OVER A LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 13, 15 July 1936, Page 12

OVER A LETTER

LIVELY EXCHANGES

EDUCATION BOARD

MEMBERS DIFFER

A question raised by Colonel T. W. McDonald before the meeting of the Education Board adjourned for lunch today, relating to a letter from the Clyde Quay School Committee, le'd to some lively exchanges. '■>

Before, the motion confirming the

business done in committee was confirmed. Colonel McDonald said he

wanted to raise a question. He had been informed, he said, that a letter of complaint or objection had been sent to the board from the Clyde Quay School Committee concerning the appointment of a teacher. He noticed from the order paper that several other letters of complaint or objection had been received from other school committees, but^there was no reference to the letter from the Clyde Quay Committee. He did not know anything about it; he was not present at the last meeting, but he had been told the letter had gone in and there was no mention of it on his order paper. He wanted to know if there was such a letter: whether he could have it, or whether the letter had been treated differently from any other letter. Mr. C. H. Nicholls said he thought he knew the case Colonel McDonald was referring to, and he thought the whole matter had been adjusted. The senior inspector had good reasons for making the appointment, and he hoped ' that the matter would be left where it ■ was. "MORE THAN DISSATISFIED." ■.Colonel McDonald said that if the position was as outlined by Mr. Nicholls. he was more than dissatisfied. The senior inspector, he contended, had no right to. deal with the matter himself. He did not associate the chairman ' with any wrong action or influence or anything of that kind, but he took strong exception to the course that had been taken. He moved that the letter be read, a motion which Mr. A. Donald seconded. Mr.L. J. McDonald moved an amendment that information required about staff appointments be supplied at the next'meeting of the appointments committee.

Another motion, by Mr. J. J. Clark, ■was that. the board should go into committee, but this met with criticism from Colonel McDonald and Mr. Donald. s

•;Mi\ L.. J. McDonald said there was no ulterior motive in wanting to postpone the matter. The usual place to dear with it was at the appointments committee meeting. Nobody who knew him-would question his motives. Colonel McDonald: Won't they? Mr. L. J. McDonald said he derived no particular satisfaction in creating an invidious position for anyone. There was an ulterior motive, he alleged, in wanting to deal with the matter in open board. Why was it not raised last night? ■ Colonel McDonald: Because I wanted it to come into the daylight to show what is being done. That is the truth. Now you have got it. The suggestion from Colonel McDonald, continued Mr. McDonald, evidently was that something sinister had been done, and the remarkable thing wasthat he had given the board every assurance that he had no such thought in mind. , Colonel McDonald: He never did. He said about the chairman. The reputations of the average members of the board., said Mr. McDonald, would stand any baseless and unwarrantable accusation that Colonel McDonald brought forward. The public was'getting so used to it that they knew how much importance to attach to it Colonel MqDonald: Oh yes, oh yes. The public knew, continued Mr. McDonald, that Colonel McDonald had a spirit of ill will and persistent perversity.- ' '; Colonel McDonald: A point of order. Please sit down (to Mr. .McDonald^ ■Mr. McDonald: I am not taking orders from you. • The : chairman (Mr. "W. V. Dyer): Please address the chair Colonel McDonald: Point of order, Mr. Chairman. Is it right or proper for a member of the board, when a proper subject is before the meeting, to. .deal with a member of the board? AJuL OTJT OF ORDER. The chairman said- that as a matte)' of fact the whole discussion was oui of order. The matter before the meeting really' was whether the business done in committee should be confirmed Mr. McDonald said that all he was doing was seeking to establish thai there was no good reason for. bringing up the question of the appointment tc the Clyde Quay School at this particu lar time.

1 Colonel McDonald said that as Mr. McDonald could not refrain from dealing with him, he desired now to let Mr. McDonald go on and "do his damnedest."

Mr. McDonald said lip wanted to thank Colonel McDonald for giving him the opportunity of saying that these continuous troubles arose out of an attitude of mind.

The chairman: I think we should get away from these personalities. Mr. P. Eobertson said that Colonel McDonald had asked a simple question,, and he thought that if that had been .answered and the letter handed over to him.the discussion would have been avoided.

' Colonel McDonald: I merely want it read.

" the secretary (Mr. E. S. Hylton) said, that the letter had not personally come 'under his notice, but since the question had been raised he had been making inquiries about it. The position was that under the Act a school committee had ten or twelve days to raise an objection to a teacher. That was not done in this case and the appointment of the teacher automatically followed. The letter that had been received subsequently was out of order and that was why it was not mentioned on the order paper. "A FEEBLE ANSWER." That was the most feeble answer that had ever been giving to anything before the board, contended Colonel McDonald. He alleged that a most improper course had been taken and done deliberately with the sole purpose of hiding from some members of the INTd, at any rate, what was being

done because "they did not want it to get into the daylight." As for the effusion of his friend Mr. McDonald, he had made a long speech about nothing. When he saw on the order paper reference to other letters of a similar nature to that which he was told had been sent in from the Clyde Quay ' School committee he became suspicious. Mr. C. H. Nicholls: Like you always are

Colonel McDonald retorted that he

was susoicious when he saw what he described as "hole-and-corner business"

being' done. "No different action whatever had been taken in this matter, said Mr. Hylton. Whenever a school 'committee had failed to reply within the legal limit the letter never came before the board; The school committee had no redress whatever in such circum-

stances, because when the lime limit expired the teacher's appointment was automatically issued. It was for the board to say if in future such letters should go before the board.

In reply to a question, it was stated that the Clyde Quay committee knew of the time limit.

Colonel McDonald's amendment that the letter be read was lost, but it was pointed out to him that as a member of the board he was at liberty to see the letter.

The motion was then passed confirming the business done in committee.