BOARD OF EDUCATION ELECTION.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9989, 19 March 1898, Page 5

BOARD OF EDUCATION ELECTION.

TO THE EDITOR OK THE PRESS. Sir, —Now that the election of the mem bers of the Board of Education has been made public, 1 should like to make a few remarks upon the present method of conducting the same, which is considered by mauy interested in school matters to be a very inferior system. As regards the town and suburban portion of the district, it is thought that the time has arrived for each portion of the district to. be fairly represented, and the only way I can see to arrive at a fair adjustment is to cut up the present unwieldy district comprising 170 odd schools, into separate Board districts, and allowing each Board district to elect ibs own member or members, as the case may be. By this means there will be no harm in the cry "Town v"Country," and in the event of a " burning question" being raised each -disbrict would be in a position to decide from ibs own standpoint. At present the district-supervised by the North Canterbury Board of Education extends from the Rangilata south to the Kaikouras in the north, and including the whole of the which, I* think it will be admitted, is far too large an area from which to obtain equal and something like fair representntion. It has been a standing complaint for. a considerable time past that the existing system of voting is not as it. should be, being far from satisfactory, and various suggestions hare been made from time to time at the annual meetings of householders, and at meetings of commibtees, to remedy this very great disproportion in the voting power, and remove the present anomaly. When I state that there are only about 37 schools out of 170 with a working average in attendance of over 100 scholars, and that about 100 have less than 50 scholars, each school having a committee, and each committee a vote of equal value as a school with over 1000 scholars, it will be seen at a glance that there is a very marked injustice being done, and it requires immediate alteration. 1 offer the following suggestions for the considerabion of the School Committees' Association, hopiug that they will take the matter up, as I consider that this matter properly conies under their jurisdiction, and I am fully persuaded that if it can be carried out to a successful issue, satisfaction will be given all round. My scheme is as follows :—Present district to be subdivided into seven divisions, to be called board districts,'who shall return 9 members, constituting the . Central Board, in the following proportion, viz.:—No. 1, town and suburban (29 schools, 9200 scholars), 3 members; No. 2, Elle-mere (28 schools, 1800 scholars), 1 member; No. 3, Malvern (22 schools, 1000 f-cholars), 1 member; No. 4, Selwyn (21 schools, 1000 scholars), 1 member ; No. 5, Ashburton (26 schools, 1750 scholars), 1 member; No. 6, Kaiapoi (19 schools, 1600 scholars), 1 member; No. 7, Ashley (25 schools, 1500schola>s), 1 member. It would take up too much of your space in this letter to give in detail just how I propose to divide the disbrict, but the names of the Board disbriobs will give a fairly good idea of the group of schools tacked on each. lb will be seen from the foreg ing analysis that the number of schools, as well as the number of scholars, is fairly equally distributed, insuring a perfectly fair distribution of representative members of the Board. The tabular summary of abbendance from which I have culled the foregoing numbers is not of very recent date, and the scholars are given in round numbers ; but they are quite sufficiently near the mark for the purpose. Trusting that the School Committee's Association will move in the matter, and thanking you in anticipation.—Yours, &c., John R. Brunt. i March 12th, 1898.