“FRENCH LEAVE.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 July 1924, Page 5

“FRENCH LEAVE.”

TEACHERS ABSENT FROM DUTY. SERVICES DISPENSED WITH. At the last meeting of the Wanganui Education Board, the chairanm said he had recently received three applications from teachers for leave of absence from July 14 to 18, to proceed to Auckland to take part in a hockey tournament. The teachers wanted him to give the necessary permission, as the board did not meet until the 16th inst. He had replied, declining to take the responsibility. Two of the teachers, in spite of this, had taken “French leave,” and left their schools, to play in the tournament.

A letter was read from the headmaster of the Manunui school to the chairman of the board, stating that one of the teachers had obtained “three days’ leave from the committee,” and asking for the board’s sanction.

The chairman said the committee had no power to grant such permission. He had replied? to the headmaster refusing to grant the request.

Mr. Durward said the teachers had no right to act as they had, in face of the chairman’s refusal as expressed in his letters to the headmaster of the Manunui school. There was only one course open, and that was to dispense with the teachers’ services. He would move in this direction.

Mr. Hemingway, in seconding the motion, said it was the board’s duty to safeguard the interests of the chil-, dren first, last, and all the time. If teachers could leave the schools for a week without the permission of the board, whenever they liked, there would be chaos. The dismissal of the teachers would he a warning to other teachers not to do as they pleased. The hockey matches should he played in the holidays if the teachers wanted to take part. Mr. F raser said he heartily concurred with the motion. The teachers in the present instance had gone against the chairman’s ruling, expressed in three separate letters. Mr. Pilkington said he would support the motion on this account. Had the teachers applied for leave and gone away without any reply being received refusing leave, it would have been bad enough, but in this case it was a thousand times worse, as the chairman had distinctly refused to grant the leave desired.

Mr Aiken said he thought it would be more dignified if the hoard were to write to the teachers asd ask them to show cause, why their services should not be dispensed with. He would move this as an amendment.

Mr. Mclntyre said lie would second the amendment. The motion, in his opinion, was too drastic.

Mr. Birnie said the motion could not lie considered too drastic, in view of the action of the teachers. Mr 'Laws said the duty of the hoard was to the children. The teachers .should have written to the hoard at its last meeting; as they knew the tournament was to be held. Instead of this they wrote to the chairman and endeavoured to get him to commit the hoard.

The .amendment was put and lost, and the original motion put and carried. Messrs Aiken and Mclntyre voting against it. —Patea Press.