The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1925. THAT CHILDISH ACTION.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1639, 9 May 1925, Page 4

The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1925. THAT CHILDISH ACTION.

lAS was- to be expected, our reference to the action of the seven members of the local School Committee who, after election on Monday evening,, tendered their resignation to the Education Board fa few hours later, has evoked quite a lot of comment, and to-day we have a letter in reply from one of the seven gentlemen who attached their names to the “ round robin” of resignation. It is quite meet that the writer should be . Mr Clarke, who with one or two others was considered to be in strange company in such an impulsive action. However, Mr Clarke’s. views are distinctly illuminating, and while he carefully absolves himself from any suggestion of writing on behalf ..of the other six signatories he appears to have expressed the views expected of the others. We could, in these' columns last issue, have quite well discoursed upon Mr Battson’s many qualifications for the position of chairman of the Te Awamutu District High School Committee, but we would point out to Mr Clarke that Mr Battson’s qualifications for that position were not under consideration in our editorial. Nor were his disqualifications. What actually was under consideration was the childish action of the seven members of the old committee in so precipitately resigning after they had received the “blessing” of the forty qualified householders present at the meeting on Monday evening. That their action in resigning within a few hours, without having attempted in full caucus to find a chairman to fill Mr Battson’s position, was, as we said, very childish, and admits, of little argument. It was hasty and ill-con-sidered, and we think Mir Clarke is fair-minded enough to admit that assertion cheerfully. Had Mr Battson secured sufficient votes to ensure his election to the committee then there was occasion to point out his suitability or otherwise for the chairmanship. But he failed—and failed rather dismally—to obtain the necessary votes. The forty people who were in the room expressed a calm and reasoned opinion, so far as written votes at a householders’ meeting can be so regarded, and in their wisdom they made it clear taht Mr Battson did not equal twelve of the other candidates in their regard when choosing a school committee. Mr iClarke will please note the householders were not called upon to choose a chairman :for the committee; they left that to the nine people they had selected. Surely the seven old members of the committee will concede that the forty people were entitled to express their views as they did. Again, Mr Clarke had the honour (shared, it is true, with two other estimable gentlemen) of topping the poll. Is he going to say now, that Kie twenty-eight people who accorded him their support were ' lacking in intelligence? There is no gainsaying that the right and proper thing to do was for the nine gentlemen who received the most votes (and were elected in all good faith that they would function as a committee) to meet and endeavour to select and -elect a chairman to preside at their meetings. Had the effort proved abortive, and Mr Clarke knows full well just how it could have been abortive, the time would have been opportune for them to resign. But the seven members of the former committee did not Wait for that. They took hurried counsel among themselves, ignoring the two new members, and sent off the letter of resignation. That is what occasioned the criticism, both from the Waipa Post and from sundry other sources, including several folk who hold Mr Clarke and certainly most of the seven gentlemen named in the highest repute. There is no personal animus in a controversy such as this. The late chairman’s fitness or otherwise does not come into the argument. The members of the former committee knew that they had opposition—the fact that five new candidates were seeking election was known to them all a week previous—and yet they took no steps whatever to ensure the reelection of their champion chairman. Mr Battson knew- that he was not so acceptable to some householders as several of the other candidates, but he took the risk of defeat. Such a signal defeat was, we are convinced, almost totally unexpected, but anyone with any pretensions to knowledge of the vagaries of voters at public elections knows that there is the risk of defeat. A wise general, and likewise a wise chairman of a school committee, would have prepared to withstand any assaults from all quarters. And if the old committee held Mr Battson in the very high esteem that theyseek to tell the householders now they were lacking in that loyalty to him by not seeking to put in a good word for him even at the late hour of the householders’ meeting. They can only blame themselves, and if they metaphorically kick (each other) they will

only be getting their deserts, for they failed Vinr an.i obligatiou . that it. was but fair they Bliduld Mr tells us'die Ms unconcerned. so’ are we.%'Tf;.Mr Battson does obtain, a,.seat o,n.,;the,; committee, and we take it that his Seven: wholehearted 'supporters' will do' their best to-ensure .this, even though their-ac-I'tion on his behalf is" rather belated,; we have no doubt the. committee will work harmoniously for the good conduct of school affairs in Te Awamutu. We almost omitted, to refer to the statement of • Mr Clarke re last Monday night’s meeting ndt being a representative one. We thought forty householders was a fairly representative one, all things considered, but if forty are not enough in . the opinion of Mr Clarke and the other six gentlemen who tendered their resignations we can advance the opinion (if they refrain from accepting the rumoured request of the Board of Education and Mr Battson. to withdraw their resignations) that the omission.in this respect will be rectified. We have reason to believe that the next meeting of householders will exceed forty in number.