Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 3,500 Copies Daily. FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1910. APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9162, Issue 9162, 11 March 1910, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. Circulation, 3,500 Copies Daily. FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1910. APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS.

School Committees and Education Boards frequently come into conflict over the vexed question of the appointment of teachers. The procedure followed by most boards in filling vacancies is to select the teacher who appears to be most suitable, and then to forward his or her name to the committee "for approval." It is useless for the committee to raise any objection, and it has no choice or voice in the selection of its staff. Protests are frequently made—as was done at the last meeting of the Terrace End Committee—and it is recognised that the method adopted is the merest pretence at consulting .the committee. Under the law as it stands the committees are entirely in- the hands of the Board. The Act says that the Board must send a list of names to the committee, and the question is what constitutes "a list," and whether one name could be held to fulfil the requirements of the law. The Auckland City Schools Committee has just been fighting the point out with its board, and has got very little satisfaction out of it. The view was held that " a list" must contain more than one name, but the Attor-ney-General was consulted, and his opinion was that the board had absolute discretionary power in the matter of submitting one or more applicants for vacant teacherships. A legal member of the Auckland Committee said he had gone carefully through the Act, and could come to no other conclusion but that the At-torney-General's view was strictly correct, and the Board was within its rights in the action taken. A resolution was passed expressing the opinion that out of courtesy the committee should have been consulted, and this is the only attitude committees can adopt. They cannot demand a number of names to be submitted as a right. The functions of the school committees are thus being curtailed year by year, and as was remarked in Auckland, their duties now apparently are to look after the interior of the schools and the buildings, and arrange for one or two holi-

days. Even in these matters they are being hampered by the want of funds, and have to bo continually devising schemes to provide the neces-

sary money. It is not surprising that, under these circumstances, citizens take small interest in school committee work, and that there is difficulty in securing the full number of committeemen.