A LIVELY MEETING

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7446, 22 May 1911, Page 8

A LIVELY MEETING

SCHOOL COMMITTEEMEN- AT VARIANCE. CHAIRMAN'S ACTION RESENTED. At a meeting of the Petone High School committee on Friday evening a complaint of excessive punishment said, to have been administered to a childl led to a wordy discussion of the chairman's action in dealing personally with, the matter instead of referring it to the headmaster. ’ The headmaster (Mr Foster) forwarded a letter protesting against one of his assistants being called upon to answer a charge of unscrupulously punishing a. child, which charge had not first of all been referred to the writer in his capacity of headmaster. _ After all the letters bearing upon the case had been read the chairman remarked, "Of course the , press will take no notice of the complaint." It was moved and seconded that uio headmaster be asked to give his version of the matter. , , The chairman said the headmaster should only ho allowed to speak on the point raised in his letter of protest., tig* ought not to go into the merits ol the' Cf 'Mr* Hili thought the matter should have been dealt first of all by the head.toaster. If the latter was going to make ;a statement now he should certainly be allowed to tell all ho wanted to of the matter. ,

The chairman: That is your opinion, is it? Well, it’s a. mighty poor one 1 The Rev. Mr Thomson urged that the committee must act judicially 111 the. matter. All the correspondence snoFoid have been .sent in the first place through tho secretary to the headmaster,, who alone was responsible to the committee for the conduct of his staff. It was a most irregular thing for the chairman to have held the parents letter and to have acted upon it as he had. The chairman retorted that there was absolutely nothing in the regulations to show that his conduct was irregular. "Everything that I do/ he .went on, "is irregular, according to the Rev. Mr Thomson; but he himself is the most ’irregular man in PetoneP Mr Thomson /with some asperity); You have no right to that here! As to the procedure, there is a minute in our books to the effect that all complaints against te&ohers must be referred to the headmaster in tho first instance. The chairman; And yet when yon were chairman the committee used to deal directly with the teachers^ Mr Thomson: Quite likely. Ido not hold myself up to be perfect. The chairman: X am very glad to hear you say so, for you are far from it! Mr Kirk here broke in with a remark about the headmaster's authority to deal with the case. His letter to tn© chairman was a piece of bumptious bluff. The chairman was proceeding to discuss the headmaster, when the Rev. Mr Thomson once more rose and said: “I have stood a great deal from you, Mr Chairman, in the way of personal taunts, but if you are going to oast, and allow to be cast, these innuendoes about the headmaster, I am not going # to stand it any longer. If this kind of thing is allowed to proceed I will move a vote of no confidence in our chairman **

The chairman (hotly): Ton yourself always have more to say than anybody else. Ton ore

Mr Bird: I rise to a point of order. I don't see the need of these personalities. There is a motion before tho meeting; which I would like ,to see put, Tho motion that tho headmaster, be asked to make a statement of tho matter complained about was thereupon put and carried. As Mr Foster was about to commence his statement a newspaper reporter asked if the meeting was being bcld in committee.

Tho chairman replied in the affirmative, whereupon another reporter pointed out that no motion had been put that the meeting should go into committee, and that everything that had hitherto passed was therefore publishable. Mr Kirk: Well, I will move that wc cro into committee, and that will settle it. The motion was carried. It subsequently learned that Mr Tester had demanded and received an apology from Mr Kirk for characterising his letter as "a piece of bumptious bluff”; also that tho teacher who had punished the child h»d been exonerated from all blame.