CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9261, 26 September 1901, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir,— Re Mr Alex. Brown's letter of last night, I desire to state that I had no information from Mr Brown or the School Committee relative to the charge made. My former letter was a denial of a statement made in your report of the Hawke's Bay Education Board's proceedings for this month. Referring to Mr Brown's statement as it now appears, I again beg to emphatically contradict it. His daughter passed Standard I. at the last annual examination, never having been presented in that standard previously. Further, she has never been put back for a day or even a single hour. It is true that she was warned by the mistress and myself that if she did not attend school with greater regularity she would be placed in Standard I. for arithmetic, which, in accordance with regulations, I have power to do. She was informed of this on the morning of July 16th, and has not since put in an appearance here, but is, I have heard, attending a neighboring school. Therefore I most certainly blame both Mr Brown and the School Committee in this matter. In the first place, I blame Mr Brown for not making due inquiry from me, and for jumping to a conclusion on mere hearsay, and that from a young child. In the second place, I blame the Committee for bringing the matter before the Board without getting my version of it in writing, when, if it was thought necessary, both Mr Brown's complaint and my explanation could have been laid before the Board simultaneously.— l am, etc., WM. D. McCLURE.