SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Northern Advocate, 9 January 1920, Page 3

SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

MODE OF ELECTION,

INTERESTING SUGGESTIONS,

In moving the following Wellington remit—"That the present method of electing school committees is far from satisfactory and should be altered"—at the N.Z.E.I. conference, Mr A. C. Blake pointed out that the present methods, which had been in force since 1877, was open to the following objections: (1) That elections were held at an inconvenient time— at night—when many were unable to exercise their right to vote; (2) householders were not notified in the newspapers of the candidates who sought election, and it thu s often happened that people were asked to vote for those about whom they knew nothing; (3) there were no safeguards to see that only those eligible to vote exercised the privilege; (4) women were not sufficiently represented. In Mr Blake's opinion there ought to be at least two women on each committee.

Mr Blake referred to a motion which was carried at the N.Z.E.I last year—"That local education authorities be constituted to take the place of school committees"—and argued that the change of name would not do away with the necessity for an election, which ought to be on a democratic and should encourage local interest. He suggested the following regulations for election of school committees: Two weeks before the election an annual meeting of householders to be held to hear and discuss the reports presented. At this meeting nominations of candidates to be received, duly proposed and seconded—any voter to be eligible for election. Within seven days of receiving the nominations the chairman of the outgoing committee to advertise (at the committee's expense) in the daily papers the names of the candidates for election, together with the date of the poll, hours of polling, and position of booth. The election to be held from noon till 9 p.m. at the local school, or at any convenient place The committee to appoint and pay a poll clerk (two if necessary), an unpaid scrutintei to be in attendance. Voters in urban areas to have two qualifications—(l) To be a "householder" within the meaning of the Act f with at le.tst three months' residential qualification; 02) the name of the 1 voter to appear on the municipal roll. To each eligible voter the poll clerk hands a ballot paper, to be deposited in a ballot box provided for the purpose, at the same time ruling out the voter's name on the municipal roll—the number of names ruled out to correspond with the number of ballot papers in the box. The day suggested for the election of school committees would be that on which the municipal election takes place, making a school committee election biennial. In country districts where there are no municipal rolls, the second qualification for voters in urban areas would not apply. Those who wish to vote a s "householders" with three months residential qualification would be required to send in their names to the chairman of the local school committee — a list of these names to be equivalent to a municipal roll.in an urban area,

The remit was adopted and referred to the executive for consultation with the School Committees' Association,

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