EDUCATION BOARD AND SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 99, 30 April 1894, Page 3

EDUCATION BOARD AND SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

To tub Editor or the " Evening Mail." Sib.— lt wee hardly to be expooted that the Cba rman of the Town Committee would refrain from a little jubilation over hia iso-i ailed victory over the Education Hoard, in the matter of the Bridge-street appointment. He is well known to be a p»»t muster in the nit of putting thinßß plausibly, not to say tamboozliDg, hut he appears I? olaim too much. lie says " tbc t ot hns now been demonstrated that each Sohool Committee has the control of a 1 education {tic) matters in its own district " If be ni-derslands by this the right to a voice in the appoint met t of tencherp, he is clearly in tho wroDg, the Education Aot voting the power of appointment in thi' Board, with the povi*<> that the Committee shall be first consulted Sir Robert Stout's opinion was merely to the effect that the Committee had not been consulted. Ue did not ru e. and nobody has ever maintained, that the Board need accept the recommendation of the Committee. When the list of applicants was returned to the Board with a recommendation of Mr Gibbs, the Board might bavo appointed tbeir original nominee or any other of the candidates, and its position would have been absolutely unassailable in point of law. There can be no doubt from the remarks made by members at the time, tbat they acquiesced in the recommendation of the Committee because they shrink from handing over a valued servant to the tender mercies of Mr Graham and his satellites. However much the Town Committee may congratulate themselves on the result of the conflict, there can be no doubt that the educational interests of the dietrioo bavo Buntained a •evere blow, probably the severest ever in - flioted on them, it lias been made manifret that as far as ■ he Central Sohool is concerned no experienced teaoher need apply. In four successive appointments to this school the Board's teaching staff has been completely ignored, and in the last two appointnit nts men have been seleoted who were quit< without experitnoe in the work of primary lobook. Possibly the faot that the citizeDß of Nelson have been tnjoying tha advantages of a high tohool where Latin and Mathematics ore taught at the expense of the taxptjers ofthn oount-y, and contrary to nn express prohibition in the Education Act, Why have something to do with this, bnt the disugrraabla fact retrains that the teachers of the public schools of Nelson alone .among all the public and private cervices are debarred from the promotion which Bhould be their due in consideration of long aad efficient service. And this is the 'state of affairs in a profession in which experience is especially valuable, and in which the blunders of a tyro are absolutely irreparable.— l am, &c, Nemo,