THE EDUCATION DISTRICTS COMMISSION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 20 May 1915, Page 4

THE EDUCATION DISTRICTS COMMISSION.

9 The Education Commission was teni dered plenty of advice both at Wanganui and New Plymouth, but whethar ! the Commissioners got much help fro;n lit may be doubted. A good deal of what was said, especially at New Plymouth, was quite irrelevant to the enquiry being conducted by the Commission, though it would have been, we should think, of considerable force if it had been addressed to the Legislature last session by way of argument against th* passing of the Act making compulsory interference with the existing education districts by way of reducing them. In the North Island apparently it is accepted that there must be five districts, as there are now, but evidently the Auckland district has grown quite unwieldy, and there is need for a rearrangement which would giye better supervision over a large area of Southern Auckland, and the creation, of a new educational centre somewhere in the Waikato. The best way would have been to create a sixth district, but the probabilities seem to point to-a rearrangement of boundaries which may involve the wiping out of either the Wanganui or Taranaki organisations. The protests against this are quite reasonable. Such a change would not promote efficiency or economy, or in any way be satisfactory to public opinion. Both districts should be retained pretty much as they are now, though if Eltham County strongly desires, which we doubt, to be transferred to Taranaki district, its wishes should be acceded to. We have no reason to believe that Waimate West, Hawera, or Patea is similarly desirous, for there is very general approval of the maintenance of the long connection with Wanganui. However,if it is inevitable that absorptions must take place, then the balance of argument seems to be in .favor of Wanganui taking over Taranaki. From the point of view of teachers who are looking for a wider field of promotion, from the point of view of board finance, which is based on settled population, and from the point of view of facility of administration, it would be better to have a district extending from, say, the White Cliffs down to the southern boundaries of the Wanganui district than to enlarge Taranaki by including with its area all the rough inland country, which will be expensive to manage, and can- only carry a number of small weak schools. Certainly Hawera, Waimate, Patea, or Eltham teachers and people would derive no advantage by inclusion in the district of Taranaki extended northward and eastward; as suggested at New Plymouth. On the other hand if a combined district included such centres as New Plymouth, Stratford, Eltham, Hawera, Wanganui, Palmerston North and Feilding, all on the railway line, it would be a strong district from many points of view. It must be granted that the scheme of representation provided by the new Education Act would be quite made- | quate—we quite sympathise witli the New Plymouth speakers there— but that is a glaring defect which has general application, and fiorms one of thp main objections to the. whole s^hemp of the new law. These big districts with restricted provision for representation will certainly prove to be a blunder. There will really be no efficient representation or oversight, ex"cept in the ease of the cities and large towns; as far as the country districts are concerned the whole thing will simply degenerate into bureaucratic management. The position may be saved to some extent by the committees, but we are not very confident of tkat. Committees and Boards in the past have not worked too harmoniously, but friction has been lessened where members of the Board and the committees could meet and discuss demands on the one hand and the difficulties of meeting;them on the other, and it is a weak point in the new scheme that time, distance and expense will materially reduce the frequency of the personal conferences which hitherto have materially ppomoted smooth working between the two bodies—Board and eonumittee.