The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 1904. INTERESTING TO TEACHERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 156, 6 July 1904, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 1904. INTERESTING TO TEACHERS.

A case was recently heard anil decided in Auckland that is of interest to all members of the teaching profession. Mr Denis O'Donoghue, the headmaster of the Mount Roskill public school, brought an action against the Auckland Education Board for wrongful dismissal, and the case was heard before a board appointed under the provisions of the Teachers' Hoard of Appeal Act. This is not the first case of the kind that has been brought before the public in the manner provided by the act, but this one contains features that single it out for notice. Mr O'Donoghue was dismissed on the strength of representations and reports made by the board's inspectors. It was alleged that his teaching methods were not the best, that the state of his school was not satisfactory, and that he was not sufficiently attentive to his duties. The inspectors had, however, advanced the annual examination by two and a half months, and it was claimed that so unexpected an advance had been the means of failure to many pupils, and the school'had become disorganised in conseojuence. The curtailment of the school year in 1901 had, Mr O'Donoghue pointed ■ out, affected subsequent years, and he urged that lie was not responsible for the defective state of some of the classes. The inspectors, on the other hand, affirmed that they made allowance lor the curtailment of the school year, and si ill the results were not what they ought to have been. The appellant, however, questioned the fairness of the inspectors' methods, having taken oral work in one or two classes, while two other classes in the same room were doingwritten papers. Then the charges, made secretly to the hoard during November of 1903, were not submitted to him until the middle of las l month, a week or two before the appeal case was to )x' heard, and it was on the strength of these confidential reports- that the teacher's dismissal was determined upon. The evidence showed that the Mount Roskill school committee knew nothing of the charges made against the teacher, and it was patent that the committee was satisfied- with Mr O'Uonoghue's work and with his explanations of the failure of numbers of the pupils. The Education Board had listened to gossipy stories about Mi' O'Donoghue, and was apparently as much influenced by those as by the confidential reports of their inspectors. Still, the board was not unanimous in its determination to dismiss him, and itß subsequent action in offering him employment showed that either it had some compunctions of conscience or that it had not lost confldonce in the dismissed teacher. Hut Mr O'Donoghue would accept no favours from the board. He considered himself wrongfully 'dismissed, and determined to bring his case before an Appeal Board and havo it decided upon its merits. The Appeal Board consisted of Mr Blomiield. S.M., of Auckland ; Mr Hugh Campbell, for the Education Board ; and Mr F. E. Baume, for the Teachers' Institute, which had satisfied itself that Mr O'Doltaghue's case was one for thorough investigation. After lieing occupied for nearly four days with the case, the Appeal Board finally found unaaimously for Mr O'Donoghue. It decided that the teacher had been entitled to be reinstated, or, at the option of the l>oard, appointed to a similar position with the same salary in another school ; and that the Education Board must pay the appellant £7O to recoup him for loss of salary up to the date of the judgment of the court, uml payment thereafter until reinstatement or appointment at the same rate of salary and house allowance as he received immediately prior'to the dale of the termination of his engagement at Mount itoskill. The Education Board was also mulcted in a small amount for costs. The New Zealand Times, to whom we arc indebted for the above particulars, continents editorially in the following strain :—"The case is a decided triumph for the toucher, and the profession generally will rejoice that justice h;is been done. The decision, will give them the assurance that no Education Hoard can summarily dismiss a leuclier v. ho is emleavotiringto do his duty. This case will also cause boards to hesitate before they take action upon the "ipse dixit" of inspectors with respect, to any teacher. When teachers were without a Court of Appeal, they were lurgely at the mercy of the inspectors and the -bourds, and several able- teachers left the service of the colony because of the harassment to which they were subjected, whilo others were dismissed for frivolous reasons. The cuse of Mount Itoskill is calculated to inspire teachers with greater confidence, and impart to Education Boards a more serious sense of their responsibilities and of what is duo to the teaching profession. It is also satisfactory to note that the recent decision in a Marlborough case has settled that the judgments of Teachers' Hoards of Appeal are final. Tho right of appeal would havo iljheaf rol/ued of. its lit-rwiici]aJ aspect if the boards had been able,

al llu' public expense, lo weary out aggrieved teachers by carrying eases to the Supremo Court and the Court of Appeal. Education Boards have ample power to deal with unsatisfactory teachers, and there is no danger of the interests of education suffering Ivy I he* measure of prolecjlion extended lo an important, class j if public servants;."

ON THE FOURTH PAGE. Literature. A Street Affray.