the house in Boarhills was smaller, he was afraid it had been made from

‘Boulders’, and the only access to the garden was through the kitchen window.

However, he agreed to accept it. Mr. Walker became seriously ill before he

left Strathkinness. in Boarhills he was ill the whole time and an interim

teacher had to be appointed, at £2 a week. Several times the School Board

considered ‘whether any or what part (of the interim teacher’s salary) should

be retained from Mr. Walker’s salary’, but in the event they did not withhold

any of his salary. He died soon after, in 1886. His death was noted in the

Board’s minutes, but no mention was made of appreciation for his services

or of condolences to Mrs. Walker, which were always done when a member of

the School Board died. His post was advertised at ‘f 100 per year for a certifi-

cated teacher whose wife shall be competent to undertake the charge of the

H

industrial Department’. The appointed teacher was told that ‘his wife’s

remuneration was to be covered by her husband’s salary’. In Strathkinness

both Mrs. Findlay and Mrs. Walker had been paid £10 for teaching the

Industrial (i.e. sewing) Department. The School Board did not give Mr. Scott

£50 as originally proposed, but only £40 which he accepted reluctantly saying

‘I think the Board might have added another five or ten pounds to it’. Or.

McKay, Medical Officer of Health who lived in Strathkinness, was the only

member of the Board who wished to allow Mr. Scott a Iarqer sum.

It was decided that the new combined school should be the North School

as it was larger than the old Free Church School, being able to accommodate up

to 205 pupils. It was to be called the Strathkinness Public School and the

other school and the schoolmaster’s house were to be sold together at the upset

once of £250. They were bought by Mr. Robert Mitchell, quarry master,

Strathkinness, at the upset price. While an extension was being added to the

combined’ school, the former school bought by Mr. Mitchell was rented from

nim. In January, 1886, Mr. Findlay wrote in his log book, ‘On Wednesday

-norning the pupils removed slates and papers from the South Public School to

•‘~hat was formerly the North Public School ... and work is now to be carried

on in it’.

Mr. Findlay continued to have trouble with the School Board. Many of

:-e requirements, some of them needing only trivial expenditure and which

:-e Education Department, on the advice of the inspectors who visited the

~chooI, thought to be essential, were either constantly deferred or ignored.

The of Mr. Findlay’s problems was over the installation of new toilet facilties

yiich the Education Department considered urgently needed. These facilities

- ~d been improved in 1875 when the privies were whitewashed and the toilet

:~eats made to lift ‘so that the boxes might be taken out for cleaning’. A fence

as erected at the back of the girls’ privy, with a gate and a lock to prevent

- e privy being used except during school hours. The Education Department

69