PUBLIC OPINION

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10881, 22 April 1921, Page 7

PUBLIC OPINION

MISUNDERSTOOD. . (To the Editor "N-Z. Tim**.") Sir, —The Education Board at ite mecM ing tius week considered the following mJ qu«6t from the local branch of thtf educational Institute:—(U That in thgmonth of June the sum of JH la be deducted from members’ salary cheques; (A that written authority be given by sac*-: member wanting such deduction (3) that a complete list of memben bp( supplied to the clerk dealing with tbtk matter; (4) that this cleric be miwnnfe ated either by war of honorarium or bpa percentage on the whole sum mIM»4 (5) that our treasurer, Mr J. C. Bon be instructed to collect fte at <tej end of June and remunerate the dedp mentioned above. To support this me quest, our management committee wished.' the treasurer and myself to wait uponthe board to answer any question, itet> might be raised. When I asked the chainman (Mr Forsyth) if we would be oeived by the board* he amid that thut was no need for us to appear, that the I matter had been diem mod previously,. I but had not been placed before; the boardin quite the same way, and that it could, be reconsidered. I judged from his remarks that there was nothing in tla request to which the hoard could take any exception, and was quite taken abash when I read the remarks made by htm in expressing his opinion on the matter. Had the treasurer and I been heard we could easily have refuted the statement «f one member attributing to cs an unworthy motive, that of compelling teach, ere to join the institute, sad we could also have prevented the wrong construction placed upon our request by the chairman. In fact, the board has not even now a correct impression of what it is we are asking for. What is there -in the request can be characterised as ’'peculiar,** seeing that other education boards hare for years obliged file teachers by allowing their office stalls to assist the treasurer in the manner shown? Moreover, another Government institution, the Post Telegraph, deduct monthly the subscriptions of their members. The reference made by Mr/Forsyth to the attitude of the institute towards education boards has nothing whatever to do with the matter under consideration. As m in. stitnte. we consider the proposal a sen. vible and businesslike one; there is nothing in it that savours of compulsion; it is a purely voluntary affair, and ig the best solution of what proves to ug to be a matter of convenience for teachers generally, and particularly to these in the backblocks.—l am. etc., A- C. BLAKE