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New Zealand Herald, Volume XV, Issue 5173, 15 June 1878, Page 4

Those persons who think that ths system which has become common lately, of nominating gentlemen to positions of trust in connection with public institutions, without any public election, is mischievous in the long run, must coucei%'e their argument strengthened by what has occurred in Auckland within the last few weeks. The public bodies whose unseemly squabbles have made the community ashamed and grieved, are all composed of nominees. In some quarters there prevails a lofty contempt of bodies popularly elected, aud nothiug will do but that those to whom valuable interests are concerned shall be nominated by his Excellency the Governor, or by some body having no immediate interest in the subject. And so it comes that a few men who are believed to possess great influence and power are on these Boards. The first efiect, and a most disastrous one, is that these institutions lose the benefits that would inevitably accrue from periodical elections. When an election takes place for any body in which a large number of persons are interested, what has been done, what is proposed, and what ought to done, are all keenly criticised, and the merits and demerits of the candidates are weighed more or less accurately. Daring their term of office also, men elected by the public are closely watched, and, having to give an accouut of their stewardship, "are careful to act on behalf only of the institution to guard which they have been elected. Men who are merely nominated, and have no constituency or rivals watching them, get to humour the*notions and whims one of another, till a small coterie is formed, aud the public interest is not properly looked to. Unfortunately, frightful examples are only now too common. The Grammar School was for years under the control of the Education Board ; yet, during the whole of that time, nothing was done to have the pupils accommodated in a proper building. No doubt the Board had much to do in connection with common school education, and the Grammar School was short of funds ; but we feel sure, had there been a periodical election of members, something would have been done. Those of the public who took an interest in the matter would hare had an opportunity of ventilating their ideas, and of electing men who would not have utterly neglected that which always seemed to us a pressing duty. The objection was made that there was not money to erect such institutions as existed in the South ; but, if the commonseuse of the public had been allowed to penetrate the sacred iuterior of the Education Board, personal pride would have had to give way, and the Grammar School would long ago have been removed from the abominable and utterly unfit building in which the pupils have so long been immured, even although the building to which they might have been transferred might not have been equal to the buildings in Dunedin and Christchurch. There is nothing that can keep public bodies pure but the breath of public opinion, and it is indispensably necessary in order to keep men from neglecting their duties. The management of the Grammar School has lately been handed over to a special Board of Governors, who are also nominated. Indeed, the Board is constituted in a more absurd way than any nomination. One gentleman holds office because he is a member of other bodies who may be acting antagonistically to the interests of the Grammar School, while others are "elected" by a Board of Education, itßelf the creation of a Btrange and futile

system of election, and others again by the representatives in the Assembly of a certain district. Fair and strong objections might, we think, be urged against more than one of the members ; bat in the first place, what have we had a* a fact at the very commencement of their duties? Three of the members of the Board ha% r c been absent almost since it was constituted, and this we believe to have been a cause of great evil. As to the Improvement Commissioners, they are simply nominees, and we all know how tiey have managed their business.