TEACHERS IN SUSPENSE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 302, 15 September 1908, Page 6

TEACHERS IN SUSPENSE.

« Moke than once in the recent past, in discussing the state of Parliamentary business, wo suggested that the teachers in the State schools should keep on the alert lest the Education Bill should fail to secure a place in the annual volume of " Statutes. If the tcachers felt no misgivings then, they have ample reason to do so now, since the Bill is by no means out of the wood. Indeed, it occupies at the present moment the position of an abandoned proposal. It will be remembered that in Committee on Wednesday night last Mr. Wilford moved the adoption of a new clause to secure uniformity in school books, and he carried his proposal against the Government. The Minister at once declared that he could not accept the proposal, and accordingly moved to report progress. This is the procedure usually adopted by a Government when it desires to consider its position, or intends to drop a Bill that has been amended in a way that, it does not approve. Earlier in the Committee sitting, an amendment was proposed from the Opposition benches which Mr. Eowlds objected to. He declared that if the amendment were carried he would move to report progress. This, as Mr. James Allen pointed out, was a plain threat on the Minister's part that he would abandon the Bill if the House made tho proposed alteration. It has been suggested that by vigorous whipping the Government can sccure the rejection of Mu. Wilford's amendment when, if the Bill is brought forward again, the question is put, " That this clause stand part of the Bill." Ministerialists who did not vote, so the suggestion seems to be, can be " rounded up," while some of the Ministerialists who supported the amendment can contrive to bo conveniently absent from the Chamber. For our part, we find it difficult to believe that tho Government will withdraw a long-promised and long-overdue measure of relief for an ill-used class on so flimsy a pretext as its objection to uniformity in school books. If the Government were to adopt such a coursc, the teachers would be able to estimate the value of the Government's profession of a sincere desire to grant them an instalment of tho justice that has year after year been denied them. We will say nothing as to the Government's sincerity just now. But wo will say that the Government is most unlikely to resort to tactics oi which the injustice would br

patent to everybody. Since this is the case, there is no reason why the members who favour uniformity in school books should reverse or withdraw their votes on a second trial of strength lest they should imperil the whole Bill. There arc excellent reasons why uniformity in school books should not bo brought about , in any sudden, violent, and uncompromising fashion. But it would be absurd to contend that the fate of the wliolo Bill can be properly made dependent on the attitude that the House takes up on the proposed new clause. In the meantime the action of the Minister must be productive of a good deal of uneasiness, and it is his business to allay the anxiety of the teachers and of the public without any further delay. The teachers cannot feel at ease,, it is clear, until the Bill actually bccomcs law.