Educational.

Otago Witness, Issue 1502, 28 August 1880, Page 22

Educational.

The Southland Education Board atij',itsi meeting on the 20 th, determined on) the following reductions in salaries ofteachers and officers of the Board :— LIOO to L 149, two per cent.; Ll5O to L 199,; four per cant. ; L2OO to L 299, six per cent. ;' L3OO and upwards, seven per cent. Bonuses to teachers and allowances to committees were reduced 50 per cent. Allowances were reduced to actual travelling expenses. Mr Lumsden gave notice that he would move at next meeting — " That, in the opinion of this Board, the reduction of the Parliamentary vote for educa- ; tion by the sum of 10 shillings per pupil, being the amount hitherto allowed for division amongst school committees for ordinary school expenses, is practically a departure from the scheme of free education, and being 1 so they consider that such a change ought to have been accompanied by a legislative enactment making substantial pro? vision for enabling school committees to raise; by an annual capitation charge or otherwise, a sum equal to the cost of ordinary school management." : Mr D. Cossgrove, the late teacher of the Sandymount School, and who has recently received the appointment of second assistant at the Arthur street School, was made the recipient of a presentation in an extremely pleasant and unexpected maimer on the occasion of his leaving Sandymount. On the evening previous to his departure one of the pupils asked for the loan of the key of the school, and next morning Mr Cossgrove was invited to meet the pupils in the building. Oa entering, to his surprise he found the schoolroom tastefully decorated with fWers and evergreens. Master J. T,, Knight, one of the senior pupils, made aneat and appropriate speech, in which he wished their late teacher success in his new school, and expressed the regret of the scholars at losing him, and then presented Mr Cossgrove with an aneroid barometer and a purse of sovereigns The barometer bears the following inscription —"Presented to Mr D. Cossgrcve < by the children of Sandymount School on his leaving the district, Augußt, 1880." Mr Cossgrove has had charge of the Sandymouot School since 1875. On his appointment the school only had an attendance of seven pupils, but before six months had elapsed the roll had swelled to 49, and the school had to be enlarged. The attendance now has reached 92, and the school boaata a mistress as well as a master.