N.Z. Educational Institute Southland Branch.

Southland Times, Issue 14684, 2 July 1900, Page 3

N.Z. Educational Institute Southland Branch.

* The third session was held on Friday afternoon, Vice-President; MoKinaon in the ohair. Mr Hiddleston moved : " That iv tho opinion of this Institute ib is imperative that a pupil, on fading to obtain promotion in the school he bas attended, should not be able to reoeive promotion by going to another school." The mover said that neighbouring teachers ought to try to aisist each other and be loyal enough to uphold eich othei 's decisions. — Mr G»zz%rd seconded the resolution and suggest* d that the mover add to it the words. " and that a oopy of this resolution be sent to a'-l the headteachers of the ' district." He said one could refuse to take a scholar that has beea removed from another school. — Mr D. McNeil e*>id he looked upon the mot o.i as an excellent one. They ought to do what 'hey could to minimise what promised to be a cuuao of serious trouble. Followed out, it would had to a deterioration of the work of the district and to tbe creation of various standards in different schools. If teachers would only do what is right in this matter parents would find that any attempts at obtaining improper ends by tho removal of their children from one school to another would be useless and would by-and-by cease attempting it. — Mr T. Shand s >id that while he supported the motion he believed that in time the trouble would work Its own cure. The teacher who yielded improperly to the demands of pa-enta would toon 6nd his results becoming poor; if a man would only Blick to his guns it would better for hia pupils aod becrer results would follow as the children worked up. — Mr Macand.-ew said the proposal had his support, but he did not think that the branch cmld do anythirg further than make the recommendation to teachers. The inspectors would a low no deterioration in the work of the schools. He thought tha course of action imputed by the motion an uuwise one as no oue could know the atair.mcuis of tbe child so well as the one fr.>m whom the pupil was removed, as he has had him so long. — Mr Clark said it had beea stbt?d that a teacher oould not refuse to take a scholar transferred from another school, bnt the Chief Justice had recently decided, on appeal, that before a child could be transferred from the school he had been attending iv his own district he must have ths permission of the commit* cc of tbat school — Mr HarJie sail tha* s me time ago a memb-r of the Southland Board wanted to pass a motion to that effect but the chairman at the [time ruled him out of order. — Mr Mehaffey said the motion implies the existence of a certain class of teaohers ; it seemed a pity that such did exist and that such a motion should have to be passed. It only illustrated what had been said ab a previous meeting about the want of esprit de corps among teachers. A paper prepared by Mi«B Grant was read by Mr W. H. Clark, the subject being "Jane Barlow: her work and influence." The essayist said that as one read the aketches by Jane Barlow, he became consoious that here was an authoress capable of reading the heart with exceptional power. She was the daughter of a Dublin clergyman and began her literary wotk at tbe »ge of five. Her first serious work was a poem entitled " Neptune." In 1892 she published " Irish Idylls " ; other works of hers were "Bogland Stones," "Kerrigan's Qaality," " Creel of Irish Stories," " Maureen's Fairing," and "Sti angers at Liscoane!." Miss Barlow writes slowly, in that respect tesembling tha late K. L. Stevenson. Her language is terse and her contrasts striking. One of the saddest o." her stories was that of " the ould masther '' — " By the bog-hole," a tale of love and jealousy, ends in a similar tragic way. "Walled out" contains another pathetic set of pictures. One of Miss Barlow's beautiful similes [is where she speaks of the dandelions as ' mock suns.' She pictures the typical Irish village with all its phases of life. One psraan wrote to her to say that she knew "Widow Maguilk,' but even the authoress herself did not know her, for all her sketches are purely character ideals. An old lady wrote offering to provide clothing for the destiiute of Lisconnel ! But where is Lisconnei ? It is a typical Irish village. "Mr • ilfoyle " was another oharaoter sketch. A charmirg description of a ba'my day was quoted by the essayist aB an example of a wor J-picture. One of Miss B*rlow's powerfully-drawn