The Wanganui Chronicle, AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. " NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27,1891.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 11205, 27 February 1891, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle, AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. " NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1891.

The Wangariui Education Board have resolved to appoint an assistant to help '.Mrjßindon in the -work of examining and inspecting the schools throughout the district. During the last two years the Inspector has been provided with a clerk/ who has travelled with him through the district, and whose services' have been at •his disposal when in- town. Clerical assistance, however, is not all that Mr Bindon needs to relieve him from the excessive strain under which it was at onetime feared that he might utterly break down. With every disposition to give him all necessary assistance, the Board have been loth to increase the cost of inspection for this district, which is at present as high as the average for the colony. It is, however, perfectly clear, that the work cannot continue to be done as thoroughly as Mr Bindon has done it unless competent professional assistance is given him. We are glad, therefore that the Board- have faced the question, and have'decided to appoint an assistant inspector. By so doing the cost of inspection in this district will become considerably higher than the average for the colony. But we are persuaded that the inspectorial work is too important to suffer to be crippled. In some districts in the colony, where the inspec;tors find their time pretty'f ully taken up with the work of examinations, they simply allow their visits of inspection to fall into arrear, or to lapse altogether. But Mr Bindon rightly considers inspection quite as important as examination — and although he has given most attention to the latter, because it is obligatory, he has striven hard to cope with the former. In his annual report to the Chairman of the Board for the year 1890, which is just out of the hands of the printer, Mr .Bindon points put the amount and character of the work which he managed to struggle through during the year. A few more such years, and he would want a successor more than an assistant. We will let Mr Bindon speak for himself. In briefly recording the work of the year he says : — . . ".The wor.k of the year consisted of the inspection and examination of schools, together with the compilation of results and the writing of a report for the Education Department! the examination of pupil teachers, candidates for scholarships, and scholarship-holders ; the drawing up of eighty-six different standard examination cards and thirty-six advanced examination papers for pupilteachers, candidates for Scholarships, &c., and the ordinary office work which during the year was unusually heavy. Owing to my absence on leave (rendered absolutely, necessary through my being thoroughly worn out after the great pressure of work in 1889) I did not resume the duties of my office until the 18th of February, from which until the 23rd December I was continually engaged. The actual number of days between these dates is 307, or, omitting Sundays, 263 working days. Upon reference to my diary I find that during those days I devoted 3,166 hours to the Board's service, or over twelve hours per day. If from this calculation some enforced holidays (such as Good Friday, Easter _ Monday, Queen's Birthday, &c), were omitted — I say nothing of the ordinary workman's half-holiday on Saturday, for during at least two-thirds of the year such a luxury was unknown to me — the average would be higher ; while if it were calculated on five school days in each: week, it would reach nearly fourteen hours and a half per day. During examination time, owing to a school being taken daily, all the paper work had to be examined and valued,- percentages had to be calculated, reports had to bo written, &c., after a late dinner following a hard day's

work from- 9. a.m. to 6 p.m., not to.ineution long rides iin all kinds of weather | before and after these hours. To^give,..,' of the amount of work tio be ■ examined and valued at night. I may ; say that at one large school over five reams of foolscap were used. Now it must be perfectly plain that an inspector working for so many hours and so late in the night can have little refreshing sleep ; that he has no time for absolutely necessary relaxation, for ordinary social duties, and for self-improvement and keeping himself conversant with the educational topics of the day; and that a break-down in health must inevitably follow sooner or latter. Also, when such hours are necessary to get the work done even without full inspection.it is clear that the district is too large for one inspector to manage to the best advantage of those uridor him, and with ordinary justice to himself. The district, I may say, extends from Foxton and Linton in the south to the Taungatara River (near Opunake), Mount Egmont. and the Patea River at Stratford in the north. The number of miles I travelled, chiefly on horseback, was nearly 2500. On Saturdays I never returned to Wanganui during examination time, and very seldom during inspection time, or the number would be much higher.