DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1903, 8 June 1892, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

(From our owd Correspondent.) The St. Leonards School Committee view with a very bitter feeling of hostility the methods adopted by the Education Board inspectors in investigating the charges made against their teacher, Mr T. Johnston. And the manner of conducting the inquiry being, as they allege, one-sided and unfair, as a matter of logic the conclusions arrived at by tbe inspectors are unreliable and inconclusive. The committee, too, affirm that they have been hurt in their dignity by the Education Board and slighted by the inspectors, and armed with this double-barrelled complaint they have thrown up a fearful amount of dust, and are insisting upon the re-opening of an inquiry that, in my opinion, had better be allowed to drop as quickly out of sight as possible. When the school committee charge the inspectors with not having conducted the inquiry with an impartial hand, and with allowing themselves to be led in a certain direction by Mr O'Donnell, the person who demanded the inquiry, cool and unbiassed outsiders cannot help concluding that the Education Board acted wisely in excluding them as much as possible from any participation in the inquiry. The issue was one exclusively between O'Donnell and the teacher, and was, besides, one mainly limited to his proficiency as a teacher ; to call in the school committee, composed of heated partisans, under such circumstances, would do nothing more than prolong and complicate the inquiry without in any degree improving the case of the teacher and reduce the affair to the level of a bitter personal wrangle. In such a business, all men of thought and observation know that the leaning of the inspectors, if any leaning existed, would be towards the teacher, rather than in the direction of the man who was reputed, rightly or wrongly, for some considerable time past to have persecuted the teachers, given tbe Board a large amount of trouble, and seriously injured the prestige of the school. It should also be considered that a decision adverse to the teacher had also a tendency to reflect on the inspectors themselves, who had for years past, while all these charges against the teacher were in the air, examined the school and invariably with credit to the teacher. Not only, indeed, were the inspectors trying the teacher but they were also sitting in judgment on themselves, and the result reflects quite as unfavourably on their own professional ability as it does on that of the teacher.

I have every sympathy for Mr Johnston, being aware of the difficulties of his position as teacher of a small suburban school. Had he been in any other part of the country, remote from the splen-didly-equipped schools in the city, he might Have gone on peacefully to the end, and have borne the reputation of an excellent teacher and justified in the eyes of the parents the creditable official testimonies of which he has been the recipient year after year. But close proximity to the larger and, no doubt, better schools, generates discontent and dissatisfaction with the methods and progress in the more humble establishments, and this feeling once general, the end, as far as tbe teachdr is concerned, is never far off. But for the school committee, there should be no sympathy, and their protests to the Education Board are not likely to be very effective in disturbing the results of the inquiry or in extracting an apology for any fancied slight their dignity may have suffered. One of their grounds of complaint is that tbe committee were not qonsultQd before the.

inquiry was instituted, and another that | the result of the inquiry is diametrically opposed to the evidence. The committee's opinion as regards the value of the evidence, and its bearing on the result of the inquiry, may be estimated from the fact that they have during the last year or two been embroiled 'in redhot discussions on the matters that formed the subject of the inquiry, and must, as a matter of course, be hopelessly prejudiced on the subject. This fact, while justifying their exclusion from the inquiry, renders their opinion on its results entirely valueless. When such disputes and charges have to be decided the Education Board is the only authority which may be relied upon to act fairly and disinterestedly; it has all the required machinery at its disposal, it is aloof and altogether removed from the factious and conteribious forces at work, and to accuse tbe inspectors of impartiality or one-sidedness is fatuous and stupid. Sir Robert Stout and Mr ¥m. Hutchison, M.H.R. (" the People's William") have been making bitter personal exchanges during the week in the newspaper columns on the subject of the recent libel case in which Mr Ballance was the defendant and Mr Geo. Hutchison, M.H.R. for Waicotara, the plaintiff, Sir Roberb Stout appearing as counsel for his friend the Premier. In his address to t. c jury on behalf of the latter, the knight is alleged to h a ve taken advantage of the occasion to say some very bitter personal thing of Mr Geo. Hutchison for the purpose c damaging him politically. There is n doubt whatever of the extreme persona bitterness which forms par; of Si Robert Stout's political outfit. To diffe with him in politics is to merit hi scorn and provoke his hostility ; am the worst of it is, as well for himself a for those whom he has it iii his power fo get in a blow at, his hostility is as long lived as it is implacable and unsparing The Waiiganui trial afforded him ai opportunity of making reprisals on M Geo. Hutchison for his attacks ou th Ministry, and it appears hi took every advantage of the privilege: accorded him as counsel iv the case "My friends in Wanganui," writes M Wm. Hutchison in fche " Daily Times,' "in describing the incidents of tK trial, spoke of Sir Robert as playinj low down." To this Sir Robert replie; in what may be described as hi "nastiest" style. . He concludes hii epistle with the following significan threat: —"I think, in Mr Willian Hutchison's own interest, he migh have let his personal antipathy to th< Premier rest, and not display it oi every occasion opportunity offers." The meaning of this threat requires m explanation to those who understand th circumstances attending Mr Hutchison' return as member for the city, and th conditions, unwritten but still under stood, on which his tenure rests. H was accepted by the labour party en tirely at the solicitation of Sir Rober Stout, to whom almost exclusively h owes his position. For this, of course the knight looks not only for uncondi tional allegiance but for a certain amoun of public-deference and homage ; and ha given Mr Hutchison to understand tha nob even for the purpose of defending his son should he dare to rebel or giv evidence of an insubordinate or disre specbful spirit towards his politica sponsor, the man who made and cai again un make him. He will find it to hi own interest, he bluntly reminds him, t refrain from anything in the nature c hostility to Mr Ballance, otherwfse hi " interests" are likely to suffer. This i a very brutal piece of frankness, as dis creditable to Sir Robert Stout as to thi person who submits to it. No man o any spirit or independence of character would submit for five minutes to such i manifestation of intolerance. But i only once more makes plain how ver much alike human nature is. Sir Rober Stout declaims against the intolerant of the churches and their desire t< shackle the human mind and strangl reason and independence, and here he is threatening anathema on Mr Hutchison because he dares to exercise his judgment and give expression to his opinions and criticise the actions of the highpriest of democracy. The prospects of the Island Block Extended Goldmining Co. have brightened considerably within the last twelve months. The annual meeting of the company was held at the " Criterion "on Tuesday evening, and the report, though not quite as satisfactory as the shareholders might desire, was yet a comparatively good one, and had many hopeful elements in it. One particularly healthy feature of the meeting was the entire absence of exaggeration and delusive promises of fabulous wealth. The directors' report was a sensible document ; it dealt in a straightforward and practical manner with the affairs of the company, and without indulging in golden promises of the future was exhaustive and. complete in its information. The mine manager, too, Mr D. Weir, made a very good impression on all present. There was a ring of candour and of independence in his remarks that hall-marked everything he said and impressed the meeting with its accuracy. Mr Weir is looked upon by the shareholders as a man who is making the mosL of the interests of the company; and though there are, as a matter of course, some malcontents, yet the great majority of the shareholders hold him in high esteem, and are well satisfied with his efforts. Mr J. H. Chapman, the energetic secretary of the company, who did so much for the" concern after the exit of Mr Leslie Norman, has resigned his position of secretary ; but he has been placed on the board as a director, on the motion of your townsman, Mr John Thompson. Mr Chapman, in the darkest, hours of the company, never lost faith in its ultimate success. I

[The above was held over from our last issue.]