The Education Board from Within.

Otago Witness, Issue 2397, 8 February 1900, Page 23

The Education Board from Within.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, — I see a " County Cornmitteernan " i& firing some of Mr J. J. Ramsay's balls, just as that gentleman fires Mr MacGregor's. "As the prompter breathes, the puppet speaks." The monks used to say that Erasmus laid the egg" and Luther hatched the cockatiice. Mr John MacGregor lays the eggs and Mr Ramsay does the cackling and gets the chicks out. Seeing that I am misrepresented by your correspondent, I am sure, notwithstanding pressure on your space, you will allow me bring before the Witness readers some of the issues of the Education Board election. 1. The Education Board is in a condition without a parallel in its history. By the retirement of Dr Brown a little coterie of town members have got it all their own way, led by Mr John MacGregor. It is tiue, as the result of criticism directed by myself and others on the eve of an election, the board has backed down, but I ask your readers not to be hoodwinked by any manoeuvres on the part of this coterie. The board is obviously in a bankrupt condition, due, we are told by this coterie, to the falling off in attendance, but due just as largely to mismanagement and want of foresight of those in charge of the board's finance. Months ago, after due deliberation, the -board at one swoop knocked £1000 off the committees' funds, taking £5 off each— £s off a committee's allowance of £1 or £9, and, mark you, only £5 off the £128 allowance of the town i schools. This gives many country schools from £i to £5 to carry on with, and*so indignant are some-that I know they have resolved to positively refuse to carry on. At last meeting of the board, on the motion of Mr Mitchell, it is true,_ this resolution was rescinded, though, as Mr Harraway asked, " Wiiat are ' you going to put in place of the motion rescinded ? " Let committees^ mark that, so far .as certain members are concerned, they have exhausted their resources, and it behoves them to return men to the table who have a better idea of what is fair retrenchment than knocking off 50 to 60 per cent, of country committees' funds and only 4 per cent, of those of the big schools. Mr John MacGregor voted against rescinding that resolution, and if committees return that gentleman and his coterie to power they will do it wjth their eyes open and know what to expect. Not one penny of retrenchment has come off the town departments of the board. This coterie that was for ever crying out about an official party that could retrench everybody but the officers, has, as is well known, •" officials " of its own, and it would be impossible to retrench one set without the other. But they can halve committees' funds and retrench teachers out of the service, and close schools, and leave certain other quarters unmolested. It only takes about £100 a year to run a country school that gets closed. After 20 years' existence it is -discovered to be too near another. If there were a majority of country members on the board, as there ought to be, and as there lias b.een, on an -average, for 10 years back, the board would look for reasons for keeping a school going and not for closing it. You may as soon close the public well or the post office as close a country school, and nothing but absolute proof that the school is useless would justify a board, representing the province in closing a school. Other .Education Boards have to carry on smaller schools than any we have.

2. The present condition of the board is without parallel in the history of any public liody in New Zealand for this reason,; Though for months back it has professed to consider its financial position, it has deliberately keot its condition secret. I wrote to the Dajiy Times and asked public information as to how far the board was going, and had gone, to the bad. Stirely a reasonable request. The chairman writes in reply, and calls the board "ours"! and refuses all information, and implies that tho finance is so rotten that it woa't bear the light oi day. It needs to be handled so gingerly that it can be done only in the dark. Sir, the board is not a rotten public company that needs to ;j hide its position that it may be . floated " on the market. Whoever heard of a public body keeping its position secret, especcially on the eve of an election? Yet Mr Ramsay replies to my inquiry, " JN T o public body ever discusses its finance openly, especially when it is in the position of ours ' ! Sir, I did not ask for the discussion, but for the facts. Fancy a county council in a bankrupt condition, on the eve of an election, deliberately concealing its financial condition, while retrenching, m some cases, to the extent of half its funds. Mr J. J. Ramsay and his coterie have a deal to learn about public bodies, if this is the state of his knowledge. But he knows better. If different men were in power, and some other man than M- Macgregor weie standing- for election, we would hear enough about the concealment of deficits and bad management. The truth is the board has been diifting for some time past without having, to quote Mr MacGregor on the high schools, •' the faintest idea of what they are about." If committees will leturn men that have no pet departments or officials, but will deal as fairly as they can with all, something better will suiely be accomplished than the present bankruptcy and paralysis of the board. At all events, if lam elected, I shall make it my bi.siness to present the public with a. full, particular, revelation of the board's financial condition, whether Mr J. J. Ramsay likes it or not.

3. So far from crippling country education and neglecting it as heretofoie, this, is just the subject that needs careful handling. It is a souice of universal indignation to intelligent parents in this piovmce the sham the so-called Seventh Standard is, where children " mark time " for a year or two, and eventually leave school m disgust. Though the " school age," according to Act of Parliament, is five to 15, chi'dren of 13 are sitting m schools in a socalled Seventh Standard, learning next to nothing at an age they are most apt and gifted to learn. In ISBB, with 22,423 children on the roll, there were only 173 in this class in the whole of Otago , in 1898, with fewer, 21,184, there were no less than 665 — most of them the very cream of the province. You will get columns of abuse from the chairman of the board, but in offering a piactical suggestion to advance the real education of the children of this province, the coterie of which he is Corypheus, is as barren as the Sahara.

