THE OTAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 45, 7 March 1874, Page 9

THE OTAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

At a late meeting of the Otago Education Board, the following letter was read : — Dunedin, 21st February, 1874. Sib, — I am instructed by the Otago Schoolmaster's Association to bring under ihe notice of the Education BoarJ the following extract from a leading article in the ' Otago Daily Times ' of the 20th inst. :—: — " • • . clerics who were full of profound interest in the morals of Aneiteum natives and the religious convictions of the savages in the Malay Archipelago, but did not care a jot for the Walker street brothels or the immoralities of some of our District Schools." It is the opinion of the Association that this charge made in the leading newspaper of the Province, though indirectly, and in a way so insult" •ing to everyone connected with the management of the District Schools, ia so gross as to demand a searching investigation as to its truth. I have, &c, W. Milne, Secretary Otago Teachers' Association. The Secretary Otago Education Board, Dunedin. The Superintendent said that the Board had ceitainly nothing to do with the clerics, but they had to do with the morality of the District Schools. TVie allusion in the article iv question was rather a sweeping one. It was ultimately decided to refer the letter back to the Otago Schoolmasters' Association, with a recommendation that the 'Times' should be asked to furnish more specific information. The ' Times ' of a subsequent dpte had the subjoined paragraph :—: — Those members of the Education Board who were so wroth with our Leader on the District Schools would do well to peruse carefully, the letter appearing in our columns to-day, on the subject. Mr Brown puts the matter clearly and distinctly before the public. He does not write under a norn de plume, but signs his name iv full with Jm address. Probably the remark made by those of the Board who read this letter will be : " Who'd have thought it? " The following is the letter referred to : — I have on more than one occasion been inclined to make a complaint in your columns, about the way in which the walla of my house are defaced by pupilsuttending the Middle District School The old building, which I have lately pulled down, was almost covered on both front's with obscene, filthy, disgusting language and scrawls, about which 1 spoke to the master some time ago, when he advised mo to get tho names of the boys who did it; but the difficulty is to bring the offence home to any of them, as there are generally a number of them together, and all deny it, of eours?. I have now to complain of the same filthy practice on the walls of the new building, which I have lately erected, and which are already disfigured in several places ; and t j warn both parents and boys that a strict watch will be kept in future, and the offenders, whoever they at c- r handed over to the police. I am not the only one who has to complain of the same abominable practice ; and I do think that a littlo more careful surveillance over the habits of the boys, both by parents and schoolmasters, would help to put a stop to it. * I am, &c. J. M. Bbown, Salutation Hotel, Kattray Street. '