ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 377, 9 July 1877, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

[We wish It to-be-wost distinctly 1 that we r opfaidftei/pgejaed by our /.LI OF IT.-BY A YtfttSU GENTLEMAN. ', ao ?* ? -j. aO g&s EDITOR OF Tgtf'S^^Sc^iyviL. ci r a<oP^Tn^oaJaWfe'TAOn, raiding ■ afQJul&V' 25th ult., I found ib~n6({eßsary,to jinake the following statement in justice to parents who pay the school fees fur the education of their children : I "When I attended the Grammar School, a few years ago, the most barefaced swindles would be practised under the vere nose of the Rector. Sometimes some of the girls would not know their lessons, and would be "kept in" after school hours; but when 3 o'clock p.m. would come the girls would go in a bodj r to the Rector with a pitiful story to the effect that they had sat up till 11 o'clock p.m. doing their best, <tc, and the Rector, "good, easy man," would forgive them. This was not done once, but scores of times. On making proper enquiries, I would find out that they retired to rest about 9 o'clock, and it has been remarked to me by the mothers that " Milly " only takes about 30 minutes to her lessons ! Other very unprincipled youths (all the school, in fact) would copy off their lessons (the lessons being written on their slates) from their books, while the Rector would be walking up and down in front of the desks. Then there would be giving false numbers, and writing the lessons on the slates while the Rector would be correcting. One individual one day did not know his poetry, so he wrote the first word or two of every line on the desk in front of him, and when his turn came, after casting his eyes to the desks a few times, he got through it, but was being censured for being nervoii3 ! Other times the Rector would name a lot of places on the map, and would require the pupils to name the towns as lie pointed to them again. Of course, they did so, but eacli one carefully wrote out the towns on nis slate as they were named.

I promise to further enlighten yon on this matter. It is tinie this was stopped.— I am, &c,

Frenchman. July 5, 1577. [We fear that what " Frenchman" asserts is too true. Alas ! we have same slight recollection of having cheated our schoolmasters whenever opportunity offered, and we have a very v.vid recollection of the subsequent tingling sensations extending from our wrists to the tips of our fingers. Tnere is an old adage t'lat "Boys will be boys," and our expeAensß is that the sain i applies to girls. /" J&l- a horrible conclusion to arrive at, Tiat wc fear that tiie evils our correspondent complains of must go on till the end of the chapter.—Ed. E. M.\