THE HAPPY VALLEY SCHOOL.

Colonist, Volume XVI, Issue 1808, 10 September 1874, Page 3

THE HAPPY VALLEY SCHOOL.

To tlie "Editor of the Colonist. Sik —Lest silence might be construed into consent to appear as a deliberate falsifier I am obliged to reply to the letter which was published in the Colonist of Ist September, respecting the liappy Valley School. There are only 18 ratepayers, 7 send children to school, and 5 are grandparents of the children attending school. Four of the remaining ratepayers whose names figured on a requisition three years ago as having children to send to school, have hitherto refrained from doing so; and Ido not see how one of the other two has much room to boast of some that did "attend regular," when one of two children only attended twelve times after five years of age, or to complain if they forget all they were ever taught. My predecessors at Hillside school have been so numerous that it seems some of the parents cannot say for certain how many there havebeen. One of them said, " Before you came (April, 1869) there were three teachers in less than eighteen months ;" so that the three children now at Happy Valley School who were taught by them must have forgotten them altogether. The Inspector's Eeport could not with justice have been® otherwise, when the majority of the children have attended so irregularly, and have had no previous education. However, if the spurt only lasts, which has been caused probably by your suggestion '•to re-amalgamate Hillside and Happy Valley Schools," it will be much better for all concerned than it has been latterly. i I regret it if I have unavoidably hurt the i feelings of anyone (though truth may be blamed it will not be shamed), but I shall not reply to anything further on this subject. i I am, &c, The Teacheb. I Hilbide, September 7, 1874.