TIMARU PUBLIC SCHOOL. FICTITIOUS GRIEVANCES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XL, Issue 2930, 13 February 1884, Page 3

TIMARU PUBLI C SCHOOL. FICTITIOUS GRIEVANCES.

TO THE RDtTOB OF TUB TIHARO HBBALD. Sib,—From time to time—especially if 'there is an cleotion on, whether fur Lho Kdu'■Mion Hoard or the School Committee—when there is some grrat agitation sought to bo stirred up by the Committee of tjie Timaru ■cboul, I wonder what it is, of a peculiar nituro, Unit, Committee is suffering from,and I wonder whit it is, m the nuture of a special privilege, that Comraitteo wants. Take thu Tinmru school buildings. Surely tliero is nothing very much to he complained of m rpepecl. to those. They are fine subsjanlial Oruntures, thoy supply Humcient aocommodiition, they cost lar.;p iut.h of money to put up, and they aro ootting, I dare say, no n.i all amount to maintain them iv repair. In addition to the " Main " and " Side " schools within the borough, there is the Waimataitai n:hool, whioh is also essentially a Timaru holiodl, an'l see. what it has cost, und see -also flint rirk tbo Board has run m tho effort to arect it. Take again the teaching staff, and what can the Committee complain of here P The itafE is lavpu, consisting of some 18 teachers (I quote from the last report), giving at the rato of one toucher to overy 40 children, which 1 believe is a very fair nomplement. Tho staiF is i-fflcioiit —or, at least, as muoh so as can posfibly bo obtained. Nor would it hppear I hat tho staff is nubjeated to any ox(tepttonal treatment as to pay. Home £400 a year, surely, is large enough for the head master, who, whatever his Attainments may bo, it not cipcoted to teach boyoad the sixth iitandard. Homo £260 per annum is not bad for a mistrcßs, and so on with the others] tho snlariot m all cases, no doubt, being graduated m proportion to tho duties required, and, according ta the moans of the body that has got to pay. . Or tak» the quuttiou of incidentals. Can the Committee sty that there it any unfair treatment lioroP Tho subject —aa appears from the newspapers—has boon over and over again (liiotissed, and ovcry.pnneiplo of law and cqnii.y lias been consulted m apportioning such sums as soetn to bo available for the purpose, Of courso, tho question with any ifair nod konett Committee thould not be,

" How much could we manage to spend " but " How much is our fair ebare of en moneys the country may allocate for tl object m view " P Taking the following items from the Bin Boobs, which are to be found all over th country, look at thn expenditure m connectio with the Timaru school) for the fire yeat ended 1882:— Building! SalurieJ. and othe Brpendrf £ s. d. £ .. d 1878 .. 1345 10 0 IROB 18 ( 1879 ... 2182 19 11 760 11 I 1880... 2381 1 7 352 17 I 1881 ...Main and Side Schools 2099 611 621 6 I 1882 ...Main and Side Schools 2253 6 8 442 7 S £10,212 6 1 £3685 16 1 Will anyone gay this expenditure is not formidable as connected with one locality i And, taking into account either the wants of the place or any fair treatment of other portions of the district, will anyone fay tbis sum is lees than it ought to be ? One thing I wish to remark here, is the extensive riae m palaries that all at once seams to have taken place under the regime of the South Canterbury Board of Education. The £1300 odd, I suppose, is what the school got under the North Canterbury Board. Immediately it passes over to the South Canterbury Board it gets for salaries £2132, or a riae of about GO ppr cent. I aleo wish to observe here that no note ia taken of tha muoh greater expenditure —both as to salaries and buildings —recently involved m the establishment of the Waimataitai school, this school being to all intents and purposes, aa we have already said, a Timaru Bohool. Tho buildings, with site, extraß, &c, when finally paid for, will be found, I imagine, to cost upwards of £1500. Now then, after this review —showing the liberal way m which Timaru has been.always treated, and the vast expenditure always going on m connection with it —let me ask again, " What does Timnru want t" Does it want to push the Board of Education into the position of Westland, whoso property the other day was seized by the bailiffs, or into that of Auckland whoso account, as just reported, it overdrawn £1000? Or does it mean to conceal rate the Board's membership m and around the immediate neighborhood of Timaru, to override the other members m every demand, for its own partioular pet establishments, and to bowl them out m every needed request from the country districts ? If the country Committees tnffer themselves to be gulled m the present election, by sending to the Board certain of tho town candidates now m the figld, all I say is —" Woe betide them ! " Does any modest request for a pound or two come up from Otsio, or Waibao, or Milford, or Fairlie Creek, or any of tlie other schools not within a oertain radius of the metropolis —the invariable protest will be " Na, Mu»ther Chairman, I objeo to it. Let theie ootside kintra bodies go withoot; we maun bae the lion's share for Timaru." The motto will not be "Pair play and Justice to all," but "We maun be first, and the dei) take the hin'most." I am, &.0., No Mbmbbb op either Boabd ob Committee.