THE EDUCATION BOARD AND SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3524, 27 August 1880, Page 2

THE EDUCATION BOARD AND SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — The dispute between the Education Board and the School Committee for the Town of New Plymouth has now reached a point at which it is necessary that the outside public should be made acquainted with the real facts of the question at issue between the two bodies ; otherwise it is to be feared that the positivo language of the Chairman to the Board may mislead persons who have not studied tho " Education Act, 1877," and give them a very erroneous idea of the merits of the cases At the Board meeting, as reported in' your paper of the 24th instant, Mr. Bauchope, who seems to be the only member of that body who has taken the trouble to read the Act, said that ( ' the intention of the Act is that the School Committccmon or Commissioners should do the work, and the Board should be the controlling powor." This is the whole matter in a nutshell. Curtain duties arc laid down in tho Act to be performed by the Education Board, and certain other duties are allotted to the School Couunittees. Tho complaint of

the School Committee is that the Education Board has refused to recoguize the Town School Committee, and has insisted on its right to do the Committee's work. Under the 45th section of the Act, "the Committee may recommend teachers to the Board for appointment, and may also recommend the suspension or dismissal of any teacher. . . No appointment, suspension, or dismissal shall take place until the Committee have been fust consulted,''' By the 74th section, when a school district has heen established it is the duty of the committee of the district, having first obtained the sanction of | the Board, to establish schools, and, subject to the general supervision and control of the Board, " the Committee shall have the management of educational matters within the school district." By the 75th section, these committees may provide, by building or otherwise, schoolhouses ; may improve, enlarge, &c, existing schoolhouses. The cost to be defrayed by the committee out of the school fund. These are only a few of the powers conferred on School Committees, and which the Education Board has illegally thought proper to ignore, treating the Committee in a most hostile manner. The Chairman, Mr. B. Wells, says in your report — "I think there must be some personal ground for this hostility." And I think he is quite right ; perhaps at the next meeting he will kindly enlighten the Board and the public as to the grounds of his personal hostility against members of the Town Committee. So far as we know, the following is the cause : — Soon after the election of the present Town Committee it was discovered that Mr. B. Wells was both a member of a local Committee and also of the central Board. As the Committee decided that one man should not occupy the two positions, Mr. B. Wells after strenuous expostulation and much against his will, had to resign one of his appointments, dropping out of the School Committee, and retaining his membership of the Board. From that time he has lost no opportunity of showing his enmity to the Committee. First he refused to acknowledge that the Committee was entitled to any funds — the " school fund" of the Act. There he was at length beaten. Then he has proceeded to appoint and remove teachers without any consultation with the local Committee ; and also to constitute schools within their district, without any regard to their wishes. Any remonstrance is treated with contempt and derision. Mr. B. Wells has been so long accustomed to interpret the Bible according to his own peculiar ideas and in support of his own narrow views that he thinks he can treat all human ordinances in the same cavalier fashion. The powers he has chosen to assume in dealing out eternal penalties are to his mind so very large that he thinks nothing of making ducks and drakes of Acts of Parliament. But two very different matters are involved. Under his biblical powers he may disenfranchise us from any right to the Kingdom of Heaven, and provide us with warmer and less eligible quarters to his heart's content; it amuses him, and does not hurt us. Besides, the damages are so remote that it is scarcely worth while to enter a protest ; and perhaps after all if at any future time .some of us should find our way to the gate of heaven, and knock for admittance, St. Peter, or whoever is in charge, might not keep us out merely # on the ground that B. Wells objects to us being admitted. But we must protest against distinct provisions of an Act of Parliament conferring powers on any body or person being set aside and rendered inoperative at the will of any . one man, or body of men to whom are confided totally distinct powers. Whether the Committee is composed of Government officials or not has nothing to do with the question ; it is, as the Chairman owns, " organised for some purpose," and intends to fulfil the functions for which it is organised. The Chairman's objection that Government officials have no right to take an interest in the education of their children is a piece of gratuitous insolence worthy of the person from whom it emanated ; and the Board will find that the Committee, whatever its constitution, will not recede a step until its just demands have been granted. — I am, &c, Committee Man.

The following anecdote is told by an American preacher : — He was praying, and in his prayer he said : "I pray that the power of Satan may be cartailed." Jost then an old darkey in the congregation cried out- "Yes, amen! BrehS rue. Cut him tail right smack, smooth off."

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