characters is Dan O'Brien, the blacksmith of Shebeena. In the last chapter of her Irish Idylls, Miss Barlow exposes the fallacy of the idea that superstition is a feature in Irish life. A creel of Irish stories contains many examples of (Irish nimbleness of wit, sometimes pathetic, sometimes humorous. The paper bristled with quotations and extracts from Miss Barlow's works, and at the conclusion of the -reading Miss Bain proposed a vote of thanks to Misß Grant for having introduced the authoress to some who had not read her works. — Mr Ham, in seconding, said that Miss Grant had evidently been through the works of the authoress, and had presented her impressions in such a way as would lead others to read them also.— The vote was carried unanimously. Tbe committee on swimming recommended the branch to appoint Mr Mehaffey its representative to the Swimming Association, which was adopted. The Finance Committee recommended : " that a levy of one shilling psr member for the current year be male to meet additional expenses incurred by increased paymf nt to the Central Institute ; and, further, tbat no changes in the constitution of the Branch be at present made," it being understood that the local delegates to the Council in January should insißt on certain modifications In the draft Constitution. The secretary having oomplained of the slackness of members iv paying their fees a motion was passed directing the Executive to assist in getting these in. The committee on the colonial scale of salaries " recommended the proposed petition to the consideration of the teachers of Southland, urging them to sign it and thua strengthen the hands of the Minister in his endeavour to secure equitable and equal pay for the teachers of the colony." The recommendations of these committees were adopted.— Speaking to the motion for the adoption of the las tone Mr Mehaffey eaid that correspondence had passed and opinions bad been expressed, and it would be well if members of the branch indicated the direction of their views. The profession thab had no prizes offered no attraction to intelligent young men. Some teachers thoughb that £300 was sufficient salary to offer to one who rose in the profession, but surely teaching stood as high as employment in the Civil Service. Seventeen years ago Victoria insisted that its teachers should be as well paid as its civil servants : that was to say that the higher positions should be worth £500 a year. The Minister proposed to autboiiee the same salary to be paid, whether the teacher was male or female. This was done some years ago and all the higher positions very soon fell to the men. A woman had but herself to maintain ; a man had generally others depending on him. All teachers should sign the petition, and it was to be hoped that thia would eventually lead to the profession being pub nnder a central administration. — Mr Macandrew. read a report of the Hon. W. C. Walker's answer to questions in the House whioh showed tbat the Habens scheme was not intended to be adopted, and expressed the opinion tbat a good scheme would be evolved by means of a levelling-up process. He hoped that it would be before teaohers for consideration in their institutes and before tbe Board by the end of the month. — Mr McNeil said the petition was merely confirmatory of requests in past years Wben the Minister submitted hiß scheme to the district institutes, the branch would ba summoned to discuss it. Some school distriots, finding themselves poor, had taken more than a juat proportion of their funds for general purposes and thus trenched npon the teachers' salaries. Thia was sure to be pnb a stop to. — Mr Ham said tbat the Wellington Board thought some of their power was likely to be usurped, but that was not the case at all. — Mr Har die said that the Habens scheme had been used aB the donkey boy ÜBed the bunch of carrots. The poorer salaries were likely to be raised nnder Mr Walker's scheme. The election of office-bearers then took Slace with the folio wing results :— Mr 1. M. lacdonald, president ; Mr Thomas Shand aad Bliss Marianne Grant, vice-preaidenta ;

I Mr W. H. Clark, seoretary and treasurer (re-elected); Executive: Messrs D. McNeil, Selby, D. Munro, and Miss Perrin; delegates to the Council : Messrs Clark, Gazzard, J. Hiddleston, and Macandrew. Votes of thanks having been passed to the press, the Education board, the retiring officers, the V.M.C.A., and to Mr Gazzard for hia exhibition of an arithmctoscope, the Conference closed.