CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7342, 1 June 1885, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

GRAFTON-ROAD SCHOOL COMMITTEE. TO THE EDITOR. ' Sir, The letter to the Board of Education from the above-named committee was signed by myself, as Chairman, as well as by the other members of the committee. Ido not know why your reporter, when supplying a copy of -the letter, should have omitted my signature, I should have made no remark on this omission were it not that those reading the , letter may come to the conclusion, from the absence of my name from it, that I was not in accord with my fellow-oommittee-men in this matter. This would be a wrong assumption, as our action was thoroughly unanimous. Would you kindly allow ma space to make one or two remarks on the' sub-leader in to-day's issue that you have been good enough to devote to this matter. While fully recognising both your right and. your duty as Editor to oritioise the action ofany public body, I cannot help thinking that' in so doing you have no 'right, to misstate facts, and on this misstatement to found your judgment. You say that the drill instructor i' . and that. things could not be remedied vr-/ appeal to : the -hdad-master." That he not appeal to the head-master, but ignored him al together, .is one of our causes of complaint. You further state "he called out a boy who was misbehaving." He did nothing of the kind. He called out. a boy who had not misbehaved in «ny way, and punished Mr; 'imply the v •*' ; efi'i'. of another boy v-.;- aad ju..t s .*!* « p.* -is > meat; while, to me perarn;,:, tue drill instructor gave an emphatic denial of having punished him at all. , You say further, " probably the head-master - was annoyed at the administration of discipline being taken out of his hands " (by;the drill instructor). The head-master was not consulted by the committee on this matter, and ' therefore no expression of opinion was obtained from him. i The committee found that , a';,cruel injustice, bad been done, and - simply, performed their duty by enquiring and reporting upon it. The head-master was not present at .the ' enquiry. With the .Mpase in the ; Police Court against . the drill instructor the committee had. nothing to . do. They were ignorant of all. connected . with .it > until. they saw the report in the newspaper. You ask was the beating administered of undue severity ? I will leave yuur readers to come to a decision on this question when I state that the boy's body was marked with nine large blue marks when I saw him. I was out of town at the time of the occurrence, and did not see the boy till after my return four days later, when he was stripped in my presence and found still marked as I have just stated. Ido not think the parent of any child receiving such a beating and that undeserved, would think the matter a "paltry" one as you do. The justice of any punishment at all you have kept steadily out of view. You make a point of the fact that the Inspector reported against the discipline of the school. Can you inform me, Sir, how it was. considering the report "that the discipline teemed to be lax" was made in December last, chat no notification of this fact bad been made to the committee till the middle of the present month, nearly five months after the receipt of the Inspector's report, and not till the committee had complained of the lotion of the drill instructor ? The reason is not far to look for, You say the minds of the committee were somewhat confused, as proved by their sending in their resignations. The committee were fully aware of the fact the* 'here was no provision in the Act for ■• i « Hep; but, while it is possible that -V;vt .>. . fuel injustice can be repeated with they are determined not to take up the duties of committee men again. The real point at issue is whether committees are to have the management of the internal affairs of schools, or not. If not, then the sooner committees know this the better.l am, &0., Edw. Hammond. 30th May, 1885. [On one or two points only need we say anything in answer to the above letter. We understand that the drill instructor found, as the Inspector had found, that the discipline of the school was lax, and that he could not get the necessary assistance from the headmaster. Farther, that the boy caned was misbehaving, and received only three strokes, and would have received only one had he not been" contumacious and refused to hold out his hand. No doubt the committee have to do with the discipline of the school, but the Board could not permit a committee on frivolous grounds preventing the drill instructor from discharging his duties. As to the questions asked by Mr. Hammond why the Board omitted to do certain things, we can give no information. —Ed. J THE COLONIAL EXHIBITION AND THE MUSICAL ARRANGEMENTS. