SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1870.

Marlborough Express, Volume V, Issue 268, 31 December 1870, Page 4

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1870.

The Mahakipawa Correspondent of the Picton Press recently wrote a very silly sentence in which, as we stated in our issue of Nov. 26th, he insinuated “ that the rental of our Education Reserve [ at Mahakipawa] went towards paying the Blenheim teachers’ salaries.” We said “ insinuated” because he prefixed the words “I am informed;” and we proceeded to add that “ anyone who took the trouble to think for a moment will know that the contribution to the Household Rate by the inhabitants of Blenheim has been far in excess of the cost of maintaining its own schools, besides the one at the Bush these schools have had to participate in the same fate as those at Mahakipawa, in being passed on to other hands, yet the teachers did not think it necessary to close them, although their salaries were recently, if not now nine months in arrear.” Of course we did not expect nor did we wish that our remarks should pass unnoticed, and a peculiarly envenomed letter to the Press has resulted.

Passing over at present the elegant diction and irrelevant matter introduced by the writer, we find he now says—

“ What he called an insinuation, I must now assert, that the rental of our Reserve went towards paying the salaries of the Blenheim and Big Bush Schools.”

This “ assertion” we replied to before by our reference to the Household Rate, and one would think it must be self-evident that the number of houses, close upon 200, within the Borough alone, not taking into account a district of three miles round the school, nor including the school fees, must exceed the salaries of the teachers. We have not the means of giving the exact figures, nor is it necessary. In his letter the writer disingenuously suppresses this, which was the gist of our reply, and goes on to say that these schools have not been passed on to other hands like his own. This too is so very self-evident that it is only a waste of time to do more than ask him under whose authority or supervision they are now. They were in the hands of the Education Board until the last Education Act handed them over to the Borough Council,

The next point requiring our attention is the way in which an historical fact is perverted, to justify the assertion that our schools have not changed hands, He goes back to June 1868, a period we did not refer to, but have a perfect recollection of. And says that—

“ When the Provincial Government withdtewaid from education in June, 1868, the with the exception of Blenheim and the Bush, received circulars stating that their services would not be required after the 31st June. The different districts (with the exception of Blenheim and the Bush) were called upon by advertisement to attend meetings in their different localities for the purpose of forming committees to carry on their school in the best way they could. Blenheim schools alone did not change hands; the Government were responsible to them as bo-

fore for their salaries, and have continued to be so, until taken over by the new Road and Education Boards, a short time since.” Now the real facts of the case were these, the Provincial Council did not vote anything in aid of education, and the inhabitants of outlying portions of the Province strongly objected to pay the Household Kate, which was only collected with great difficulty ; consequently circulars were sent to all the teachers, Blenheim included, and ultimately all the districts which were not self-supporting, that is to say, all but Blenheim, were cast upon their own resources, the Government agreeing to hand over to each local committee the rates collected in their district. The ei’rors into which the writer has fallen are too numerous for us to particularise, and but for the sake of others who have read his letter, we should not notice the matter further. For example he speaks of “ Our Education Reserve,” and to insure full notice of the expression puts it in italics. The term “ our” is quite incorrect, as all the Education Reserves did belong until September last to the Province at large, and were an endowment for the whole of the schools in the Province, and not for any one located in the district in which a reserve happened to be situate. Since September 12th, when the new Education Act came into force, the reserves belong to the County in which they were situated. Therefore whether Mr Eyes or Mr Seymour promised a portion of the rental of a particular x'eserve to a school in its vicinity, such could not be given except in a general sense; and the sum of £l2 5s 3d which he supposes to be their “ share of the per centage on land sales from 1868 to 1870” has doubtless been the produce of the Household Rates and fees paid in the district. The writer finally proves, in an odd way, his position, that the salaries of the Blenheim teachers have swallowed up the rental of the Education Reserve at Mahakipawa thus :

“The Government were responsible for the salaries which were a long way in arrears, and these same salaries [although say nine months in arrears] with Board expenses have absorbed all the available funds that the Education Board could collect, and among the rest, the rental of our Education lleserve.’

We cannot help expressing surprise that any person professing to have any knowledge of the subject at all, should write such stuff as this, because he knows very well that “ the only available funds” were with a trifling exception the Household Rates, and that these were returned to each, district where collected, except in Blenheim, where they were suffered to fall into arrear to cover salaries due prior to the change made in 1868, at which period the whole of the x-ates paid in the Blenheim district were literally taken and expended in paying arrears then due to all the teachers in the several districts, and to make good the deficiency another rate was collected within six months after, which threw all the accounts into the state of confusion now existing. It is no part of our duty to defend the conduct of the Government or Education Board, therefore we shall simply leave the subject by stating that the fact is patent to all who choose to see it, that the rates paid in Blenheim district have gone to support the schools in other parts of the Province, while its school teachers’ salaries have been suffered to fall into arrear.

We have passed over all the gross personalities in the letter alluded to, as only tending to cover what the writer must have known was a bad case, and calculated to confuse those who read his letter.