TIMARU.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1135, 8 December 1879, Page 2

TIMARU.

(from our own correspondent.) Timaru, December 6. It was feared last week that the enormous descent of rain would have a very bad effect 011 the surrounding country, but fortunately for those who occupy heavy ground fine sunny weather has at last set in, and if this only continues I throughout the harvest the yield will everywhere be prolific. Haymaking has commenced, and is in full swing, the reapers being daily heard in all directions. The ground, too, from which the grass is taken presents an appearance that leaves no doubt as to their being great abundance of green feed for the summer. A few short weeks must see the post and telegraph officials transferred from the shabby premises in the Main South Road to the more convenient and more central offices now in course of erection at the corner of George and Sophia-streets. For years past the old offices have been a disgrace to our rapidly improving town, a stranger always being at a loss to find the?» from their obscure situation, not to say anything of the inconvenience under which a lot of hard-working, half-paid clerks have to suffer from want of sufficient room/ The opening of the new offices, besides facilitating the despatch and delivery of mails, will produce the effect of greatly enhancing the value of property in Barnard and Sophia-streets, those being the thoroughfares to which the main road must, to a certain extent, sooner or later give way, owing to outside residents, going to and from the public offices, changing their course almost at the extreme limits of the town, instead of going straight through as they have hitherto done. It wa3 pleasing to note the other day that, at a meeting of the High School Board of Governors, Mr. R. A. Chisholm strongly advocated higher pay to teachers, in order to seeur,e the services of firstclass masters and mistresses. To my mind this is decidedly a step in the right direction, and one that will, if properly carried out, be the means of ridding our public schools of a host of halfeducated, would-15e tutors, who have of late years been figuring amongst us. It is, I think, quite within the. limits of reason and fairness to say that the office of schoolmaster should be made a more exalted position than it is at present, and so it would be if only a stiffer examination were required and a better salary granted. To teach young people atlall a man must himself be educated ; therefore, instead of the class of pedagoguetvnow existing in the country schools, we should have a number of clever young probationers who, after having .served a term with credit, might come up for further "examination, thereby qualifying.; themselves for higher positions in the service, vacated by the death or resignation of their superiors. The word incompetent should be entirely

struck out, for tin ■ man should bo entrusted with the care and education of the young until he has proved himself in every respect worthy of the position. Not only in general knowledge ought a candidate to be tried, but in manner and in tact also ; and his walk and conversation should be blameless, for the own character becomes, in mini J 1 "* Ranees, that of his pupils, and found in him makes a deep impression on the minds of the young. These attributes, then, I maintain should bo held as indispensable qualifications in every one presenting himself as a candidate for an appointment under any School Board and, to wind up, I would suggest that all members of Education Boards be elected after they become acquainted with the English grammar, and not before, as I know for a fact that many members cannot hold a candle to those over whom they sit. and consequently are unfit to judge them. If position and wealth were pnt out of the question, and members elected for their learning, it is certain that education would prosper in a higher degree. This morning a most diabolical outrage was perpetrated by one John Gibson upon the well-known auctioneer, John King.. Mr. King was walking along the street when his assailant introduced him to thetoo of his boot, by way of settling some; monetary question. The kick was quickly followed by a blow on 'the side of the head, and matters might, have become worse but for the timely "interposition of an officer of the peace, who,'inviting the fighting man to taksS a stroU-, .presented him at Mr. Beetham's. morning- levee > where he was requested to pay liJ.-aiid costs. Later in the day the citizens-sub-scribed and presented the defendant with a number of Court stamps wherewith to pay the fine.