4. If anything could more clearly show how education is handicapped in the country it is the fact that although the board allows a year extra to country children, they do not get the number of scholarships they ought — the country children for whom Parliament meant them. Our country schools are given over to the poorest paid teachers, who in some cases do admirable mid noble work, but who have to compete against town children who have a highly trainee! teocher to coach them for six months before the examination. Some of our country schools are under-staffed. What chance has a country boy of a scholarship where the inistiess has 25 to 45 pupils in all standards or a master with 50 9 It is not that our country boys are loss intelligent and diligent than town boys, but becau3e they are handicapped in various ways in the battle of life. With a Board of Education not confined to a coterie m Dunedin some effort will be made to increa°e the number of scholarships available for the countiy children.

5. Lastly, look over the wide axea of country in Central Otago and South Central Otago that hag no chance of any higher or secondary education. "Mr John MacGregor and Ins supporters," says the Otago Daily 'Dimes, " are burning with a zeal to irupiove certain of the district high schools out of eauafcerKse »Jlo-

gether." And this same parly are also burning with a zeal to ereo-t another Dunedin establishment in the shape of a higher primary school to teach a curriculum after the ideas of Mr John MacGregor. I have challenged him to let us know how much less than £1000 this establishment would take to erect and keep going. Yet it is a simple fact that but for the opposition of the country members the boaid would already be saddled with this institution. Moreover, I call your readers to recollect the abuse I "got over the refusal of Mr Sim and myself to countenance the present erection of a new school at a Dunedin suburb. I helped to save £1000 of the funds of this bankrupt body. Yet the little coterie now so vigorous in | retrenching cotmtry schools out of existence would have this building also erected, and were only defeated by the casting vote of Dr Brown, who, when he came on the board, supported Mr Sim and myself on this matter. Mr Snow steadily supported us over this also. Sir, I tiust country committees will be no longer gulled with the adroit fencing, electioneering manoeuvres, and the policy of imposture hitherto pursued by this little coterie that now dominates and mismana,ges the education affairs of this province. 6. I will just point out that your correspondent who says I did anything to limit the powers of committees over the appointment of teachers is stating what is perfectly false. The Otago Daily Times, dated May, 1898, in a leading article, eulogises my services in this very 'respect. For the first time in the history of the board I got the regulation adopted that all the names and all the testimonials of all the candidates should go on to the committee interested. After pointing out that the appointment of teachers has been a source of trouble to all boards, the Daily Times concluded by hoping to see " the principle proposed by Mr Fraser embodied in the Education Act." To show how hollow Mr Ramsay's fault-finding and misrepresentation is on this score, if lie has anything "better to offer committees, wliy does he not do so, and what single regulation of value stands to his name? 7. I conclude with an example of how this coterie can act that professes to be so fair to all teachers. In order that all teachers should be put on a love 1 1 proposed as a further regulation that rebeviug teachers should be ineligible as applicants for any appointment filled by them. Obviously, possession was nine points in one's fa.your, and too often the relieving teacher got the place temporarily held to the prejudice of all other applicants. Now when this motion of mine came up both Mr MacGregor and Mr Ramsay spoke a,nd voted against it, and I got it through only on the casting vote of Dr Brown. Everybody at the table believed that the opposition from this coterie arose from the fact that one of the relieving teachers was a " particular friend." Yet this is the coterie that climbed into power on the cry of "no-officialism!" I called for a division on that motion, and had it recorded, and all the ingenuity of this little coterie will never wipe it out nor the impiession of their fairness it made on my mind. — I am, etc., P. 8.- FRASER. Lovell's Flat, February 5. TO THE EDITOB. Sir, — In last issue of the Witness appears a letter from '• A Country Committeeman," criticising the candidates for the vacancies on the Education Boaid, and commenting on the qualifications of certain members. It is suggested that the long-vsxed question of town v. country is not one of the leading elements of discord at the board's table. That may be so; but no one need have any hesitation in stating that one or two of the town members have been responsible for keeping the board in a ferment, and by their vehement persistence doing ten times more harm than the majonty of sensible and peacably inclined members could prevent. The country schools,, by virtue of their isolated positions, and the' apathy too often shown by committeemen, receive but few of the advantages in which their town congeners abound, and without strong representation on the board would be badly off indeed. I could mention one of the oldest established schools in the colony where an inspector, on entering, was seen to look askance at a laige hole in the floor where the boards had given way, and to express surprise on his entry at the absence of a cupboard and the usual school furniture; while an examination of the exterior showed that the building was holding up the piles instead of the piles holding up the building. Similar conditions exist elsewhere. Doubtless this could have been remedied with half the persistence which some town commiti tees exercise in applications to the board, but 1 the fact remains that such a state of things exists, and it behoves the country committees to make full use of the power which their members give them, in returning members to support their interests. Your correspondent refers to Mr John MacGregor as a man whose claims to a seat on the board are so strong as to make hi 3 election certain, and the plausible wording of that gentleman's circular is calculated, ancl ceitainly very likely, to gull over any who may not be thoioughly conversant with his actions, j The so-called modification of district high schools, which Mr MacGregor strove only so recently to bring about/undoubtedly meant their abo'ition, and had it not been for the prompt action of those interested would have been settled for ever at the next meeting of the boaid; but, m face of the strenuous opposition, ouv versatile friend explains that he only intended reconstiuciton, with a view to attaining greater efficieiic3\ If this is so, why has the BaJclutha school been m the hands of the relieving officers since Mr Valentine's resignation, some six months ago? Because no candidate with a ceitificate less than C 2 was qualified to fill the position, and a man with such a certificate would not be likely to fancy his salaiy reduced by more than half in the disrated school. I wonder how many of your readers lemember Mr MaeGregor's attitude with regard to Standard X, in the primaiy schools some years ago. The attempt to require the teachers of our pmrary schools to teach secondary subjects, if it had reference to country schools, was made in opposition to the wishes of the inspectors, whom I myself have heard to state distinctly that countiy teachers with seven, eight, or nine classes on their hands had no time for such •nork, and were not to attempt it while the parents did not want it. As a matter of fact, it nieiely affected the tovn schools, where, I believe, secondary subjects are still taught, to the great detriment of the high schools. Mr MacGiegor thought that the hardships of children in. town having to pay school fees of £10 p^v annum for education by an extensive staff of specialist? justified the board m dealing a death blow to the lugh schools ; but thinks that district high schools for the benefit of those in the country willing to pay the required fees are quite unnecessary, when any man with a grain of sense might know that, however desirable, education at the High School is beyond the reach of most when it is necessary to send boys 50 or 100 miles from home, and keep them in lodgings, unless assistance can be obtained in the iorm of scholaislnps. And what has Mr MscGrej-i done for our excellent system of scholarships'' Some time ago he reduced their value, explaining that he thereby intended to increase their .number, whereas it has turned out that there have been fewer given this yenr than has been the case for 10 or 12 years past. The reduction of value is a tendency solely for the benefit of town childien, as countiy children uho have to live away from home can only afford to hold a scholarship under exceptional circunnUnces; but whom the leduced nuuibei can be supposed to benefit I fail to

