HIGH SCHOOL CONTROL

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 15

HIGH SCHOOL CONTROL

NEW SCHEME RESTRICTIONS.

DISQUALIFYING CLAUSE

POSITION AT HAMILTON.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

HAMILTON, this day.

I Under the new scheme of control for high schools no member of a high school board is eligible to hold office who is the director of a company with which the board is doing business. This phase of the scheme was referred to at a meeting of the Hamilton High School .Board yesterday, when the chairman (Mr. C. L. MacDiarmid) remarked that this particular clause would definitely disqualify two present members from sitting on the board, as they happened to be directors of the "Waikato Times." The speaker pointed out that it was quite a right and proper safeguard of the public interests that public bodies should be prohibited from dealing with their members. The only question that arose in this case was whether the provision in the case of high schools did not go a little too far. The legislation for the preservation of the purity of public life had been amended a good deal from time to time, and it now differed materially in the case of different local bodies. For instance, in the case of borough councils, no person was eligible to hold office, "who is concerned or interested (otherwise than as a member of an incorporated company in which there are more than twenty members, and of which he is not the general manager) in any contract made by the council, if the payment made or to be made by or on behalf of the council in respect of any such contract exceeds five pounds in the case of a single contract, or ten pounds altogether in any financial year in the case of two or more contracts."

The position waa somewhat different in the case of education boards. The exclusion clause read:—"lf any member receives any salary from the board, or accepts or holds any office or employment from or under the board to which any salary, fees, or emoluments are attached, or is or becomes interested or concerned (except as a member of a registered or incorporated company) in any contract under which any money is to be paid by the board, he shall immediately thereupon cease to be a member of the board."

Mr. MacDiarmid added that in the case of high school boards the restriction was carried further, and the question was whether the board did not consider that it had not been carried a little too far.

Mr. F. A. de la Mare said that usaullv members of such boards were men of high standing and business capacity, and in country towns, where there was not the same range of choice offered by the cities, local bodies were in danger of suffering by reason of such restrictions. In the present case the board had to put its advertising through the "Waikato Times," as it was the only local newspaper. There could, therefore, be no suggestion of anything that would conflict with the highest standard of public life. The position laid down in the new scheme of control went too far altogether, he thought.

Mr. F. A. Snell said they must presume the legislature had some good reason for introducing such a clause.

Mr. tie la Mare said that in the vresent case the hoard would suffer severely l>y the loss of the two members referred to, and, oil his motion, it was decided to ask the Department to alter the particular clause, to bring it into line with the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act.