BOARD ACTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 169, 19 July 1941, Page 8

BOARD ACTS

TEACHER RESIGNS

ANOTHER DISMISSED

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

'0.C.) NAPIER, this day. The employment of conscientious objectors holding positions as school teachers became an open issue yesterday when the Hawke's Bay Education Board took action in respect of two such teachers at schools under its control.

In one case—that of Mr. Bernard Tunnicliffe, teacher at Kaiti School, Gisborne—the board's decision was to dismiss him from its service. In the other case, that of Mr. N. J. F. Sonk. sole teacher at Ti-tree Point, mar Dannevirke, the board decided to look upon his request for z. transfer as a resignation and to accept it. In each case there has been local action.

In the case of Mr. Tunnicliffe who. in appearing before the Armed Forces Appeal Board, had said that he would give Hitler the world to play football with if it would save the world from war, the board had before it two resolutions, one from the Kaiti School Committee and the other from the Gisborne Returned Soldiers' Association, taking strong objection to Mr. Tunnicliffe's statement and expressing the opinion that he "was not a fit and proper person to have charge of the education of children." "I wholeheartedly agree with these resolutions," said the chairman of the Education Board, Mr. G. A. Maddison. "I do not hesitate to say that I have no time for those people who take all they can from the British Empire and are not prepared to defend it when the occasion arises. | Why, conscientious objectors are ! contributing to the war effort every ( day, even in spending a penny. Yet i they live in a sheltered position. I have no time for conscientious objectors, and I would rather call them objectionable consciences. Moreover, in cases of this kind teachers on their oath swear allegiance and loyalty to the King." Unfit to Teach Mr. T. A. Coleman, a Gisborne member, endorsing the proposal, said that Mr. Tunnicliffe should be dismissed and that the necessitv for such action was that Mr. Tunnicliffe's statements had shown such a warped mind that a person expressing those views was not fit to be in association with children of immature years. "What could be more disloyal than to say that one would let Hitler ride roughshod over the country?" he said. "It is absurd that members of this board, representing people who have lost their nearest kin fighting at the front, should be asked to give protection to men who skulk behind and will not give their services," Mr. Coleman added.

Something rises in anger in me when I hear these conscientious objectors talking about not taking life," said the Rev. R. B. Waugh. "They insinuate that the men who do go to war are keen to take life. It is an impudent statement. We are not judging this man's conscience, perverted or otherwise. We are judging his right and fitness to teach children."

I The board, after a long and animated discussion, carried a resolution deciding on Mr. Tunnicliffe's dismissal, on the grounds that his statements to the Armed Forces Appeal Board in seeking exemption were such that he was not a fit and proper person to be a school teacher. The Kaiti School Committee is to be informed of the decision, and if it agrees with it Mr. Tunnicliffe is to be given three months' notice of the termination of his engagement. Children Taken Away In the. case of Mr. Senk, the board was informed that the parents of the children attending the Ti-Tree Point school had withdrawn their children and would not allow them to return under a conscientious objector. Mr. Senk himself wrote stating that since appearing before the Appeal Board he had been unable to get board or accommodation in the district. He, therefore, asked to be relieved of his position at Ti-Tree Point and given a position elsewhere It was stated by Mr. Maddison that Mr. Senks case was in a different category from that of Mr. Tunnicliffe. Mr. Senk had done territorial service, and was willing to serve in New Zealand or. in a hospitalship but objected to gomg overseas. Mr Senk s appeal, he said, had been discamp and he would later So into The board decided to accept onlv that part of Mr. Senk's request which asked that he be relieved of his posi-