The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1890.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5936, 15 September 1890, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1890.

The School Committees Election Bill has been passed, and its provisions will regulate the elections of School Committees next year. Under this Act the term " householder " is defined as meaning overy adult male or female person who (bt)ing the owner, lessee, or tenant) resides iv auy divelling-houso within the school district, and the parent or guardian or other person who has tho actual custody of any child attending any Stato school situated within such district. Resident holders of miners' rights aro also householders in goldfield districts. No paid servant of tbo Education Department, or of an Education Board, or of v School Committee, is eligible to be elected. Section .'5 is as follows: — " Together with the notico issued by the Education Board appointing the tiino and place for holding the annual meetings of householders, and which said notico shall bo published not later than the first Monday in .Ipril, tho Board shall call upon householders to send in to the respective chairmen of the several School Committees, in writing, on or before the third Monday in April, tho names of poisons being householders, nominated by them for election to serve upon tho Committee for the year next ensuing." The list of candidates has to be displayed on tho outer door of tho schoolhouse on tho third Tuesday iv April. Tbe election is by ballot as follows :— In every school district situated within tbe bounds of any borough it shall bo the duty of the Committco to provide a ballot box, which shall be locked, and shall bo placed in tho schoolhouso or placo of election in somo accessible position during tbe whole of tho day from 9 a.m. on the day appointed for any School Committteo election until tho hour appointed for holding such flection, and auy householder may deposit in such ballot box a voting paper containing tho name or names of tho candidates, nominated as hereinbeforo provided, for whom he or sho desires to vote, and such householder shall sign hie or her nani'i upon such voting paper, or upon -a separate paper attached thereto, or enclosed therewith in an envelope, and each signature shall bo attested as hereinafter provided. Every householder may exercise as many votes as there are persons required to bo elected, or any los.s number of votes ; buc no householder shall bo entitled to record more than onti vote for any one candidate. In country distneis the voting papers, properly signed, may be sent to the chairman of thu Committee through the post or otherwise so as to reach him not later than 1 p.m. on the day of election. Tho signaturo upon or attached to every voting-paper deposited in a ballot-box or forwarded to ft chairman of Committee shall bo attested by a Justice of the Peace, a postmaster, or a State schoolmaster, and j every voting-paper not so attested shall bo set aside us informal and of no effect. The object of this Act i« to socure for the future tho voice of hona fide householders in tho election of School Committees, and to do away with the absurdities surrounding past elections at which any fairly grown boy could plump his seven votes for a candidate. It will also do away with the nuisance of having to attend tho annual meeting of householders in order to vote, and it provides for tho proper announcement of the uarros of candidates.