THE CASE OF CAPTAIN ERSKINE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 30, 30 October 1907, Page 6

THE CASE OF CAPTAIN ERSKINE.

The Wellington Education Board is at the. present moment engaged in the task of 'elucidating an exceedingly difficult and delicate problem. It has taken up a definite and decided atti 1 tude towards one of its teachers, Mr Erskine, on the question as to whether he is at liberty to resign the command of his cadet company on certain conditions. The question is complicated by the fact that the.welfare of tin cadet movement is at stake. The position, in brief, is this: Captain Erskine, officer commanding School Cadets, resigned his command, and was asked by the Board to state his reasons. In his reply, he iudicated that his resignation was, in . effect, merely nominal, as.lie purposed to continue the work of supervising the; cadets, so far as company drill an.l shooting were concerned; but he wished to be relieved of'the duty of attending battalion parades. ■ This duty, lie suggested, might devolve upon a -junior assistant. The headmaster, in a minute attached to -this reply, concurred, stating that, in his opinion, tin efficiency, of the corps would not. be affected by the change. The Board thereupon resolved that Mr: Erskine should again be written to, and that, in a "carefully-studied" letter, it hi pointed out' to hiin that his duty lay in'retaining his command. There, for the present, the matter stands. Tlii« Board cannot retreat, save' ; at the cos 1 ; of its own discomfiture, and, also, the creation of a precedent which would constitute a serious menace to the cadet movement.- Its present attitu'de is correspondingly difficult, for .Mr. Erskine has been honourably associated with the Terrace/School for'many years, and is a teacher of acknowledged ability. To. compel Mr. Ers , kine, by what,must inevitably be considered,.,byj.,a of the, public,'to Jie a.tyrannical discipline, to retain'his' responsibilities,' might' easil » r lead'to a revulsion of feeling against our system of military drill in schools; The real problem before the Board is not Mr. Erskine, but the preservation of the cadet system; This system may have its defects, but its value to th« country is immeasurable. ' To every thoughtful citizen it must be apparent that the Continued efficiency of th?, cadets implies the continuance of o,ui' present, voluntary system of defence The question as-to whether the Board can,insist on.the point.at issue or not is answered by the regulations governing the organisation of the . public school cadets.- These regulations, it must.be. said, are by no means as cicalas they might be. The Board's;position rests upon;"'th'e interpretation l , _of Clause 10 of the Regulations, which reads as follows':—, /

"Tho,officers of cadet corps shall bo appointed by th'o Minister, on the recommenda-' tion of the headmaster, if tho Board signifies its approval of such recommendation." :

It is clear that the onus of appointment with respect to ciulet officers.is thrown upon the Board.'- If the headmaster's recommendation does not, in, the opinion of thelßoard, guarantee the efficiency of the corps it can be rejected. Conversely, if a particular, cadet officer desires to relinquish his command, ic is clear that the Hoard can-withhold its consent; if it is satisfied that transfer of tlie command "to a junior would', tend to lower the standard of efficiency iii that corps. The best way out of the difficulty is to meet the situation by such-mean's as .willi. without needless irritation, safeguard the present constitution of the cadet system. The next step, and a very necessary one, is to purge the present cadet system of those features which, from the first, have been unpopular with the teachers. We refer to street parades, "'and ostentatious ceremonies. >