| see. The only possible conclusion seems to be that Mr MacGregor is an enemy of the scholarship system, and is gradually aiming at its abolition and thereby taking away the only means many of our less fortunate children have of obtaining a higher education. With regard to the punishment regulations which were lately in operation, and which turned out such a lamentable failure, we sea again Mr MaeGregor's hand only too plainly. I think the committees cannot make it too clear that the membeis of the board are appointed to do business, and not to spend their time in interfering with existing customs and introducing unnecessary, impracticable, and even ridiculous innovations. The attempt to abolish standard passes is a foolish one condemned bs all experienced men. The students at our university colleges are subjected to rigorous exap mination, and no one there is so simple as to allow teachers to examine their own work, which is the case with our lower standards. Some teachers may do good work without examination tests, but to ensure that all will do so frequent and thorough examinations are necessary, and to allow teachers to examine their own classes is decidedly * retrograde step. It seems only fair that I should say a word or two in defence of those candidates whom your correspondent so adversely criticises. While Mr Snow has always shown himself a sensible man, and one who ever acted in tha, best interests of education, and the committees cannot do better than re-elect him, Mr T. Mackenzie and Mr P. B. Fraser, .both of whom have held seats on the board, and against whom your correspondent seems *so prejudiced, are peculiarly suitable for representing us. Mt Mackenzie's wide knowledge of Parliamentary customs and privileges is much needed to reform the unparliamentary language and ziotoua behaviour which go on at the board's table, while_ his well-known knowledge of financial and commercial, transactions is largely supplemented by a surprising knowledge of educational institutions picked up throughout the various parts of the colony and m England, and his past career as a public man and as a member of the board places his honesty of purpose above suspicion. And who should be more suitable for a seat on the board than an exteacher''' Mr Fraser must surely have a more ficcxuate knowledge of our educational system than most of the members, and while I understand "that he is still brought closely in contact with five or six schools in the course oi his clerical work, the fact .of his having a family of his 'own* receiving education at "our primary schools would be an incentive to hia acting in their interests. Both of the gentlemen I have mentioned have abundant leisura to devote to the board's business,- and they, are not like business men who devote a few hours each month to the meeting, and know little of the business in hand. We liave put up too long with our board being used as a cheap advertising medium for the declamatory. No board can be efficient when wrangling and in- - dulging in personal abuse goes on to such an extent that a member with any -respect for his character is afraid to open his mouth. It is well known that the most competent gentlemen for a scat on the board, on one or two of whom rests the responsibility of making our educational system what it is. decline to make themselves the laughing stock of the public. Committees . have the means now in their power, and so let us no longed elect members who are doing us all the harm they can. — I am, etc., . % Another Country Comiiitteemasi. - [We really must request correspondents to condense their remaiks. There are so many demands on our spsce that we cannot possibly accept any more letters of the unconscionable length of those of Mr Fraser and " Another Country Committeernan." — Ed.]