A School Committee Trouble.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5573, 22 March 1886, Page 4

A School Committee Trouble.

— ♦ EDUCATIONAL COMICALITIES. SQUARE PEGS IN BOUND HOLES. [By Telegkaph.] [feom our own coeeespondent.] ASHBURTON, Maech 21. A meeting of tho householders, called by advertisement, was held on Saturday night in the old store, Tinwald, to consider the recent actions of the School Committee. There was a good attendance, between 20 and 30 stalwart Tinwaldians having put in an appearance with commendable punctuality, notwithstanding the wet night. The store is an old, empty grocery shop that has been long out of use, and is guiltless of anything in the shape of seats, except the two counters, over which the last occupant used to dispense tea, sugar, ham and bacon, and other such little particulars, but the depression came and the shutters went up. A lamp on one counter and a candle on the other illuminated the empty shelves, and when the reporters arrived they found that ingress was gained by the back door. A merciful Providence guided their wandering feet past the dangers of an open well, and certain obstacles dangerous to the integrity of their thin skin. When they entered the meeting business had not begun, and everybody who smoked was smoking. The reporter was a social animal, and he smoked too. Mr Frank Lewis waa asked to take the chair. So were half a dozen others, but as they were all too modest the local sporting man had a walk-over. Mr Frank then waltzed along to the end of the old grocery counter and perched himself upon it beside the lamp and the reporters, and having quenched his dudeen, proceeded to Bay what they had met for. The meeting had been called, as per advertisement, to consider the actions of the Committee. Much dissatisfaction had been expressed by the inhabitants with the recent appointment of a new schoolmaster. Ho himself was not pleased with the appointment. The new master had lived among them, was a young man, and had been employed among them at work a good deal less dignified than

