SCHOOL HOLIDAYS.

Evening Star, Issue 7875, 6 April 1889, Page 3

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS.

TO THE KDITOK. Sin,—Before the conference of school committees met I had received a letter from Mr Dodde, the clerk of the Mauandrew road School Committee, apologising for the remark in his report to the Board of Education " that the teachers of that school had been taught a smart lesson," and he ought to have taken care that the wrong was not perpetuated at such a public meeting, seeing that it ia false. The statement was unauthorised and repudiated by the Committee. I have very good reason to understand the circumstances of the case as well as anybody and I assert that ou* of a staff of twelve teachers no one was to blamo except a punil-teacher, who had only entered the school a few months. His statements regarding our holidays before the Conference were almost entirely incorrect. This I can prove. It is to be hoped that such statemeats, and that of Mr Price about the 10s per hour salary, are not a fair sample of the correctness of the general information laid before the Conference. But, if it were expedient, I could easily show that the Committee, by its imprudence and obstinacy in administering the holidays, have lowered the school status, reduced their own income for maintenance, and caused a reduction in the teachers' salaries.—l am, etc., William Bennett, head-master. Dunedin, April 6.