THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1901.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1901.

The report of the magistrate appointed to investigate the charges made against the management of Jubilee Institute for the Blind will be very generally agreed with by all who have followed the course of the inquiry. It is much to be regretted that any grounds for criticism should have existed in such a noble and necessary institution, which has been mainly supported by local sympathisers and has unquestionably done a very noticeable amount of good work. For institutions of this character, like Caesar's wife, should be above suspicion. They exist because of the humane and Christian desire to help the afflicted and to enlighten the darkness of thos3 to whom the precious sense of sight has been denied. And it is inevitable and not unjust that the stream of public and private benevolence should dry up if suspicion is excited that they • fall below a reasonable standard of inefficiency and decorum. However much we are locally interested in this particular institution it is avowedly and essentially a national one, so that the Education Department was entirely within its province in requesting Mr. Brabant to investigate the charges which had been made. His inquiry was conducted in a judicial spirit and his report is marked by a generous appreciation of the general results which have been attained. The trustees have therefore no reason to regard his findings in an antagonistic spirit. We have every confidence that they will at once set about making the reforms which he so courteously recommends and which the public cannot fail to endorse. The method of boarding the institution inmates with the principal at a fixed rate per head may be very strongly defended, as simplifying the question of management and book-keeping and as being in itself not necessarily bad. It would be absurd to assume that the trustees have favoured a system of which nothing good can be said, and it is evident, as Mr. Brabant points out, that their authority has improved the food supplied under this arrangement. It is very possible, as some witnesses asserted, that the food provided under the shilling-per-day method has latterly been superior to that of institutions against which no complaints are heard and which are directly conducted by the responsible management. But when all is said that can be said in favour of the boarding system the hard fact remains that it must always be open to suspicion because always open to abuse. Even a Barnardo or a Muller would be watched with doubting eyes if it were made possible for them to profit at the expense of the stomachs of their charges. We are inclined to think that such men would refuse to be placed in such a position, and it is very likely that Mr. Tighe has been in this nothing but the scape-goat of a system which the weaknesses of human nature make utterly impossible as a model. For Mr. Tighe has emerged from the inquiry not blameless, but freed from any suspicion of petty and niggardly meannesses. There is nothing whatever to brand him as an antipodean representative of the great family of Squeers. The charge made by the girl completely broke down, and we have every reason to class it with that other amazing instance of hysteria which lately astounded Auckland. Against such aspersions no man is safe. Not less completely have the vague charges of unkindness to children by Mrs. Tighe been disproved, and there is no ground for doubting that in his own way and according to his own j lights Mr. Tighe himself has taken • a keen interest in the Institute and has not deliberately neglected the education of its inmates. But " hsvbits acquired in Australia" are not to be scheduled with those other inculcations for which Government grants and private subscriptions are given. Nor can the caning of an adult inmate be passed unnoticed nor devotion to the turf be regarded as increasing fitness for \he management of a public institution of this peculiar character. We caa say with conviction and certainty that public opinion does not wish to be harsh and severe in this unfortunate matter, wherein its sympathies and its judgments are \ confused by respect for affliction bravely borne and esteem for evident kindliness of heart which weakness of temperament cannot hide and which a terrible deprivation has never soured. This feeling is manifest in every line of Mr. Brabant's report, and will find echo in every man's mind. Nevertheless, the first duty of the trustees, as the first duty of the whole community, is not to Mr. Tighe, but to the inmates of the Institute. There should be a reliable and capable manager, free from the handicap of an irremediable deprivation and temperamentally suitable for the control of a noble and elevating school. It is the distinct duty of the trustees to seek and find such a man, even if they have to go for him to the Blind Institutes of Britain or America. Under such superintendence there may possibly be room for the useful employment of Mr. Tighe's energies and abilities. But it cannot be questioned that the standing of the Institute has received a serious shock and that the very tolerant frame of mind which now possesses the community will

change to more hostile criticism if reforms imperatively demanded are unduly delayed. At the same time, it must be recognised that the trustees have been necessarily influenced by the same powerful considerations as those which now weigh down our judgments. Being now compelled to action they cannot be accused of any carping spirit or cried out upon as needlessly severe. ■