TEACHER INSULTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20255, 15 May 1929, Page 15

TEACHER INSULTED.

CHARGE AGAINST SETTLER. ABUSE IN PUPILS' HEARING. MAGISTRATE IMPOSES FINE. "Tho Legislature lias seen fit to increase tho penalty for this offence from £2 to £lO, and that shows what they think of it," said Mr. F. K. Hunt. S.M., in tho Police Court yesterday when ho imposed a fine of £5 on J. It. McCrae, a settler, of Mataitai, who was charged with upbraiding, abusing and insulting Edwin Rose, tho school teacher at Mataitai, within the hearing of the pupils of the school. Tho information was laid under section 1571 of the Education Act, 1914. Mr. Milne, for defendant, pleaded guilty. Mr. Tovvle, who prosecuted for the Education Board, said tho defendant had caused troublo before, having written a number of letters to tho Education Board with reference to tho teacher, whom he accused of irregularities. These comjdaints, on being investigated, had been found to bo without foundation.

On April 27 defendant, accompanied by the chairman of tho school committee, of which defendant was also a member, went to the school and called tho teacher out of the building. He complained about tho condition of a drain which led away water from one of the taps in the school and which was blocked, the teacher replying that he had set a boy the day previously to clean it, which tho boy must have forgotten to do.

"Defendant then became excited and used very bad language in the hearing of the children," continued Mr. Towle. "Ho then struck the teacher a severe blow across the face, and completely lost control of himself. The chairman of the school committee remonstrated with him, but defendant was beside himself. The Education Board views the matter very seriously, as the man could be heard all over the school."

Mr. Milne said the affair was the outcome of ill-feeling between defendant and the teacher in tho past. At the time dysentery was bad in the district and defendant and the chairman of the committee, who were at the school on another matter, saw two infants go to the blocked drain and dip their dusters in it and then go back to clean tlicir blackboards. The teacher then came out without being called and obstructed the defendant, who had his coat off and was trying to clear the drain. The teacher had struck defendant's son on the head in school when he was not well.

The Magistrate: Well, he had his remedy. The way he took was the wrong one.

Mr. Milne submitted that the language could not be called obscene or vile. Defendant was in a nervous state owing to the illness of his wife. Mr. Towle offered to call the chairman of the committee as a witness, but the magistrate remarked that defendant had admitted the offence. "We are not going to have school teachers interfered with like that," concluded Mr. Hunt. "Defendant will be fined £5, and costs."