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Lyttelton Times, Volume LXIII, Issue 7563, 30 May 1885, Page 4

Our correspondent of Wednesday—- “ Out District” —wishes to see the compulsory clauses of the Education Act enforced in Sydenham. If things are really as had as he states, juvenile larrikins must be disagreeably rampant in the Model Borough. Pilfering from poor people’s gardens, wrecking empty houses, destroying fencing and the like, is rather a heavy charge to bring against the youngsters of that quiet part of the world. It is curious that such youthful depredators have not some of them fallen into the clutches of the police ere now. That is one way of getting rid of their pointed attentions; another is to see that they are kept at school. The machinery with regard to nonattendance, provided by the Act, is simple enough. Any of the School Committee* or the Clerk, may give notice to the parents or guardians of children in the district who neglect to attend school,- and, supposing such warning to he neglected, the contumacious parent may be haled, before any two Justices of the Peace. A Magisterial order for first offenders, and a fine of forty shillings per week .for continued contumacy, is the result. To put the machinery in motion, and bring the compulsory clauses into operation, the vote of a majority of the District School Committee is all that is needed. And if all that “ Out District ” says is true, the charge comes upon the members of the Committee themselves with nearly as much force as upon the children. If children really are running wild in the streets in numbers—and his assertion would seem to imply that such is the case —it is plain that the Committee are not doing their duty. If so, the necessity for care in the annual election of School Committees, and the choice of energetic members, which we have urged in these columns before this, is made more apparent than ever. In any case, we should advise our correspondent to make friends with a Com-mittee-man, and put him on the track of the young delinquents, and for the Committee, as a whole, to bestir themselves in the more active discharge of their duties if there is serious cause for so doing.