THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY MAY 14, 1896.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10131, 14 May 1896, Page 4

THE The New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY MAY 14, 1896.

Although it it pliant to note the expressions of regret nude by all parties in the Board of Education Over the unseemly proceedings of the previous meeting, it requires no great acumen to see that there is still trouble in the air. The action of the chairman (Mr. Udy) in stating his intention of resigning his position at next meeting evidences the good feeling of that gentleman ; but it is doubtful whether his well-meant intention will conduce to the pacific objects he has in view, when considered in the light of the attitude still maintained by the rival claimant to the chairmanship. Mr. Udy means to retire, but Mr. Muir and those who stand with him do not indicate ft similar indication to sponge out the troublous proceedings Of the past. On the contrary, notwithstanding the touching expressions of regret for the past, the position seems to be maintained that Mr. Muir has been legally elected chairman, and that gentleman, in exercising quasi-official functions or expressing Ids intention of doing so, confirm? the impression that he still maintains his right to the chairmanship. Such an assumption must be based on the idea that the opinions of Sir Robert Stout, Messrs. Hesketh and Cooper are all erroneous, and that Mr. I Udy is not now, and has not been, chairman since the Ist of April, and that on the 6th of May Mr. Muir was legally elected chairmanofthe Board. The assertion of this claim therefore is the resurrection of all the past unpleasant discussions, and the endorsement of tiro conduct of Mr. Muir in taking his seat beside Mr. Udy at last week's meeting in the anomalous scene of two chairmen presiding at the same time. \ .- In the face of this assertion of claim, of course the expressions of regret about "the unseemly proceedings of last week" are valueless, and peace is as far off apparently as ever it was. Whatever may be the ultimate outcome of affairs, under no circumstances is Mr. Muir at present chairman of the Board, for as a matter of fact the motion of Mr, Wright' on the subjeot, at the meeting of the Board on the 6th of May, was not put to the meeting by the chairman, and therefore had no more validity than a motion made by a Casual occupant of the floor at a crowded public meeting alter it had been similarly refused acceptance by the chairman. Mr. Udy was in the occupancy of the chair on that occasion ; there was not even a rival chairman by his side at that stage of the proceedings, and an attempt to carry by a coup a motion in disregard of one of the simplest rules of public debate—the putting of the motion by the chair to the meeting -was of course an irregularity that would not be overlooked by ( the,merest. novice in public debate. Mr. Muir has no standing whatever as chairman, and it will be much to be regretted if the maintenance of such an untenable position should mar the prospect of conciliatory proceedings held out by yesterday's penitential meeting of the Board. Mr. Udy, whose assiduous attention to the duties of the chairmanship during the long period of five years, has placed the province under deep obligations, has considerately waived his rights for the sake of peace, rights which were sustained by some of the best legal opinion in the colony; and a sense of what is becoming as well as what is fair, will, we trust, suggest the propriety of receding from this other claim, so that there may be a free field for trying the best way of overcoming the difficulty of the deadlock, which still continues at the Board.

Prominence has been given to this unfortunate contretemps, not only because of the effects it may have in throwing doubts on the validity of the Board's proceedings, but because of the argument it presents for a reform in the administrative machinery of our system of public education. If,- for example, a supposed election of chairman might be afterwards found to have been invalid, issues of the gravest kind affecting the interests of teachers and of schools may be raised, and complications much more embarrassing even than that what has come out of making a Tom Tiddler's ground of the boardroom. But it may be hoped that what has happened, and which lias no doubt been commented on by the public at large, will tend to create a desire for overhauling the machinery part of the Education Act. There is a senseless fear with many Jest any touching of the Act may open the way to tampering with its principles. This is a cowardly fear, and would seem to argue want of confidence as to the impregnable hold which our free, secular, compulsory system has taken on the minds of the people. Thoso who love the system most should be tho first to move in purging it of any defects in its administration, and the election of the Provincial Boards of Education presents one of these in a very marked form. The principle of a school of twenty children giving to its committee an electoral right equal to that given by a cluster of schools of three or four thousand children is so utterly opposed to the first principles of democratic equality, that the wonder is that it ever passed the Legislature, or that it has been tolerated so long. It is only becausa of the unreasoning fear of the system of education itself being overthrown that this pernicious element in the constitution of the administrative Boards exists, But if the Boards are to continue at all, incidents like those we have witnessed seem to make it imperative that an alteration in the election of the Boards should be made, so as to elimi' nate as far as possible the facilities for intrigue, and to make the administration of such important interests attract to it the best and the ablest of our colonists.