THE Northern Advocate Daily WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE Northern Mail Daily. FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1914. SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTION.

Northern Advocate, 1 May 1914, Page 6

THE Northern Advocate Daily WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE Northern Mail Daily.

FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1914. SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTION.

REGISTERED FOR TRANSMISSION THROUGH THE POST AS A NEWSPAPER

Next Monday night is the time appointed.for the annual statutorymeetings of householders, who will have the privilege of electing ''members to the school committees for the ensuing twelve months. In nine cases out of ten these meetings are veritably ludicrous,.annual and not worth the price paid for advertising them. Householders, as . a rule, are blanky indifferent to the call, and the great majority of these gatherings are attended by about enough old members and straggling outsiders to make up a eountsufficient to re-create a committee. If we were asked to assign reasons for this lamentable attitude we should say that they are to be found in the facts of the position being so. paltry an honour &nd the duties appertaining thereto so trivial as ; to be hardly worth wasting time over. Very rarely are school committees found that rise above the scale of nonentity, members being .content, to' simply stick to the perfunctory tasks' assigned them. On the other- hand a committee, may develop into an organisation of much, Higher utility to the dis-' trict served than is allowed by the regulation scope, but to achieve this the members must possess the qualities of initiative and enthusiasm. There was until recent years a protracted period in the educational history of Whangarei when the committee was a continuous administration, practically re-electing itself year after year, with a few variations in the personnel caused by members' departure to other places. Latterly a very wholesome change has taken place. Energy arid enterprise have marked the committee's career, and the results are to be .seen in numerous existent improvements at the'schools, in the extension of the "Whangarei playground area, and the pledged institution of a separate building for infants, none of which advantages would have been in Whangarei's possession to-day if the committee had not broken the red-tape routine and persistently engaged in a wider enterprise. The committee is now a force that has to be reckoned with, and service in its ranks may well be accounted honourable. On those grounds there should be no lack of claimants nexf Monday night for committee membership. A big field of utility is still open to people of energy,

and householders have now inspiriting reasons for taking an intimate interest in the composition of a committee that will have at heart the local welfare of one of the most important factors in modern life. It will have been noted, no doubt, that ladies in Auckland and elsewhere are putting in a claim for representation and have entered on a vigorous campaign to secure the return of their nominees. So far, no expression has been given to a similar movement here, yet there are capacities in which ladies can very appropriately act; indeed, their counsel would be valuable where girls and infants preponderate in the attendance, and we regard it besides as no ■ less than their plain duty to participate in an administration for which they are so eminently fitted.