The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 1382, 25 May 1878, Page 13

The Otago Witness.

WITH WHICH 18 INCORPORATED THE 'SOUTHERN MERCURY.' DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, MAT 25. Howe ve it sound in its main principle, the present Education Act is lull of the elements of confusion. One of these is in play just now in the relations of the Board of Education of Otago and the Dunedin School Committee, and although the good senso of the disputants may in this case smooth over the difficulty, the question raised, is one. that will never be settled until amending legislation fixes the' limits of co-ordinate authorities. The difficulty in the present case arises from a certain committee of the Board of Education, named the " Appointments Committee," having communicated to the School Committee its intention of recommending to the Board of Education the appointment ' of certain teachers to a Dunedin school, and requested a reply as to whether the proposed .appointments meet with the approval of the School .Committee. Whereat the School Committee asserts its privileges and objects to the assumption by any committee of the Board of " functions remitted by the Legislature to the School Committee," and expresses the opinion that "the recommendation of teachers for appointments in the city schools should, as heretofore, emanate from this (the School) Committee." There cannot be a doubt that, as implied by the School Committee, the offending Committee of the Board has no statutory standing ; but as, for the convenience of the despatch of business, it has been entrusted with certain functions, the Board will no doubt throw the authority of its sanction over the doings of its Committee, so that any contention as to the authority of this sub-committee as apart from, that of the Board is not of much import^ ance. For all practical purposes the Board's Committee is the Board, and the real question is whether the Board or the School Committee have the right to virtually appoint and dismiss teachers.

The resolution of the School Committee expresses the opinion that the recommendation of teachers for • appointments should emanate from the School Committee " as heretofore " — in fact, it was maintained, and apparently wifch approval of all the members, that, as under the former Ordinance, a the Committee is looked upon in this Acfc as nominally the appointing body of the teachers." On reference to the Otago Ordinance of 18G4, which, with others, has been repealed by the existing Act, it; will be seen that ifc was there laid down that the " School Committee shall also be entitled to select the teacher or teachers of such school or schools, and generally to have the entire management of educational matters within the district." The Act of last yeai', however, under which the School Committee now administers, enacts that " the Board of each district shall be entitled to appoint teachers for every school under its control ; " and further, it is pi'ovided that " the Committee may recommend teachers to the Board for

appointment, and may also recommend the suspension or. dismissal of any such

teacher, but no appointment, suspension, or dismissal ' shall take place until the Committee have been first consulted." From this it will be seen that a very radical change has' taken place ' in ' tho appointment of teachers; and that whereas the Schodl'^ Committee was formerly "entitled to select" the teachers,- the Board is now "entitled to' appoint" them, the', fuhcti6ns of the School Committee being limited to merely being 1 "consulted" by the Board. The Act does not prescribe that the Committee shall have power to veto the appointment,' and in the absence of Buch provision, humiliating though it may appear, the intention ' clearly is that the Board shall be "entitled to appoint" whether the Committee wills it or not. If therefore we accept the Board's' Committee as acting in the name of the Board, the duty imposed on the Board of consulting the School Committee has been discharged, and without further ado, the Board, if it wills, may now proceed at once to confirm the appointment.

We are not at present defending the principle, we merely state the fact as very clearly laid down in the statute. We entirely sympathise with the' School Committee in thinking that this reduces the School Committee to a very subordinate position. But, we presume, the gentlemen who are members of the Committee read the Act, and were aware 1 ' of its provisions before undertaking the responsibilities. We certainly fail to see anything iv the Act to warrant the supposition that it was intended that the School Committee should retain 6v have any such powers as those held under the former Ordinance; although, of, course, there is nothing to preclude this being permitted by the grace of the Board. On the contrary, in the very specific terms in which the right of appointing is conferred on the Board/ we see the express intention to invest that body with very summary powers. As this question is one that' iujterests not the , Dunedin district .alone, but every school district throughout the Colony, and may possibly be the starting point in a good deal of; agitation, we think it right that this principle should be clearly unders<K>oct, although we think that, for the, aajce of harmony there should haye"b<een more specific statements as to the meaning of the term " consulting " as applied to the School Committee, and an explanation as to whether it did or did not imply a power of veto. The provision contained in , the,. 7£th clausewas during the discussion adduced as indicating that the old system of recommendation, or rather "selection," by the School Committee should still hold. The clause in question says " the Committee shall have the management of educational matters within the school district." But it is .clear that such a general provision is to be interpreted subject to the 'specific limitation^ ! of clause 45, in. which' it is enacted that the Board shall be " entitled to appoint teachers." Indeed there is no way of getting over the very distinct intentions of the Act, which were.: that appointments should vest wholly in the Board, and entirely independently' of what the School Committee may or may not recommend when " consulted/ In these circumstance it will 'be 're* grettableif the School Committee uunderr r take a quarrel over these appointments, in which, if pushed to extremes, they are certain to be worsted, while we think' that it is highly probable that the Boai'd of Education will feel itself bound as a matter of principle to maintain the rights conferred on it by statute.

