SERIOUS CHARGES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7309, 19 June 1895, Page 2

SERIOUS CHARGES.

ATTACK ON THE FAME OF THE GISBORNE SCHOOL. FULLEST ENQUIRY NECESSARY. [special to herald.] Napier, last night. At the meeting of the Hawke's Bay Education Board to-day a letter was received from Mr T. S. Lewis, Giaborne, who claimed exemption for his children attending school as the children had reached the standard required by the Act, having been privately educated. j A lengthy letter was read from Mr Lewis on the subject, in which certain charges were made of gross immorality against the scholars attending the Gisborne school, and which were detailed at length, but which the Board declined to consider in Committee. Members generally considered that the charges were of such a serious nature that before taking any further action they referred Mr Lewis' letter to the School Committee with a request to report fully to the Board. To-day. — Under the heading of " A Grave Scandal " the Herald this morning says : — " The contents of the communication from a settler in Gisborne read before the Education Board yesterday, though passed over by that body without anything more than mere passing comment, were startling beyond measure. The gentleman in question disputed the claim made by the Committee of the Gisborne School that his children should attend school, and gave as a reason why they should not do so, that they should not be led into temptation, and that they might be delivered from evil. Then' he proceeded to make a statement, horrible hi its closeness of detail, and charging the pupils of the Gisborne School with the grossest immorality which was not confined to isolated individual cases here and there, but was widespread in its scope and awful in its results, yet the Board did nothing with reference to that particular portion of the letter. There may be no truth whatever in the statements .made by Mr Lewis, and for the sake of the coming generation of Gisborne, we hope he has been hoaxed by some inventor of scandalous garbage, but the Board had no evidence whatever before it to that effect, and surely, as a body governing the education of the young in this district, it should have taken steps to sift the statements made. The Education Act directly provides for the expulsion from the schools of any pupils likely to contaminate others with whom they are brought in contact, and surely it was the duty of the Board to call upon the Gisborne Committee to hold a most searching investigation into the charges made. As the matter stands, a huge black blot obscures the fair fame of each and every child attending the school in question, and until a thorough investigation, however expensive, and however repugnant, is undertaken, no parent will be able to hold up his head. Perhaps our Gisborne contemporary will be inclined to probe this foul business to the bottom in the interests of common decency."