CORRESPONDENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3264, 8 July 1911, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

BIBLE READING' IN SCHOOLS

pro THE EDITOtt.J

Sir—l am sorry to have to trespass upon your space again, hut 1 cannot- allow t'lie oversight in Mr P. Andrew’s letter oi : yesterday to- pass uncorrected. He says that I am wrong in stating that the Te Ha par a School is exceeding the Board’s j'egulation in the matter of school hours, and further adds that all the Board requires a minimum of 24i hours per week, and that a school could woi'k 34-j, hours, hours a week without exceeding any regulation he knows of. Mr Andrew should know better than this, and is evidently ignorant of the regulations under 'which he is working. he Hawke’s Bay. Education Board's regulation (as amended July 13th, 1908) reads as follows: —“The teaching in the schools shall bo for 2-1 J hours in every week, but shall not exceed five hours in any one day. In the preparatory classes however, it shall he for 20- hours only.” I must point out the regulation says “shall,” and not “may,” and says nothing about a minimum, so that if language means anything these words mean, as I stated previously, that the Te Hapara School, in giving 2o hours a week is giving half-an-hour in excess of the Board’s regulation. The question of the rights of school committees to determine the hours of instruction as against Education Board’s was tested three years ago in Wanganui before the New Zealand Bench of Supreme Court .Judges, and the decision given was that it was the -function of the Board to regulate the school hours and not the committee. Mr Andrew, no doubt, opposed the request of the Gisborne Bible Teachers’ Association under the impression that we were asking for an unreasonable curtailment of the secular school work, hut I 'hope he will now admit that we were asking for no more than the regulations give us, and were intended to give us an opportunity to apply for.— I am. etc., F. W. CHATTERTON, Hon. Sec. Gis. Bible Teachers’ Assn.

“IT’S A WAY WE HAVE IN THE ARMY.” pro THE EPITOE.J Sir, —“Listen to my talc of woe.” I live on Dad’s farm. He and I work it, and it is -• wenty-five miles from Gisborne. Dad is all right, gives me 2os a week, says lam worth it to him. I am 19 years old. Sent in my name io the authorities last June saying I had a horse etc., and was willing to use it for the' good of my country. I told Dad I would like to join a mounted corps, and lie said “please yourself my boy, but what about a horse; your pony won’t do.” On June 10th I received a notification from the O.C. “A Squadron, E.C. Mounted Rifles, saying 1 had been selected —provisionally —for service in the above Squadron, subject to mvself, horse, etc., being suitable, and medically fit,’ and to report myself on Saturday. Ist July, at the Garrison Flail, Gisborne. In the meantime I went to my pal Jack, who works on the next farm", and told him what Dad had said about my pony being too small, and Jack said “I will let you have the young horse I broke in last month. You can ride him down to Gisborne, and if you are satisfied with hinf, after having seen the other chaps’ horses, you can have him for £15.” Now, I know Jack refused £lo for the same horse that a neighbor offered him for it last week, so I think it was very good of him to let mo have it on those conditions, don't you? T'lie day before the inspection I set off for Gisborne in great fettle, a good horse muter me and a new saddle and bridle mother and sister had given me for the occasion. Next day the O.C. “A” Squadron inspected a lot of us fellows, and T felt real pleased with myself because my horse was among the best there. On my return home next day, with Dad's help. I raked up the necessary cash and- paid Jack for his horse. Now comes my tale of woe.

T received' a notification to report myself for medical inspection and, alas, the doctors say I am unfit to serve my country, as I am suffering from some obscure ailment called the “dingbats,” or some such name. Now, if I had been medically examined the first time I went to Gisborne I would have been saved a lot of expense and worry, besides unnecessary travelling. Don’t you think Mr Editor that it would simplify matters if the medical inspection was the first thing to be passed, because if a chap is not medically fit, what on earth is the use of dragging him miles to see if his horse, etc., is any good. Dad snvs it is “d—d stupidity,” but, then, Dad is rather expressive when annoved. —Sorrowfully vours. ' ‘ “BOB.”