THE STAGPOOLE CASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3033, 1 May 1912, Page 3

THE STAGPOOLE CASE.

DISCUSSION BY WANGANUI BOARD. WANGANUI, April 24. Echoes of the Stagpoole case were heard at the Education Board’s meeting this evening. It was resolved that, in reply to the resolution of the New Zealand Institute, telegraphed by the Press Association for publication on April 19, the board points out: (1), That while the resolution purports to be a reply to the board’s resolution of March 25 it ignores that portion of it which states that Mr Parkinson informed Inspectors Braik, Strong, Milne, and Stewart that the information given by them would be confidential, and that that pledge had been broken; (2) that the executive’s resolution is contrary to fact when it stated —(a) that the correspondence sent to Mr Parkinson was not under a seal of confidence, as the .executive’s representative produced in the Teachers’ Appeal Court a covering letter from Mr PiranL expressly stating the contrary, (b) that the institute was told in the said court that the inspectors’ official reports were valueless and of no account (no such statement having been made), (c) that no breach of the regulations by the chairman or any member of the board was either proved or admitted, as the only regulation on the subject refers to correspondence with the board and not with individual members of the board, and that Mr Parkinson was given every opportunity to explain his breach of confidence in the witness box, but fenced with the questions, and evidently recognised that his actions were not those of a man occupying a responsible position. The board also carried the following resolution: —“ That the board is satisfied upon inquiry that no serious fault can be found with the methods of the organising inspector, who is admitted by the teachers to be of great assistance to them in their work and who is enthusiastic in his desire to improve the conditions of the schools, but that he has unconsciously been injudicious in some of his methods in his anxiety to get better results in too short a period of time.”