THE KAIKORAL SCHOOL GRIEVANCE.
Whether the Minister of Education is right or wrong in saying that he has no power to interfere between the Kaikorai School Committee and the Otago Education Board by holding an investigation into the dismissal of Mr M'Lauchlan, the refusal of an inquiry will excite great dissatisfaction, and, what is worse, will make it a task of very great difficulty to re-establish the school on a sound basis and get it into good working order, The Minister's non possivmiis seems scarcely credible. It is true that the Act gives him no special powers for such intervention} but one would naturally think that one of the functions of a Minister was to act as a iinai corirt of ripped, and that powers to this effect were incldded in his general commission. The point is one upon -which we shall not presume to hazard an opinion, but we suppose that the matter will be brought up in the House and elucidated beyond possibility of doubt. Mr Fisher is, of course, acting on the advice of the department, which ought to know; but official interpretations, especially when they are in favour of officials, sometimes differ from the view taken by an impartial lawyer, and we do not feel certain that the Minister is so impotent as he makes himself out to be. However that may be, the prevention of an inquiry is as much to be regretted in the interests of the Board itself as of the particular school concerned. The Board, as we pointed out some time ngo, for one reason or another does not enjoy the authority and command the confidence desirable in the interest of the efficiency of primary education in Otago, it in this case the Board should be publicly proved to be as right as its members believe that it i», its position and mana would be greatly strengthened, and Committees would be less apt to dispute its authority in the future. When a public body is in the right it is clearly to its advantage to have it made evident to everyone that it is so, especially if its authority is suffering wrongfully from geneial imputations of arbitrary tendencies and favouritism. The Kaikorai school is wellknown not to be the sole instance of complaints against the Board by Committees, though it id that where the dissatisfaction has been longest and loudest. We should very much doubt having heard the last of the mat ter yet.
THE KAIKORAL SCHOOL GRIEVANCE.
Otago Witness, Issue 1880, 2 December 1887, Page 11
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