THE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10130, 13 May 1896, Page 4

THE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

It may be hoped that since last meeting of the Board of Education wiser counsels have prevailed, and that the meeting which is to be held to-day will show a return to that decorum which hitherto has generally characterised the proceedings of a body charged with the honourable duties of controlling the educational interests of the provincial district. Indeed, judging from the general tone of the letters we have received and published from two members of the Board who took a prominent part in the proceedings of last meeting, we conclude that there will not be a repetition of the unseemly proceedings, and that a modus vivendi will be found less sensational than the appearance of two chairmen presiding at the same time over the deliberations of the Board. In his letter in another column Mr. Muir ! suggests some ways out of the difficulty I which commend themselves to his mind, and no doubt others will be able at the meeting to present other methods of solution equally pacific in their nature. We shall not attach any importance to Mr. Muir's veiled hint of a possible reproduction of the street fracas of a few nights ago as a remedy for what he regards as unfair criticism. These allusions to personal force are not seemly in connection with educational matters, or, in fact, anything else occupying the attention of civilised men ; and, as a rule, they do not serve any good purpose. Criticism usually seems fair or unfair according as it is favourable or unfavourabe to people's views, and our only desire in criticism is to suggest peace and good order in the carrying out of the business of the Board. We are fully aware of the difficulty of the Position in which the Board is placed, he incidents cited by Mr. Muir, though instructive in themselves, have strictly no bearing on the duty of. the Board, which unfortunately is left by the defectiveness of the Act to its own discretion, and without any direction as to the course to be taken in the circumstances. It may be hoped, however, that that discretion, and the good sense of members will be able to direct them to some judicious procedure that may not only solve the difficulty but redeem the Board in the eyes of the public from the discredit of the rather disorderly proceedings of the last meeting of the Board. To us an appeal to the Supreme Court seems the most feasible and simple method of getting over the difficulty; but it is possible that the calm deliberations of the Board to-day may devise some method even more simple and equally effective.