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The proposal of Herr Carl Sohmitt to tend a band to the proposed contest at the Colonial Exhibition, ought to be heartily taken up by all musio-loving Aucklanders. We justly boast of! having the largest and most efficient Choral and Orchestral Society, owning its own hall, of any city in Australasia for our size and population. Therefore, in a musical competition for prizes open to all New Zealand, Auckland should come to the front. I hope that the matter will be at onoe taken up by the committee of the Choral Society, by the performing members of that society, and by all who love or who practice music of. any kind in our city and province. Should a subscription be started, I shall give my quota, and I have Herr Schmitt's permis sion to state that he will promptly arrange for a first-class concert in aid of such a fund. We ought to ' send thirty-five or forty picked musicians down to the oolonial capital, including the "stringed quartette." —I am, &0., J. Murray Moors, M.D. CITY COUNCILLORS AND LAW BOOKS. TO THE editor. Sir,—According to my way of thinking, as Mr. C. Williamson says in his letter of Friday last on the above subject, I imagine that this gentleman in his excessive sympathy for our hardworked and disinterested municipal authorities intends at no distant period to try his powers in one of the official detached easy ohairs of the civic chambers of Auckland, but before that event comes off I should certainly recommend the ratepayers not only to supply Badger's Law Books, but also a suitable uniform, so that our municipal dignitaries may be properly distinguished from - the ordinary oitizens. One would really think from Mr. Williamson's remarks that some irresistible or compulsory measures had been used to induce the present lot of aldermen to take office, although it is pretty well known, I think, that the whole of them were only too glad of the chance to- get dubbed a civic authority, and I am sure they don't go blindfolded into harness, for everyone I think knows pretty well what the duties consist of before they contest the office. I think, however, that the plainly worded addendum to Mr. Williamson's letter will show pretty clearly his ingenious attempt to pervert the true meaning of the city councillors' law book controversy. I am glad to see that His Worship the Mayor has wisely initiated the only available means of making the best of a a bad job by paying for his copy of this notorious law book, This act of His Worship's would certainly have coma with a much more dignified grace and have afforded him, in my opinion, a clearer conscience had it. been done before the transaction . was made so public. However, he perhaps thinks better late than never. The next best thing he can do is, I think, to advise his civio. brethren to do likewise, and thus make a clean breast of having attempted to levy blackmail on the unfortunate municipal exchequer by controverting the funds of the Corporation for such a purpose. I am also glad that some of the aldermen as well as the Mayor have seen through their error in offering to give up their copies of those law books purchased with the ratepayers' money. But this even will not relieve them from the fact of their having given their consent to the transaction, know ing well at the time that such a proceeding was most exceedingly irregular. No doabt the aldermen will regret the action of the Mayor in paying for bis copy of the said book, which, indeed, places his civio brethren in a very embarrassing position; in fact, such an anomally places the lot of them in a most lamentable predicament, and I think the only manly way out of it is for all to do as tho Mayor has done, and thus remove, as far as it is now in their power, the sad recollections of Badger's Law Book transaction.— am, Ac., . A Ratepayer.

WAIKATO DISTRICT NEWS. f * • - (TBOU OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.! Hamilton, . Saturday, An amalgamation baa been effected between the two Orange lodges here, Nob. 9 and 38. The annual general meeting of the Rukuhia Cheese Factory takes place on Tuesday next, in the Chamber of Commerce, Hamilton. Cambridge, Saturday. At the sale of the Redwood stud, Mr. Jared Allwills, Five was not sold, the highest offer, being £120. Bonnie Prince, the Clydesdale entire, and Nugget, were also passed in at £180—the reserve on the former being 250 guineas, and the latter., for which £60 wa« offered, . £100. Media.® draugnt mares, stinted to Bonnie Prises, realised from £13 to £21, and a thoroughbred mare, J with foal at foot to Five, fetched £27 10s; a two-year-old colt 'by Ariel, £20; and yearlings by Steriingworth, from £8 to £15 each.' ... jZ .y,: . j; v v . The Piako 'County Couneil passed a vote of thanks to the .railway management for the prompt alteration in the time- table. ' - .V. W AITOA » Saturday. It has been ; resolved to take a road through Wilson's property, Waiorongomai, under the Public Works Act. Permission has been given by the Piako County Council to IV'. John Gibbons to startp. flax factory on thi iYaihou reserve, on payment. of "• Id v for overy ton of manufacture; iui. , " . ix-f'.HR Saturday. . The place of meeting of r-., Farmers' Club, Camp's Hotel, be '->< burned down, meetings of the club have no. been held during the last three months. At last night's meeting at the Bchoolbouse the question was raised, by Mr. W. A. Graham whether the club should not build a place of meeting of its own. It was resolved to obtain use of the school for the purpose till the annual meeting-' in' July, and then consider question of erecting a. club room. The next meeting of the club was arranged for the Friday before the. next full moon. Mr. Gelling of Hamilton was nominated for election, j Cambridge, Saturday. l ; At the regular , monthly meeting of the Piako County.Council, a report was received from the tramway manager.showing that the tramway was only working half time, the principal bulk of the quartz coming from the New Find mine. A motion to strike a county rate of din the £to pay off the heavy liabilities of th>- county was proposed by Mr. Chepmell, and seconded by Mr. Murphy. An amendment that no rate be struck was proposed by Mr. Firth and seconded by Mr. Me: eaa. For the amendment : Messrs. Firth, McLean, and the Chairman. Against: Messrs. Chepmell, Murphy, and Gould. The Chairman gave his casting vote for the amend-