, 1891-07-01

0OdEu, 10 pG SLIucN out. ~
S646
The total amount of the Money Bill to be
reduced from 81, 9O4 to..........S 1861
LIST Orownmember (Quin) said he found in
the Committees Report under the head Of the
School Department a recommendation to the
Council which he was very sorry indeed to see
come from the Committee, because it is wrong
every word of it, and this makes him fear that
if all the other expressions that have come
from the Committee are equally baseless then
the Committees Report if examined, would
not hold water. The Committee SAYS:
Whereas in the opinion Of the Committee
the Messengers sent about the Country are
useless, seeing that they are irresponsible
persons invested with no authority, who only
create dissatisfaction on the Estates among
the labourers, besides which their reports
must be considered very unreliable, the Com
mittee considers it right to recommend the
disoOntinuance Of these Messengers, and
leaving it to the Police, on receiving from
the School Inspector, OR eventually the
Clergyman, the list of absent school children,
to summon their respective parents, or
guardians. In consequence hereof a saving
of the amounts posted on the Money Bill XII,
No l of$576 would be Effected.
Now the very common cement, the basis on
which the representation is founded, is per
fectly wrong, and shews that the Committee
does not know anything of the School business.
There are in point of fact 9 Schoolmessengers
for Town and Q for the Country, those in the
own can evidently cause no disturbance in
the country as they never visit those districts.
But the Committee says in their opinion the
Messengers sent about tn Country are useless
but on what does the Committee base this
their opinion? He could assert as a positive
fact that the attendance at school is far differ.
ent now to what it was formerly take away
the School Messengers, and we will fall back
at once to the old ~looseness of attendance.
The Committee have made themselves guilty
of a grave mistake; the reimbursement are
not only useful but indispensable; and
their existence in the school service is reoui-
site under the very School Ordinance. if the
compulsory system is to be carried out at all.
Take away the messengers, and you remove
the hand by which the law is carried out.
He could understand an assertion of that kind.
if, and only if, it were meant to do away with
the whole system and the entire school ordi-
nance. The Committee further say, the
School Messengers have no authority now
it must be remembered that there are only 9
in the country districts, but each of them car
ries a letter from the P~olicemaster shelving
that the man has authority to go out on School
Business. In what manner those men are
unauthorized; how and why they are ~irrespon-
sible men, the Committee have failed to show,
The Messengers have to appear every week
before the School Inspector to get their ~instruc-
lions. The next point in the Committee
Report, and one which he is sorry, very sorry
to see put forth by the Committee, is the
remark who only create dissatisfaction on
the Estates among labourers'' The use of the
term only would give the impression that
the Messengers are solely for the purpose of
Observation-Disclosures. There could scarcely be a