Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9130, 11 August 1888, Page 4

The question of which Mi-, fj r*i , • * i neo Cooper gave notice yesterday at tl ' Board of Education brings' on tj! carpet a very discreditable piece of p ro cedure which has been credited to tl' masters of some of our district schoolAs stated in the Herald yesterday tip matter has been brought before hi'rli-" ment by a question from Mr. Coldly, and the Minister of I'/lucation in.' private interview, admitted that it, wv so. There is therefore no long.'-r re a <; ori for attempted concealment of the n jC gation, which is that, in order to ii 10r " effectually plunder the public 'I < Ur !' the teachers by conspiracy .••;. i ons thei'' selves—or can it be with connivance * the Boards?have been n the pr-v-tlr-p of suspending school v. lien the iadi,.tions of threatening- i .tin gave pro, of a diminished number of ., Itl ! for the day. The reason of this is alleged to be the introduction <} the new system of payments l>y ".str average;" the operation of which appears to bo that if school is not h'. M at all on a particular day that (lav (jr..not count as against payment tocapitation ; whereas if school isop,>„Y and the attendance is, say, two-dun' of the pupils ordinarily attcmim- rC absence of the others lowers ta."> average ; and the capitation allowarct? to the Board, and the salaries of tU teachers sutler accordingly. The case then, is this : that those teachers are „) little interested in the progress of their j work of instruction, and so lu u.!i j interested in obtaining a few shilling more enlargement of their salt ties, da; they dismiss it may be roine hundred--of children who have come to si-in*,' because a certain proportion or th» general number are liable, to he key. way by the fear of the lowering sk:'and the possibilities of impending nip.. Now, that this is a deliberate and in sidious fraud 011 the Treasury, v. ill ;»> apparent to anyone; but the gr.e.—c aspect of it is that persons who ancapable of such an intentional cheating of the State should be entrusted witft the moral training of the young We had a sample already of the ue-'-run-ulous character of this order of puUiy servants, spoken of now as our "second Civil Service,'" 5 in the manner in which they had the recent public meeting swamped by ignorant dupes, who came to vote against any interfer--1 ence with the exorbitant and ruin- ; ous extravagance of the Education ! system ; when the moving impulse I was, as in this present case, merely the j selfish protection of their own par- | ticular share of the plunder of th? | State. We again lift our voice of | warning to the public as to the dangerous, and unscrupulous, and too powerful order that we are raiding up to cha.-ti-- 1 .the taxpayer with ■ c-orpions, when 1 the Civil Service Number One only whipped liini with rods. The cunning that has been exhibited, in this latest ruse of the teachers to circumvent, the "strict average" rule, winch was framed to make some small reduction in the cost of education, shows how the intellectual training which they have received principally at the cost or the State, may be unscrupulously perverted by the teachers when they can take advantage of the State, and held their own in the teeth of any attempted reform. It will be unfair that the stigma of rhis disgraceful business should rest 011 the whole of the teachers, while probably only a few 01 them have been guilty ; and it is, therefore, that we hope that Mr. Cooper* question will elicit a distinct return, discriminating the innocent from the guilty ; and thatunless, indeed, the Board itself has connived at or even instigated the ruse—the Board will mark its displeasure with the teachers who may have acted so unworthily of their responsibilities. We are aware chat there is an immoral axiom current thai the State is fair game for plucking: but the instructors of our children should not be the living illustration, of such a dishonourable and dishonest dogma.