EDUCATION BOARD ON WEST COAST

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27094, 18 July 1953, Page 9

EDUCATION BOARD ON WEST COAST

LITTLE SUPPORT FOR PROPOSAL

EFFECT ON ADJOINING AREAS After full consideration of the proposal to an education board in the West Coast area, the appointments committee of the Canterbury Education Board had no recommendation to make. This was reported to the board yesterday by the acting-chair-man of the committee (Mr A. E. Lawrence). . * “There is no really united drive for a board to be re-established on the West Coast —and I say ‘re-established because there was a board there once, said Mr Lawrence. “I don’t think for a moment the Minister of Education (Mr R. M. Algie) would consider the redrawing of boundaries of the education board districts with all the other education proposals on his hands at the present time. We have been given to understand that the Buller, Inangahua and Murchison counties, now under the Nelson board, have never been considered in this request and that they are not interested in the move. As far as we know information came from some of the board’s West Coast members that these counties would have nothing whatever to do with the suggested board, which would attach them to Grey and Westland. They prefer to remain attached to Nelson,” Mr Lawrence continued. “I am a strong believer in decentralisation of control, and I think it would be an advantage to have officers of the board in Timaru and

Greymouth with resident school inspectors and agricultural instructors in these districts, but the committee has no recommendation to make on the establishment of a new board on the West Coast,” he said.

The Canterbury Education Board was more concerned about the loss of revenue, which the establishment of a new board on the West Coast would entail, than it was about the welfare of the pupils there, said Mr F. L. Turley.

“Because of its geographical position the West Coast should have a local board. I don’t think it has been any advantage to the West Coast being brought into th? Canterbury board’s district. It has been a disadvantage, generally. I disagree that the board should make no recommendation and

I think the Government should give the matter its serious consideration,” he said.

On figures given by the secretarymanager of the board (Mr L. S. P. Butcher) in a report to the committee there was no justification for a separate board, said Mr J. Saunders.

The suggestion that the board was more interested in finance than in the welfare of the children was a shocking accusation to make, said Mr Lawrence. The proposal to establish a new board on the West Coast had not been dropped, but the committee had no recommendation to make in the meantime.

The question of decentralising work of the board should be perused carefully; the proposal that offices should be opened at Timaru and on the West Coast iwas an admirable one, said Mr R. K. Milne.

Secretary’s Report There were 52 schools on the West Coast coming under the jurisdiction of the Canterbury Education Board, said Mr Butcher’s report. The total roll of these schools was 3652. It was unlikely that the Government would be prepared to constitute a separate board, because the cost of a separate administration would be uneconomic for so few pupils. “At the end of last year there were 79 schools under the Nelson board with a total roll of 9414. Of this total 26 schools with a total roll of 2349 are in the three counties. Buller, Inangahua, and Murchison, adjoining the northern boundary of our present territory on the West Coast,” said the report. In Buller there were 12 schools with a total roll number of 1504 pupils; Inangahua, eight schools with 569 pupils; Murchison, six schools with 276 pupils, the report showed. “In the Marlborough section of the Wellington Board there were (in 1948) 40 schools with a total roll of 1854. The present figures are not available but we may assume that the total roll is now in the vicinity of 2000. The total number of pupils under the Wellington board is approximately 35,500. “It will be seen that even if all the schools in the three counties bordering on our West Coast northern boundary were transferred from the Nelson Board, the total number under the new West Coast board would be 78 schools with a total roll of only 6001. “It will be seen also that to transfer the 26 schools shown above and give in their place the schools in Marlborough, the Nelson board, while gaining in the actual number of schools under its control, would lose a total of approximately 400 pupils. As the board’s general administration grant would thus be adversely affected the proposal would not be very palatable to that board.

“There must be many administrative difficulties for the Wellington board, even in this time of air travel, in dealing with its schools in Marlborough, and perhaps that board would not offer strong objection to passing the schools over to the Nelson board. The loss of nearly 2000 pupils, however, would considerably reduce the Wellington board’s annual income,” the report said.