A wholly different question from thafe presently at issue, is the propriety of the principles so laid down. Should the appointment of teachers bo vested in the School Committees or in the Board of Education? We venture to say if Committees all over the Colony could be formed of such gentlemen as those in 'the Dunedin School Committee theappointmeuts might with considerable 1 safety be left in their hands. But it is notorious that this is not so, and that the worry and interferences to which country teachers are subjected when left in the hands of local committees are the rery bane of their lives. We have not the least hesitation in saying that never will the honorable profession of teaching be lifted to the high position which it ought to occupy .until teachers are wholly emancipated from local tyrannies, and until they are brought to feel that they are in the hands of an authority removed from local influences. So much is it so that the placing of their appointments and dismissals in the hands of even the District Board is hardly sufficient to give that dignity and security to their position which it ought to have ; and at the risk of being charged with- G«n»

tralistic tendencies on this point at least, we maintain that the teachers of New Zealand should hold their positions direct from the Education Pepartment of the Colony, subject to such supervision and recommendations from the Boards of Education as might be deemed advisable for preventing abuse — that is to say, if District Boards of Education are worth, continuing. With local Committees or JBoards of Advice to take general supervision over the educational affairs of the, school districts, and with District Inspectors and the General Inspector exercising efficient supervision and control, it is difficult to see the purpose served by Education Boards, and they merely correspond to the rudimentary organs ]in animals whereof the functions , have become defunct in the processor evolution. Boards of Education underj our. advanced and developed' system are like the prolongation of the! •,'yertebral. column of the peoplesaid to , exist in New Hebrides — the effete* remnant of the prehensile caudal ap-i .pendageof our aMcestors. There is no! use in these Boards now, and the sooner, they are lopped the better for the com-; j fort, and welfare of the system. In the 1 meantime however, and bo leng as the, appointment and dismissal of teachers .Ve,st in.any, subordinate authority, give us the. 'Board of Education in preference, to the School Committee; and nevpr may -we revert to a system which, ]iik the rural districts of the Colony at ] least, would subject the teachers to the Whims ,and caprices of paltry and con- , temptible tyrannies.

'There is something exceedingly harrowing in the painful story recorded in 'gnother'oblumn. Such an occurrence as' ! the rolling of a stage coach over a precipice is so unusual and so frightful that •one (instinctively shrinks from the thought ,o| it. Anyone that has ever travelled the road where this dreadful accident occurred has a vivid recollection of the perils, but ■absolute confidence in the skill and carefulness of the drivers, and in the precau-, tionk used, has generally removed fear Iromcoaching travellers' minds, a sense of (Security which such an appalling incident .asithiswill go far to destroy. Prom the partial and fragmentary accounts yet to , hand,' we cannot form a certain opinion as io'the causes of the disaster. They will doubtless be fully elucidated, but there is Something terribly real in the fact that ■one of our leading, and moat esteemed and respected merchants, has been killed on the spot, and that the child of another esteemed citizen,, a fine little fellow, in all the bright expectancy and buoyancy of boyhood, has been so crushed and mangled that at the hour of our writing his spirit is fluttering between life and death. That j any soul survived from such a catastrophe is perhaps the moat remarkable part of it. The extent to which ,the other passengers may have been injured is yet unknown to us ; but as if by the interposition of Providence they appear to have escaped with comparatively little hurt. Three times we are told the coach rolled over and over and over, tdl the uprights and top must have been smashed to bits, and how anyone escaped seems inexplicable. The poor little boy appears to have received his injuries from falling among the horses feet while attempting to assist by using the brake; and we can readily understand how the sight of such a sad scene may have unnerved or confused the coachman, if even that was necessary to an accident : an circumstances so dangerous. The deep ! sensation caused by the sad intelligence was shown in the numbers that came to our office on till an early hour this, morning,' enquiring for particulars, and many a feeling he&rfc went forth in sympathy with the parents who had set forthon their long and weary night journey, in the almost despairing hope of being in time to relieve the sufferings of their child. The greatest 'sympathy is felt with the family of Mr Nichols in their terrible bereavement, and the sudden and appalling incident ha 9 produced a profound sensation in the city.