DUNEDIN SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1343, 25 August 1877, Page 17

DUNEDIN SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

The regular meeting of the Dunedin School Committee was held in the Secretary's office on the 17th inst. Present — Messrs G. Bell (Chairman), H. S. Fioh, Livingßton, -Robin, Ramsay, C. H. Street, Sherwin, and Pro- ■ fessor Macgregor. ' The minutes of the previous meeting wflM read.and confirmed,! ' , ' PDPIL TEACHERS. Mr ROBIN pointed out the desirability of giving encouragement to male pupil teachera ' ia preference to the females, who generally get married, so that half the expense upon "" their education was thrown 'away, as far as ' the Government is concerned. ' ' Professor Macciregor suggested that the salaries of the male pupil teachera should be raised. Mr Robin gave notice of his, intention to • have the matter discussed at the, next-meet-ing of the Committee. , ' t t ]'\ : THE EDUCATION, BILL. ■„, The following telegram was received, from . the Hoa. Mr Bowen ':— V I Wglad to hear, \ that the Dunedin School 'Committee generally approves the, Education Bill. ''The sag- ' gesttbiis of the' Committee shall receive care- ' ful consideration," 1 " ■ • - ' ;' ' ' CORRESPONDENCE. r ', ' A letter was received from Mr W. Gray, of Wellington, advocating a uniform 'system' ' forjthe proposed Savings Baaks'in the publio schools. Referred to the Works Committee. Mr A. Barrett applied 'for 'some furniture " and certain .gymnastic appliances for -the Middle, District School Refeired to the Works Committee. , „' , „,' r , \., r , THE RECENT .MEETING OE ROMAN CATHOLIC?*. Mr FisH; said, that before ,-t.hey dispersed) he I should, like, ibb .bring before the, Co- . mittee a matter , which had occupied. f the , attention of the'public during the past week, " and in. referring to it he was not going 1o bring into thia^ Committee anything in',th!e shape of a r religious discussion. He' referred to the meeting which had been held 1 by their respected Roman Catholic' fellow-citizens inthe Temperance Hall. Certain statements • had been made at- that meeting which were : .calculated' to mislead not only thoae Roman Catholics who, we.re.nofc present,; but. also those of the Protestant community here. If „ there v any grievance^ on the, part, of our - Roman Catholic fellow citizens,, this Com-, ; mittee shoulli take steps to any' evrf of which 'these persons complained.' "In the discussion' at their 1 meeting ' there was. 'very great'stresd laid upon the' fact /that the ' ■parenW of Roman Catholic children" were to appeal to the School-Committee for certificates of exemption to prevent-their children, from; attending the ) Government schools. - There did noc seem to him to be any hardship in tha,t. ' Our Roman Catholic fellow citizens could confidently expect to see' the forbearance which the Committee, was at all times willing, to give to them. , The election of the Committee. was open, and' it was quite competent for Roman Catholics' to' be nominated for election as.'methbersof the School Committee. ' : Profesgor Macgregor : What chance cave they of election ? Mr.FiSK might say that for many years all the Protestant denominations 0f.,. Dunedin were desirous to see two or three Roman Catholics on the School Committee. We have .actually had Roman Catholics appointed, as members of the School Committee. 1 Mr Sherwin : And refused to act. Mr Fish proceeded to say that one speaker at the recent meeting of Roman Catholics said that he had a particular friend on this School Committee who would ' refuse his child a ceitificnte oE exemption. Now the 1 clause was imperative. It was not the duty of the Committee to grant such certificates of exemption. The 80th clause provides that ."capitation fees shall not be payable by any person for any child attending any school other than a public school, i» respect to whom such person shall produce an exemption, signed by the teacher of suet' school, showing that such child has bona, jide. attended such school for three months immediately before the day fixed for the payment of ■ such capitation fee." Our Roman, Ca thole friends neeed not be under any apprehension at all that this clause or any othor clause of the Act would be used prejudicially to the extremest religious views that the meeting expressed on this question, but that the Act w*>uld be interpreted in the most liberal manner. Now there was another statement made which was calculated ' to mislead, and this was with regard to the penalties for non-compliance with the compulsory clauses of the Act. He had already pointed out that, in order to ' obtain exemption, all a child had 'to do was to bring a certificate from a teacher of the Roman Catholic Schools. Now, if they did not do that, and did, not send their children to school, they were liable to be brought before two Justices. The defaulters wore not necessarily to, be fined 40s for each! offence from week to week. Now, it was true that the maximum penalty was 40s, but' that' was the maximum, and he did not think it was too much to say that, in 19 cases out of 20, the penalty would be more likely to be Is instead of 40s. It was wroog to say that the Roman Catholics would be fined £2 for each, offence. He did not, like to see religious strife Btirred up in this com- • munity without having good grounds to work upon. Subject to a few modifications, he expressed his firm belief that this Education, Bill wa3 as pure and as impartial as any. Act that any Government could have devised. 1 He had made this explanation,' as he considered it his duty, and without a desire to raise a single Reeling of religious intolerance. He wished to correct the miastatementa that had been made, and were going abroad amongst others besides the Roman Catholics themselves. The Chairman enquired whether any motion was to be brought forward. The reply being in the negative, the Committee adjourned,