THE Mount Ida Chronicle. AND St. Bathans Weekly News. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1878.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 465, 8 June 1878, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle. AND St. Bathans Weekly News . SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1878.

It was scarcely to be expected that the Education Act of 1877, which contains new principles, calls new bodies into existence, and distributes power and patronage afresh, should long be permitted to work without a hitch of some sort occurring ; and accordingly we hare a sufficiently portentous one in the rupture which has just taken place between Education Board and the Dunedin School Committee. The circumstance which has given rise to the conflict between these two bodies is sufficiently well known, and we need not refer to it further than to say that the Board, in the exercise of powers assigned to it by law, appointed two teach ers to a Dunedin school, and that the Committee carried a resolution condemning the appointments as illegal, on the ground that they had not been consulted in the matter; stating at the same time their intention to take such steps as would prevent the appointments taking effect. If the Education Board really had made the appointments over the head of the School Committee, and without any previous consultation with them, there can be little doubt that the position of the latter would be unassailable, the 4oth section of the Act being perfectly explicit on the point: it says, " The Board of each dis"t tnct shall be entitled to appoint teach"t ers for every school under its control, " or to remove such teachers from one " school to any other school within the ■• district. . . . Provided that the " Committee may recommend teachers to " the Board for appointment, and may also •* recommend the suspension or dismissal " of any such teacher, but no appointment " suspension or dismissal shall take place "until the Committee have been first " consulted." It is not only that the meaning of the section is perfectly clear, but it is difficult to see how the wordiug of the clause could be altered so as to ex" press that meaning more appropriately. The power of appointment rests absolutely with the Board, which latter, however, is enjoined to first consult ihe School Committee interested, and is expected, though not compelled, to be guided by their opinion. It is left to the discretion of the Board to abstain from making any appointment against which a local "Committee might advance reasonable and solid objections. The law implies a certain small amount of mutual goodwill and cooperation between these two bodies, and if such is not forthcoming it surely supplies a curious and disagreeable commentary upon the elaborate mode of their election. Admitting, however, that some undesirable elements are at work to disturb the relations which should exist between the Board and the Committee, the fact remains that the former have strictly complied with the Act in the matter of tbejappointments which have given rise to the dispute. Through their' Secretary they mention the names of the teachers proposed to be appointed, and requested the Committee to state whether such appointments met their approval, —in doing which, and in expressing their willingness to listen to any reasonable objection which might be forthcoming, we take leave to think the Board performed the utmost that was required of them. The Committee, who had no objection to urge against the teachers, felt very indignant with the legal exercise of the Boards' undoubted power, which they choose to call an "usurpation;" and, resting their case upon the fiction that they had not been " consulted," now take upon themselves the risk of confusing the administration of the Education Act in the entire provincial district, and throwing the entire department into disorder. The whole case is simplicity itself, and one cannot help wondering at the temerity of the Dunedin School Committee in choosing their battle ground. For if the word "consultation" simply means consultation, as we may reasonably believe it does, then the position of the Board is absolutely inexpugnable: if consultation does not mean consultation, but something very different from consultation, then we must do the Dunedin School Committee the justice to say that they are in the right, and that they are gifted with a power of insight into recondite things much beyond that of their fellow-men, and for which those who know them best could scarcely have given them credit.

The whole matter assumes very great importance when it is reflected that whatever power belongs to the Dunedin School Committee belongs equally to eve~y other Committee in the Colony. The Legislature, with universal consent, deliberately took the power of appointment and displacement of teachers out of the hands of School Committees, and lodged it with a bodj- of men much further removed from local prejudice and influence, and in whose bauds it is more likety to be ex- . ercised iu an impartial and satisfactory manner. It is not therefore to be endured that the intention of Parliament should be frustrated and the law rendered nugatory because a single School Committee choose to apply to the statute a strained and unnatural interpretation, in which, outside its own circle, no one else pretends to concur. It would be well therefore for Committees iu country districts, in their owu interests, to repudiate the act : on taken and the position assumed by their confreres in Dunedin; for they may be perfectly certain that, if the spirit of compromise intended by the Education A.ct to be called into play is not forthcoming, that, iu fact, its place is supplied by a disposition to aggression and jealousy, public opinion will demand tbat the matter be set at rest by a still further curtailment of the influence School Committees may and ought to exercise iu determining the appointments of teachers in their schools. If they are not contented with the amount of power which they now reasonably and properly enjoy, they mny ultimately have to be satisfied with a diminution which they themselves rendered necessary, but which is not in any public sen<e desirable. The tendency to abuse of their functions now displayed by t K e Dunedin School Committee carries us a step further and suggests the possibility of something similar occurring .as between the Education Board itself and the Inspectors, which latter are, by the present Act, made entirely dependent on and answerable to the Board. J f a School Committee now wishes to exert an undue influence over teachers of their schools, the time may come when the Board may stand in a like position towards the Inspectors; and for the same reasons— and others