<that of teaching, and the Chairman waa thus afraid that in his case familiarity would breed contempt, and the children would ,not ihave the respect for him that they would for a stranger. With the young man's attainments he was not very well acquainted. He may have made great progress with his education, no doubt, and was known to be a very well-behaved and respectable man, but, considering the circumstances under which he had recently resided among them, he thought the new master would start work too heavily handicapped to be successful in the Tinwald school. Besides, he was quite certain that better and more experienced men were on qfferto the Committee ; certainly teachers with higher certificates could have been got. He thought tho Committee had been in a great hurry to appoint this young man. It had been suggested to the members of the Committee that it would have been better to have deferred the appointment, seeing what was being said by the public, until the new Committee had been appointed, but the present Committee evidently thought a higher wisdom dwelt with them, and went on their own way. It had also been suggested to them to submit several names of teachers to the Board for selection, but that, too, had been ignored. Another thing had occurred in connection with the school, on Friday last, which had brought disgrace on the village. The old master had been dragged out of his own school in school hours, and violence had been used towards him before his own scholars. The master : was known to be a good man and a good teacher, a man who had attended to the moral as well as the educational training of the children under his charge ; and the j conduct of the Committee, or part of them, j towards him had been a most disgraceful j thing. (Here cries of " Order," and " Leave j that out justnow," interrupted the speaker, and one man said that as the question of the alleged assault upon the teacher was to be made a subject for the Magistrate to deal with, it was better not to discuss it at that meeting.) The Chairman went on to say that he would leave that part out, and would, therefore, confine himself to the appointment of the new master. After some further remarks, the Chairman asked if any gentleman had a resolution to propose. Mr R. B. Jeffs said it was rumoured that the Committee had shut up the school and would not allow teaching to go on on Monday morning. He would like to know if this were a fact. He had children attending school, and as they must attend some school, and wanted to do so, he would have to send them across to Ashburton if the Committee persisted in their alleged intention to close the school. Mr Mark Scott also wanted to know what was to be done, as he knew for a fact that the master had received written notice that the school would be closed on Monday. (The Chairman, Secretary, and several members of the Committee were present, but they preserved a rigid silence in regard to the questioa of closing the Bchool.) Mr Scott then said the real cause of the meeting they were now holding was the way in which the present master had been used on Friday. There had been much disgust expressed in tho village at the way the man had been knocked about. It might not be wise, in view of criminal proceedings coming off, to say much about the matter, but he felt very much disgusted at the way the poor man had been used. He was a good man and a good teacher. He was leaving now, but he never would have left had it not been for the conduct of the Committee towards him. He had always lived peaceably with his neighbours, and only a portion of the Committee had been able to discover any cause of quarrel with him. The meeting had also been called to express dissatisfaction with the appointment of the new master, who had been chosen, it had been alleged, by favouritism, and better men could have been got; besides, he was a young man and single, and seeing the number of big girla attending the school, it would have shown greater wisdom on the part of the Committee had they selected a- married man. In regard to the row on Friday, he regretted to have to say that a local paper had published that evening a most one-sided account of it, and he would not bo surprised if libel case number three for Tinwald should take its rise out of the same paragraph. After another pause, during which the tobacco smoke raised by many pipes (reporters included), rather thickened the atmosphere, the Chairman said he was waiting for someone to formulate a resolution. Mr R. B. Jeffs would move— "That a requisition be drawn up, and sent to the Board of Education, requesting them to cancel the appointment of the new master until the election of the new Committee." Mr Bickerstaff seconded. Mr Innis, a member of the School Committee, moved — "That the action of the Committee be confirmed." He waa surprised to hear the Chairman speaking as he had done on the subject of the new teacher's appointment. If Mr Lewis would cast his memory back, he would remember a precedent in the history of the Tinwald school for the conduct of the present Committee. He might be able to remember that towards the close of one Committee's term a teacher was appointed in a great hurry, and Mr Lewis was a member of that Committee. There had been nothing said against this new teacher, except what ought to count in his favour. He was young, and that was a fault that every day helped to cure, and youth was usually more energetic than age. He waa known to them all, for he had been brought up amongst them. So much the better, for they knew his merits, and not a soul had a single word to say against his ability. He had begun low in life — had been a ploughboy, in fact — (A voice : c ' Bobby Burns was a ploughman ") — and had worked himself up to a very good place among teachers ; had earned a good certificate, and the reports of his Inspectors on the country schools he had conducted were very good indeed. Mr Williams seconded. He failed to see any reason for objecting to the young man. He was young. (A voice : " Very ; 32 years of age." Laughter.) Well, that was young, as teachers go, and he did not fancy his being single was against him. (Someone present expressed a readiness to take odds on the chance of the new master remaining single long.) (Laughter.) The amendment was lost by 12 to 8, and the resolution was carried by 12 to 8. The Chairman asked the Cotnnaittee's Secretary (Mr T. H. Smith) about closing tho school, but that official said he wnuld answer in the proper place. The same question was then put to the Chairman of the Committee (Mr F. S. Shearer), who replied that if the Chairman of the meeting had been a gentleman he would have answered his question as to whether the school was to be closed or not. He was ashamed of Mr Lewis having sat on that bench and spoken as he had done against the new master's good name. The Chairman denied having assailed the young man's reputation in any way, as the reporters could very easily prove. Mr Shearer then said if Mr Lewis wanted any information out of him he had better come down to the back of his (Shearer's) shop and they could have it out between them quietly. (Lewis is the village veterinary 6urgeon, and five feet nothing, Shearer the village blacksmith, and would have been a good physical model for Longfellow's vulcans.) Mr Lewis desired to know if it was Mr Shearer's intention to scruff another little man. (Laughter.) After some chaff about the physical damages sustained by the present master in the scuffle on Friday with the Chairman, in the course of which it transpired that the pedagogal ribs had not been broken, only a little bent, but his fingers and wrists had been pretty extensively skinned, Mr Corrigan moved—" That the Chairman of this meeting be asked to telegraph to the Chairman of tho Board of Education, informing him of the rumour that the Tinwald school was to be closed on Monday, and asking him, in the name of this mteting of householders, to have the school kept open." Mr John Hampton seconded. Mr John Sturgeon said he believed in fair play, and the master now in office had

run round and helped with the arrangements for the English Church tea-fight, and there had been a half-holiday for the children then . Why had he made the difference between two denominations? Somebody here explained that the tea-fight referred to had been held in the grain store, and the tea-fight was one in connection with a Sunday school at which most of the master's pupils attended. The resolution was voted for by 12 hands held up, and none went up against it. A vote of thanks to the Chairman, and another to the reporters, closed the business, and those present threaded their way out by the back door, passing safely several dangers on the way, until they reached the darkness of the open road.