Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 26 March 1904
Conisboro’ School Board
Mr. Sellers’ Salary—Animated Discussion
“Trades Unionists” at Variance
Mr. Baker Attacks Mr. Dickinson
“You’re a Nasty Old Liar”
The Resolution Lost—As You Were
The proceedings at a special meeting of the Conisboro’ School Board, held last Monday evening in the new Station Road Schools, which was called to consider a motion of which Mr. D. Robinson had given notice, to rescind the resolution passed at the previous meeting, increasing Mr. Sellers’ salary to £200, were rather quieter than usual, though at times we were treated to spasmodic outbursts of temper, which lent a little life to the meeting. Indeed, we are now getting so used to this kind of proceeding that for the Conisboro’ School Board to have a peaceful meeting will come as a very great surprise, perhaps not unmixed with disappointment.
There were present Mr. John Brocklesby (the chairman), who presided, the other members being Messrs. A. Dickinson, E. Ravenscroft, D. Robinson, G. Kilner, and H. Baker, with the officials, Mr. Frank Allen (clerk) and Mr. W. Maxfield (attendance officer).
The Attendance Report
The Attendance Officer presented his report, which was as follows:—
Conisboro’ Boys …… 254 …… 306 …… 91
Conisboro’ Girls …… 238 …… 273 …… 93.3
Conisboro’ Infants …… 214 …… 243 …… 88
Station Rd. Mixed …… 475 …… 406 …… 84.2
Station Rd. Infants …… 212 …… 162 …… 76
Denaby Main Mixed …… 305 …… 352 …… 86.2
Denaby Main Infants …… 429 …… 512 …… 76.3
Totals …… 2389 …… 2356 …… 84.3
Mr. Baker and the Minutes
Mr. Baker said one of the minutes was illegal, and he begged to move that the minutes be not signed. He referred to the head-teacher Sellers’ rise to £200 per annum. No notice had been given to the members, and they knew nothing until they entered the room that evening. It was well provided in the Education Act that School Boards should do nothing towards increasing the expenses, and that four days’ notice should be given on the agenda.
The Chairman said he was sorry Mr. Baker did not raise the question at the previous meeting; if he had done so they would have been able to clear the matter up. He would remind them that they were only following the usual course of the Board. All the members had accepted the minute, but Mr. Baker, who, they would remember, took his coat off to deal with the question. It was perfectly in order.
Mr. Baker: I did take my coat off, as I had a very heavy coat on, and as you know I got out of bed to come to the meeting. Had I been well I should have taken strong objection to this. It is a very serious matter, £25 per annum, to increase a salary without due notice on the agenda.
Mr. Robinson: I have a notice of motion.
The Chairman: Mr. Robinson’s motion clears the whole matter, because it is not yet definitely settled as yet.
Mr. Baker: As the minutes stand they are very plainly illegal, and if we sign the books we shall certainly be surcharged. May I ask the Clerk if he can give us any opinion on the matter, whether it is legal or not?
The Clerk said Mr. Baker was in order to say what he had, but the members would be right in signing the minutes. Mr. Robinson’s notice of motion was perfectly in order, and would come up afterwards.
Mr. Robinson moved that the minutes be confirmed.
Mr. Ravenscroft seconded.
Mr. Baker: I cannot vote for it.
The minutes were carried.
Mr. Robinson’s Resolution
In accordance with notice of motion, Mr. Robinson moved that the resolution to increase Mr. Sellers’ salary to £200 per annum, passed at the previous meeting, be rescinded. He would be very brief; he did not bear any animosity against anyone, and had no feeling whatever against Mr. Sellers. Mr. Ravenscroft travelled 30 miles to move a resolution that his salary be increased.
Mr. Ravenscroft protested; he knew nothing about the resolution until he got to the meeting; it was not upon the agenda.
Mr. Robinson: Don’t let me hurt you too soon. It is not my intention to hurt you to-night, if you will hold your noise a bit. Continuing, he asked why should they raise that gentleman’s salary? When he was appointed at £110 he disagreed with the Board; he said they would never get a good man at that price. What did they get? He said they got second and third class applicants for the situation. Why they should appoint Mr. Sellers at £110 to do that common work he was at a loss to know. In his last application, Mr. Sellers said that he had been headmaster 14 years. Whatever was he doing to accept a position like that when he came to Conisboro’, for the paltry sum of £110? But he did it, and he was at a loss to know why. He (the speaker) disagreed with the members of the Board when he was appointed, and he told them then that they could not get a good man under £145 or £150.
