AN INCONSISTENT MINISTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 24, 5 October 1883, Page 13

AN INCONSISTENT MINISTER.

The following letter has been addressed by the Most Rev. Dr. Moran to the editors of the Dunedin morning papers : — Sir, — A few days ago you considered it your duty to publish a correspondence between me and the Minister of Education in reference to the Milton school committee, and the High school, Duaedin. This induces me to think that you will not refuse to permit me to occupy a little space in your journal with a few words in further reference to this subject. It may seem to some that I was somewhat rash in exposing myself to the rebuff of the Minister, whose "answer i 3 somewhat curt and not vcy gracious. There was reason, however, for expecting a far different reply from the Minister of Education. On the Ist October, IS7B, Mr. John Hislop was directed by the Minister of education to write to the secretary of the Education Board, Christchurch, a letter in reference to a state of thing 3 similar to that to which I drew the Minister's attention, in which letter the following words occur :—I *am to tako the opportunity of point' ng out that the master of the school, in his letter dated September 10, misinterprets section Bi. regulation 2. The " four " hours are here mentioned as the minimum length of time during which a public school is to be kept open each day ; but if a Board or School Committee officiaUy direct that any school shall be kept open for a longer period each day than four hours, then the requirements of the Acb as to the character of the teaching applies as much to the whole of this longer period, as it does to the minimum period of " four " hour 3. In other words, the requirements of the Act as to the character of the instruction to be given in a public school, applies to the whole of the time during which a public school is kept open, whether that time extend to the minimum " four houis "or to any longerperiod. Mr- Cumberworth's letter, above referred to, seems to show, on the face of it, that the practice followed in the Colombo road school is simply aa evasion of the law of the Colony, as laid down in the Education Act, 1877." What, I may be permitted to ask, does Mr, Hislop's letter, written to me by the direction of the Minister of Education, show.— l am, sir, yours etc., >Z* ?• MOBAX. Dunedin, October 1, 1883.