TRANSFER OF PUPILS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28765, 10 December 1958, Page 16

TRANSFER OF PUPILS

Order By Board Not Compulsory (Neil) Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 9. A reserved decision given by Mr W. S. Spence, S.M., In the Magistrate’s Court at Otahubu today held that parents ot children attending a public school are not required by law to acquiesce in a'decision of the Education Board to transfer their children to another school.

The decision was the result of 8 prosecution brought by the Auckland Education Board's attendance officer against Noel Balmer Smith, of Tamaki, for failing to send his child to the Glen Taylor School. The Magistrate said that he held as ultra vires a regulation providing for the compulsory transfer of children from one school to another and tor the refusal to enrol children at any particular school.

Authority exists, the Magistrate said, for the making of regulations to avoid any “doubt or difficulty” which might arise in the administration of the law providing for the education of children. The regulation referred to did not resolve any doubt or difficulty, but in providing for the compulsory transferring of children had attempted to create new authority for education boards. In dismissing the charge, the Magistrate said that the law was complied with if a child was enrolled at some public or other registered school and attended that school.

After hearing a report on the decision and discussing it in committee, the board tonight decided to lodge an appeal in the Supreme Court.