Mr. Dickinson: You did.
Mr. Robinson repeated that they got second and third class applicants; there was not the least doubt about it. When he had been with them for less than 12 months Mr. Sellers asked for an increase, and he quite agreed with him. He was granted an increase, and a very good increase, viz., £25 per annum. Such a thing had never occurred in the whole history of School Boards. In less than three months he applied again; he was not satisfied with the £35, but applied for £65. He was sure he was always willing to pay a good day’s wage for a good day’s work, but he could not see how, to be fair, they could give that man a £65 increase. Mr. Ravenscroft, at the last meeting, had said that he was surprised at him (the speaker), as a trades unionist. No trades unionist had a right to spend and squander money. He remembered the last School Board election, when reports were circulated about the village against the Labour members, to the effect that they were going to spend more money and raise the rates, that they were spendthrifts, and this, that, and the other. He had been throughout his School Board career an advocate of economy. He did not see why, at the last hour, this sudden increase of £65 should be sprung upon them. He maintained there was nothing in the history of any public body that a man had been raised 50 per cent. in the short space of two years. Mr. Sellers put him in mind of an old sea captain who had got out of his course and was taking his bearings to find in which way he was going. (Laughter.) He was of the opinion that Mr. Sellers was taking the bearings of the Conisboro’ School Board when he found it was composed chiefly of Labour members and trades unionists. He said he was a trades unionist and an ardent Radical as well. He would advise him to put it in the linen bag and let it go out to wash. There was not a trace of trades unionism about him. Last week he was canvassing members, and very likely had been there that very night. He thought if they would look at the thing in the proper light they would find that the amount of money they were proposing to give him was excessive.
The Chairman: Will you look at this letter?—at the same time handing a letter up to Mr. Robinson.
The Clerk stated that it had been sent to him.
Mr. Baker: I rise to a serious point of order in this matter. A letter has been received by the Clerk. You propose to raise this man £65 per annum. I move that the letter be read to-night.
Mr. Dickinson: I move that it be read.
Mr. Baker: You be quiet a little.
Mr. Dickinson: I can be quiet if I like, but I can also be noisy if you are.
The Chairman: The letter is a report from a sub-inspector of schools, and also from an inspector under the West Riding County Council.
Mr. Robinson: When did you receive it?
The Chairman: The schools were visited on March 1st and March 3rd.
Mr. Robinson: I maintain that the letter ought not to be read to-night.
Mr. Baker said it did not refer to the grant.
The Chairman: No, it does not; it refers to the work done during the year.
Mr. Robinson (continuing) said he supposed they had no authority from the inspector as to their head-master’s ability.
The letter was as follows:—
“Station Road Mixed School, Conisboro’, 31/3/04.—Dear sir,—On March 1st this school was visited by H.M.I. The following is a copy of the entry made by him in the school log-book:—March 1st, 1904. Visit 2. No. on books 456. No. present 386. 356 admitted since school was opened. The school is going on well, for which Mr. Sellers deserves great credit.—Thomas Elsey, Sub-inspector of Schools.
On March 3rd the school received another important visit, this time from the W.R.C.C. Inspector. He spoke in commendatory terms of everything he had seen. Much of the work was excellent, and he was pleased to find a very good school. Under the many disadvantages of the year, he might have expected to find a normal school. He had, however, a very good school, and the staff taught intelligently. I feel sure a knowledge of these things will be gratifying to the Board.—Very respectfully yours, T. Robinson Sellers.”
Mr. Robinson said he did not think they ought to consider the letter. When Mr. Baker wanted to read a letter at the previous meeting they would not let him; they strongly objected to him.
The Chairman: Yes, the letter Mr. Baker wanted to read three weeks ago was a private letter. This was sent to the Clerk to be submitted to this Board. There is a wide difference between the two.
Mr. Robinson said he could not see why they should raise Mr. Sellers’ salary to that extent. Would any business man round that table think of raising one of his employees £65 per annum, or would the reporters ever get a raise of £65? (Laughter.) Not likely. Up to the present they had economised; they had put their foot down until now, but they were now proposing to lift it up tremendously high, by raising this man £65. Mr. Smith had raised his school up to a standard second to none in the kingdom, but it had taken him 15 years to do it. Mr. Sellers had been with them two years, and they wanted to put him on a level with Mr. Smith. It would be a shame and a disgrace if the salary was raised from £145 to £200.