which are even more important—it would seem very desirable that the latter should be rendered somewhat more independent, and placed more directly un(?er the jurisdiction of the Minister of Education—the Board merely exercising the same discretionary and limited power over them which committees are now presumed to exercise over teachers. There can be very little doubt that in this direction a revision of the Education Act is desirable, since it is iufinetely better that the lawshould be so framed as to afibrd a reasonable prospect of avoiding confusion add conflict, than that continual amendments should be forced upon us by circumstances which give rise to a sort of mischief that does not always end with tua application of the remedy. Tns 'lllustrated New Zealand Herald' for June is a very good number. The 'Frisco mail arrived at Auckland oa Wednesday night. It has been arranged that the County Council Conference will meet ia Wellington on July 21st. Mb. Peatjson, of Inyercargill, and Judge Harvey have been ap ointed to enquire into Mr. H. J". Finn's chaise against Mr. Warden Stratford. THEnew cement claim recently opened by Messrs. Gascoigne and Brown at Wetherstone's is turning out well. One dish gave fully half a-pennyweight. The Bank of Sew Zealand ia about to erect a magnificent banking house in Dunedin, where its greatly increasing business has necessitated a large amount of additional ace omuiodalion. j The hope we expressed last week frost would soon again break up has, tvWt* glad to saj% been idealised. On Saturday a thaw set in, and by Monday morning tiling were so much softened that miners were able to resume their work. Snow commenced to fall on Wednesday nignt, and continued on Thursday morning—changing to rain later in the day. The only important items of European news by cablegram are that:—The British ironclad squadron will retire to Besika Bay and the Russian troops to Dcdeaghatch, on the iEgean Sea, as a prelude to the Congress. The Souuielian insurgents are w<4l "armed, and occupy impregnable positions, from which the Kussian troop 3 are powerless to dislodge them.—The German ironclad, Grosser Kur furst, sank, through a collision, of Folkstone It ia believed that 250 people were drowned. —Lords Beaconsfield and Lyons represent England at the Conferense.—The * Standard ' reports that the health the Popo is precarious, and he desires to abdica'e.—Count Andrassy has declared that his views Ten.ain opposed to those of Kussia. The unfinished portioa'of the through line of railway from Dunedin to Christeburcli (Waikouaiti to Palmerston) is expected to be finished by the first of July. At all events, every effort will be made by the Government and the contractors to complete the work, so that traffic will be able to pass through without interruption as near to that date" as possible. We understand that when this work is complete! an alteration will tale place in our local mail service. It is understood, if not already arranged, that Cobb and Go's line of ceacb.es to Naseby will run thrice instead of twice weekly, as at present, via Wailiemo, and once via Macraes, and that that enterprising and thriving corner of the district, St. Bathans and Cambrians, will be included in, the route through to Clyde. As soon as llus system is established the coaches will run through from Palmerston to Naseby in one day. Passengers to Dunedin from this district will thus b;able to reach the metropolis in one day; which in itself will be a great convenience as well as a saving of time and money. We are glad that the matter of the delay in opening that splendid agricultural block in Moonlight Flat, on Deep Dell run, was brought under the notice of the Waste Lands Board at its last meeting by the member for Waikouaiti, Mr Geo. M'Lesn, who remarked that rumour was current in his district to the effect that Moonlight Flat was to be withdiawn from sale on account of being part of the reserves for the Otago railways. He would like to know whether this was true, and whether the Board would take steps to have the land set apart as quick'y as possible, the surveys having been finished for some time. The Chief Com missioner said it was entirely a misapprehension, Moonlight Flat not being within the Strathtaieri railway reserv?s. The land lies within run JTo. 250, which has not b-cn reserved for railway purposes. Mr M'Lean was correctly informed that the surrey of the land had been con.pleted, and in all probability it would be brought before the Board to be taken over, and the land would be brought into the market immediately.—At the same meeting of the Bonrd, Mr. Patrick M'Giffrey applied for a thirty years' lease of 10 acres on rim 227 for coalmining purposes, he agreeing to sell coal at 6s. per ton. —The B.oard resolved to issue the license to applicant for seven years at the yearfy rental of £5 —price of coal at pit not to exceed 6s. p:r ton. o 3lr. J. P. Armstrong, dentist, fca, will sbortlv visit STaseby. Tenders are wanted for snpplvini Cobb and Co.'s stables at Xaseby and Kyeburn with feej^-—-\ Messrs. Inder and George will sell valuable mining property at SL Bathans on Jnns 25.