inspector of Schools for the information of the Board in my hearing declared that the present buildings were not in their present state fit for educational Dur«* poses. F j "I now proceed to observe with more immediate reference to your letter of the 19th January, that when in conjunction with Mr Buckley, and at your invitation, we jointly urged before the Board the preceding and other reasons why the Board was bound in justice to continue support to our girls' schools, no matter what collateral mif understanding might hate arisen between the Board and school misstresses (which misunderstanding, by the way, Father Cummin* ottered to arrange), we took that opportunity of drawing the attention of the Board to the fact that in tbe Te Aro school we were educating seventy girls, and in the Thorndon day-school eighty girls without receiving any assistance from the Board, notwithstanding their direct pledge to contribute, and reminded the Board that this hardship wa« she more opprssive as the now regulations diminished the salaries of our masters, and we might bo called upon, only for the increasing popularity of our schools, to supplement the masters' salaries iD addition to providing for the entire support of our girls' schools, because we had not the accommodation if we had the will, to create joint schools and because the Board lefused aid to our single girls schools, on the strength of the latest educational difficulty of their own making— the dress of school mistresses. " With this necessary introduction. I proceed to comment on the proposal of the Board to remove to Wanganui our popular and successful master, Mr Hurley, but must pause to remind you thut the members in attendance at our schools were originally materially reduced by other schools being made free before ours were, and to suggest to the Board that the proposed removal would be most unfair to us, as certain still further to reduce the numbers in attendance at ou» schools. If the difficulty is only to provide a school mistress for Wanganui we shall be happy to select one for you. With reference to the urged advisability of amalgamating the two schools, I beg to point out to you that the attendance at both our schools is rapidly increasing, and indeed the master at the Te Aro school has been for a considerable time entitled to an assistant. " In conclusion, I need not assure you that any action Mr Newlyn may have taken with reference to the Board and its regulations could only be approved of by us, when characterised by all that respect and consideration for the Board which its position and functions so fully entitle it to. — I am, &0., _ n , " Morgan S. Gha©h." O. Graham, Erg., Secretary. Education Board. The Secretary was instructed to forward copies of minutes ©f previous meetings of the Board, by which it appeared that owing to tno Btrietly denominational character of St. Philomena's sohool the Beard could not grant the assistance asked. With reference to the matter of dress, it had only been quoted as one of the many instances of tho strictly denominational character of the school. With reference to Dr. Hurley's removal from the Boulcott street school, the Board desired to state that they had no wish to transfer Mr Hurley to Wanganui cmless with the consent of the trustees of the school in Wellington, and that the suggestion had emanated from the Koman Catholic community at Wanganui, and not from the Board. That the Board had never aided a denominational school excepting where all trace of denominationahsra had been withdrawn. With reference to the application to hayo Mrs Oabonio appointed an assistant female teacher in the Wanganui school, it was decided that Mrs O -borne having declined to answer any preliminary examination by the inspector, the Board were unable to grant the application.