THE TRAINING COLLEGE APPOINTMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 281, 26 November 1919, Page 11

THE TRAINING COLLEGE APPOINTMENT.

(To the Editor.! Sir, —I read the account of the meeting of the Auckland Education Board last week? an 3 was astonished to see that the appointment of Mr. H. G. Cousins as Principal of the Auckland Training College -was objected to 'by some membere of the Board, and subsequently not accepted by the Board as a ■whole. Some of the members passed him by in favour of English applicants. Why should all the best positions be given to English teachers? It amounts to this: °Men and "women teachers, many of them born and bred in ■Kew Zealand, have no encouragement given them to work in the hope of attaining the higher positions. I have. it from very good authorities that Mr. Cousins has been an earnest worker in educational matters for most of his life, and his scholastic attainments no one can deny. Yet he is turned down, practically, because he is not English.

But this is not a testimonial for Mr. Cousins, but a plea for members of the profession as a whole. Why are so many teachers going on the land? Simply because they see little enough men in this all-important work. The next few years will see an exodus of teachers to the land, and no wonder.

Why was not the judgment of the Advisory Committee accepted in the Cousins case? It shows great want of confidence, either in their powers to judge, or, what is worse, in their honesty. Mr. Garland's remark "that it was •'all cut and dried'" is an insult to the intelligence and character of each and every member of that advisory Committee, and he should be made to apologise to them. Again, Mr. Garland insults the M-A-'s of New Zealand by saying that he prefers a B.Sc. (English ft> an M.A. New Zealand. This is an insult, is it not? Then he should be made to apologise t otbe M.A.'s of New Zealand. Nothing personal lies beneath my remarks about Mr. Garland. I do not know him personally, but the account of that meeting raised all my New Zealand blood. Perhaps I should have waited until it cooled. —I am, etc., J. CALDWELL.