Mr. Baker said it was his duty to second Mr. Robinson’s motion, and he did so under very extraordinary circumstances, seeing that he had already objected to the minutes as illegal, although passed. He had not voted for them, as they knew, for that reason. They had no right whatever to raise Mr. Sellers’ salary without they had four clear days’ notice. He might also mention that he protested before the Board, when Mr. Sellers’ last impertinent application to the Board was brought forward, demanding an increase of salary, which he did not get. That was sent round to each member of the Board four clear days before anything was done. In this last case they heard nothing of it, and knew nothing of it. The application was wrong, and very much out of place, seeing that he had caused so very, very much trouble. They had a very proper application from the Clerk for an allowance in consideration of his next three months’ duties he would have to fulfil after the demise of the authority.
The Chairman: Please keep to the subject; I don’t want to interrupt you; I want to get to the point. We can deal with this at the proper time.
Mr. Baker: Do let me save time if you can. What I want to say is this, that the Clerk is fully entitled to something, on account of him having done such a great deal of work. He has been here five or six times on account of Mr. Sellers’ misconduct—conduct which is not at all a credit to the Board, or to the town of Conisboro’. Certainly he just came out of it by the skin of his teeth. The letter which you would not allow me to read at the last meeting showed plainly that Mr. Sellers would not have passed in the way he did, by carrying the vote of confidence by one, if Mr. Hirst could have been present. Mr. Sellers, directly after that is passed, put in for a rise of salary. Mr. Ravenscroft, Mr. Robinson said, had travelled a distance of 30 miles in order to propose the resolution.
Mr. Ravenscroft: Have I a right to come?
Mr. Baker: I don’t say you have not. I am only saying what Mr. Robinson said. Mr. Dickinson, of course, makes it his way to come here always when there is anything connected with Mr. Sellers. He comes to second Mr. Ravenscroft’s proposal to raise his salary £65 per annum, and that is passed by the Chairman. Continuing, he said as the minutes were illegal they had no power to raise his salary even had he given great satisfaction to the Board and to the inhabitants of Conisboro’, but he maintained that he had not done, and therefore they had no right to raise his salary. They had been speaking about trades unionism, and serious charges of tyranny had been brought against Mr. Sellers. It was said that Mr. Sellers was a trades unionist, but so far as he understood trades unionism these heads of department had no right to tyrannise anyone under them, and also they had to get a fair wage. Mr. Sellers came to them as a second-class man; none of them could deny that. If Mr. Sellers, as he said in his application, was a schoolmaster with 12 years’ experience, what was he doing to come there as a second-class teacher; that was his position when he came to them. They had 70 applications at the time he was appointed; they never saw the man; they had one smart young man before them from Birmingham who applied for the post, and Mr. Dickinson, who was a trades unionist, stood over him and said to him: “Tha naws, we want no ‘Blacksheep’ here.” The young man retorted: “Excuse me, sir, I don’t know what you mean.”
Mr. Dickinson: You are a cultivated man, you are, extra! (Laughter.)
The Chairman said it would not help him trying to prejudice the minds of the members.
Mr. Dickinson: Let him advertise himself. He thinks he’s selling bottled beer.
Mr. Baker: So far as advertising myself is concerned, I have no need to do so. I am independent of Conisboro’, fortunately, although I live here because I love the place, and because I want to go in for that which is right. You have no right to say that I am advertising myself. I am doing nothing of the kind. I still live in Conisboro’; I haven’t gone to Doncaster to live, and I tell you this, Mr. Dickinson, water will find its level. I don’t want for a moment to waste breath by talking about these gentlemen.
Mr. Dickinson: Don’t waste breath.
Mr. Baker: I know it is no use trying to influence their votings, from their remarks last meeting. So far as you, sir, are concerned, I hope you will see the evil of your ways, and come over to the right side, and not go and throw £65 upon a man like Mr. Sellers. I will give him a little rise, if you would accept that. I think if you can come over to this, we will accept it. It is improper if we raise this man £65; it makes altogether nearly £85 raise he has had within 12 months. It is a terrible rise, and too much. So far as this report is concerned, I can quite see what it is, but it is not the proper report, not those we receive for the grants. It is one Mr. Allen has had sent to him, as per usual, to enter into the log-book.
Mr. Dickinson: I call Mr. Baker to a point of order.
Mr. Baker: Why, you have been out there talking to him to-night.
