THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11874, 25 April 1899, Page 4

THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTION.

Nearly all the meetings of householders held in the city and suburbs last evening for the purpose of electing School Committees for the ensuing year had something to say about the anomalies to which we directed attention yesterday morning. The present inequitable method of appointing Boards of’ Education seems to have excited most comment, and quite a number of suggestions were made for its improvement. The Richmond meeting proposed that the Board should be elected by the householders at the same time as they elected their committees, white.the West Christchurch meeting suggested that the Boards should be

still , elected by the committees,- but on " a graduated system of voting based on the! average attendance at each school.” It is not clear whether the Richmond meeting intended that the householders should merelyj assume the functions at present performed by the committees, or whether they should, by all voting together finally elect the Boards. In either cas© the proposal is open to the objection that the meetings are seldom thoroughly representative of the districts in which they are held, and, in nine cases out of ten, would be less likely than the committees to make a wise choice. The graduated system of voting is not at all likely to find favour with the Legislature. It would be jumping from one extreme to another, and would give the populous districts an advantage to which they are not fairly entitled. The proposal that each member of a committee should be allowed to exercise a vote is,, on the whole, much sounder. The suggestion that the parliamentary, franchise should be made the basis for the' election of the committees was adopted by the • Woolston- and one or, two .smaller.-meet-ings, but was objected to in most places on the score of expense. It may, however, be safely assumed that this logical reform will come in a very few years, and that the cost of preparing rolls will not be thrown upon the committees. It is absurd, as we have repeatedly pointed out, that while the franchise is being extended in every other direction the privilege of taking part in the election of School Committees is confined to a mere fraction of the community.