The Star. MONDAY, JUNE 11, 1883.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4715, 11 June 1883, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, JUNE 11, 1883.

Oxra beadbbs may have noticed several recent telegrams from Hakitika relating to the proceedings the Education Board and of the local Sohool Committee. With very judicioui impartiality the agent of the Freu Association has refrained from stating the real ea*us belli. A perusal of the looal papers, however, informs us of the origin of these quarrels. It appears that until two years and a half ago the Education Board of the West* land District, which comprises the whole of the West Coast south of the Teremakan, had its centre of operations in Hokitika. The dit» triot comprised the town of Greymouth and the adjacent diitriote. Whenever a meeting of the Eduo&tion Board was held, the members from Greymouth had to come to Hokitika. Now, between Hokitika and Greymouth a bitter leud exists. UukilUa lius gul«-J— a?6JTilijulli has gold and ooal. Hokitika tiver has a bar j the Grey river has a bar : and on the question of tha depth of water on these two bars there is great jealousy. If a fresh comes down and j clears one of* them for a few days and does not dear the other, the one whioh is dear exults with unchristian glee over the one which is not clear. Iho local paper points to the fact that steamers can come freely in and out of the one, and cannot do so at the other port. The paper of the port which is temporarily closed preserves a gloomy silence on the matter, and simply remarks under the head of "shipping intelligence," "No business was done in the port jeaterday." Hokitika boacts that its bar is sandy, and that even if a vessel does bump on the bar, the bump, does no barm, or none worth mentioning. When Hokitika river was low, and the steamers did nob call, and the local paper grumbled thereat, Greymouth sarcastically asked whether they expected the steamers -to go overland ? The Greymouth people say that their bar is far better than Hokitika, to whioh the latter reply that huge rojks washed down from the protective works are lying on it, and would knock the bottom out of any iron steamer that might cbatce (o touch them. All this may seem to have very little to do with the Education Board, but it has much to do with it. Owing to the jealousy between the two towns, chiefly arising from the rival bars, the Greymouth men seized the opportunity when they happened to have a majority on the Education Board, of moving that the offices of the Board should bo transferred to Graymouth.

Now the Education Board offices at Hokitika were in the Government Buildings; they were rent free ; the Secretary and Inspector both resided at Hokitika ; the littlo sums— comfortable little sums they were— allowed for travelling expenses to members were expended in Hokitika for the most part ; acd besides all this, there was a feeling of pride that Bokitika should be the educational capital of the dittrict. When the Board was removed, the first thing it did was to purchase at a cost of £600 a house in which to hold its meetings, and lodge its Secretary. Thia house, siagularly enough, belonged to a near relative of the Chairman of the B>ard. Since that time the war has raged continuously between Greymouth and Bokilika. At the last election of members to the Education Board, the Hokitika party allege that they obtained a majority, and that the voting papers were tampered with by the Greymouth member?. As this point is under* going litigation we will say no more about it. Of course they diipute tho authority of the Greymouth Board, and now it appears that matters have gone so far that the Looal School Committee have closed the to^ool. This, it was alleged, was done because the Board would not grant sufficient I funds to warm the school and pay i the caretaker. On perusal of the whole of ■ the evidence pro and con, it appears that the Education Board sent down a cheque for £18 to the Hokitika Committee to pay, inter alia, for fuel. This cheque the School Committee expended in the payment of other liabilities, but did not buy fuel with any part of it. When the fuel wbb exhausted they applied to the Board for another cheque. The Board, not to be done this time, cent them a ton of coals. Thia the Committee, from whose pub* liehed statement we take these facts, accepted and graciously permitted to be deposited at the lohool and expended, thinking, as they naively observe, that the coal, instead of a cheque for the coal, was cent through inadvertence. But when the ton of coal was exhausted, and the Committee, liko Oliver Twist, asked for more, and the Board sent them another ton, but " nary" cheque, then the wrath of the Hokitika Committee rose to boiling point ; they felt that they were insulted ; they oould not bo trusted to expend a five pound cheque,

and they resolved that they would aot aooepfe the coal, and would olose the school. Accordingly, after sundry letters and tele* grams, they gavo notice on tbe 4th of this month that the cohool would be closed until further notice, is oonsequenoe of the [Westland Education Board not having supplied fuel to warm it. This looks on the face of i —shall we say a— well, perhaps, on th whole it would be better not to say what i looks like. But it certainly does not look like the truth.

The Inspector came down, and obtained possession of the school buildings, and placed a notice on the echool doors forbidding any One to meddle with the building, except by permission of the owners thereof— the Westland Board of , Kduoation. The School Committee came, ejected thft Inspector from the building, tore down the notices, affixed others in their place of exactly the same tenor, but for " tho Board of Eduo»lion," substituting the word* "Hokltik* School Committee," and took o . fc summonse* against the Inspector for illegally removing the keys, end aleo for the expense of putting on new locks !

The latest news iB that a noisy but unfini" mous metting was held in Htkitika on June 6, at which the aotion of the Committee was approved, and it was resolred to me--morialize Government to appoint a Boyal Gommiesion to enquire into the management of the Education grants in Westland for th* last two or thros years. The Chairman offcbr Beard attended, and triad to speak, but the* meeting would not hear him. Ihe Mayor was requested to telegraph these resolution! to the Minister of Education.

Now, suppose the Hokitika people, instead of depriving the children of their schooling, and upsetting the discipline of the school* were just to get dp a subscription to provid* firewood, &0., until matters can be settled § would not tha 1 ; be much better than closing the school P Their, preient plan seems to x» remarkably like outting off one's note to be avenged on one's facs. Eren the looal paper, the West Coatt Timti, disapproves of it.