Mr. Dickinson (excitedly): You’re a nasty old liar, and you know you are. You are nothing but a nasty old schemer; you want chucking out of the room, and I will do it.
Mr. Baker: You were talking to him at the last meeting.
Mr. Dickinson: You’re a nasty old liar. I have never seen Mr. Sellers. I have just come off the train.
Mr. Baker: Really.
Mr. Dickinson: Yes, really. Good Lord.
Mr. Ravenscroft here interposed with a remark.
Mr. Dickinson: He’s not fit to live; that man really is a lunatic. You ought to be put in Wadsley, that’s the right place.
The matter then dropped, and resuming—
Mr. Baker said we have one gentleman who will speak the truth, and that is Mr. Kilner. He will tell you that Mr. Sellers met him last night and asked him to support him in his application.
Mr. Kilner: Excuse me, he did not. He did not ask for my support, but he told me that he had applied for an increase of salary.
Mr. Dickinson: Mr. Baker is always sneaking round.
Mr. Baker spoke further upon the conduct of Mr. Sellers, and referred to Mr. Dickinson’s championship of him.
Mr. Dickinson interrupted with a remark, whereupon—
Mr. Baker said: “You have no wool on your back. I am not going to throw money away without I think there will be some come back; do you see? I second the motion, and ask Mr. Kilner not to vote for the raise of salary. You have said too much, Mr. Dickinson.”
Mr. Dickinson: I shall say something ruder if you go on.
Mr. Baker: Do you allow this, Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Brocklesby interposed.
Mr. Dickinson, speaking in support of the increase, said he had been a trades unionist all his life, and he always tried to work to his conscience, and he believed he was carrying out its principles when he was supporting the increase. Reference had been made to Mr. Smith’s school, but it depended as to how many children he had under him. Mr. Sellers had a very much bigger school, and Mr. Smith was receiving £200 a year. If Mr. Sellers could work the schools to the satisfaction of His Majesty’s Inspectors, and if he was qualified, he had a right to the rise.
Mr. Ravenscroft also spoke in support of the headmaster’s application on the grounds that the school was as carried on as efficiently as in any other district. If the increase had been given to one, then it should be granted to another.
Mr. Kilner said he considered the rise was exorbitant.
The Chairman confessed that the amount of increase did seem large, but if they noticed the scale and the average as applied to Mr. Sellers’ case, they would find it would be nearer £250. If the matter was left over to the new authority, and Mr. Sellers applied to them, he would get probably more than £25 increase. Mr. Sellers had not come to them as a second-class master. The increase would be based on Mr. Sellers’ school at £200 would be £3 less average than under Mr. Sellers’ bad £110 per year. He had worked it out at less than 2s. per head, so they could not be frittering away the ratepayers’ money. Mr. Robinson might laugh sarcastically, but it was a fact nevertheless. He should certainly vote in favour of the former resolution.
Further discussion took place with reference to the matter.
Mr. Robinson said that the number of scholars made no difference to Mr. Sellers. Although a trades unionist for 40 years, he had never known a salary raised 50 per cent. within 12 months. He was agreeable to giving a reasonable increase, but not such an outrageous rise as that proposed. It was a most extraordinary resolution. It was strange that two members of the Board should have been absent from the meetings until the application suddenly came before them.
Mr. Dickinson said he was only too sorry that he had been unable to attend the meetings, but he had not come with any knowledge of the application.
Mr. Baker (appealing): Will you gentlemen reduce the amount stated in your resolution?
Mr. Dickinson: No, I shall stick to it.
The Chairman put Mr. Robinson’s resolution, and the voting resulted in Messrs. Baker, Robinson, and Kilner voting for it; the Chairman, Messrs. Ravenscroft and Dickinson voting against it.
Mr. Dickinson: Why, that’s a tie!
The Chairman, in reply to Mr. Baker, declined to give a casting vote, saying it was unnecessary.
Mr. Robinson: I’m glad the Chairman won’t go out of office with a casting vote on his conscience.
Mr. Robinson: What is it then, Mr. Chairman?
The Chairman: As you were.
Mr. Baker asked whether they could legally grant the increase, or if they were in danger of being surcharged?
The Chairman said the matter was quite in order; at any rate he had no hesitation in accepting the responsibility.
The matter then dropped, and the unseemly disorder subsided.
Easter Holidays
It was decided to break up for the Easter Holidays on Thursday next, until the Monday week following.
Clerk’s Allowance
The Clerk made application for an allowance, but after some discussion it was decided to put it on the agenda for the next meeting.