Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY. JULY 4, 1879. THE EDUCATION BOARD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume I, Issue 88, 4 July 1879, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY. JULY 4, 1879. THE EDUCATION BOARD.

At the recent meeting ot the Education Board Mr William Watt, Chairman of that august body, took -occasion to utter a diatribe against the Foxton School Committee, in which, he evidently trusted to his imagination for his facts, and brought that inventive faculty into full requisition. Mr Watt has apparently confounded the gross bungling of the Education Board with the action of the Committee in some inscrutable manner, and the consequence is, that he has laid himself open to charges that amount to falsehood. We could, if we chose, go through the whole relations of the Committee with the Board regarding the new building, but euoh a course would answer no purpose beyond proving that Mr Watt should never again trust himself to make a speech upon any subject which does not occur directly before his eyes, and that even then he should write it down and read it, as his " little member " is at least doubtful in its accuracy. Instead of charging the Committee with such a tissue of blunders, Mr Watt's better plan would have been to bury the Board's errors quietly, without sounding the attack over the dead. Throughout the whole affair, the Foxton Committee have shown a spirit of forbearance with the folly and delay of the Board which contrasts very favourably with the iras* cible tone the Chairman adopted in his speech. Regarding Foxton's past historj, we are not aware that praise from Mr Watt would be any compliment; therefore we estimate his blame at a low value. We might retort, that Wanganui has progressed not because but in spite of him. If proof is required, let him think upon his action re the Waitotara Highways Board ; and he will see a course rtf conduct that no public man in Foxton would adopt. However, the Local Committee have taken the bull by the horns in this case, and passed a resolution, which is published in another column, dealing with the matter* In that resolution, the Chairman of the Education Board will receive the retort direct.