GIRL RETURNS HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18827, 30 September 1924, Page 6

GIRL RETURNS HOME.

MISS MARTIN'S DECISION.

GRAMMAR SCHOOL ASPECT.

PARENTS NOT SATISFIED.'

BOARD TO INQUIRE FURTHER.

Miss Margaret Martin, the Epsom Grammar School girl, who left her home on September 18 and was absent for over a week in singular circumstances, returned to her mother early yesterday afternoon. None of the principals in the case desired to make any gtatemnt.

The case, so far as it concerns the school, will be given further consideration by the Board of Governors of the Auckland Grammar Schools, at a special meeting to be held to-morrow afternoon. This information as to the board's intention was announced last evening by the chairman, Professor A. P. W. Thomas, in reply to an inquiry by a Herald reporter. "It was not fair," said Professor Thomas, " for the Herald to state in a leading article that the board had' dismissed the case with a blunt statement that the girl's disappearance was in no way connected with the school. The board could only act upon the evidence before it, and the teacher accused denied point-blank all the serious statements that had been made by Mrs. Martin, or explained them away in a natural way. The board is not a court of justice and has no power to call witnesses and swear them in and so forth. It has a perfect right to satisfy itself as to what is going on in the school. So, in the circumstances, the board naturally heard both sides before arriving at any conclusion as to whether it could take any definite action.- Mrs. Martin made statements and the assistant teacher denied them and gave a natural explanation of certain other statements, so there was nothing before the board that would justify it in accusing the assistant teacher. But the board will keep, an open mind on the matter and look for further evidence if it be available.

" Some of the parents are not satisfied and have approached the board. The board will go into the question at a special meeting on Wednesday afternoon. While the board wants to keep itself absolutely free of all forms of sectarianism, or suspicion of it, the position necessarily involves the keeping of its schools free of anything' of the kind. The headmistress of the Epsom Girls' Grammar School will be asked to attend the special meeting. It 'is quite true that many people have said they have known all about this case, but the trouble is that no one will volunteer to give evidence."