"RESPONSIBILITY" OR "CAPABILITY!"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15504, 10 January 1914, Page 4

"RESPONSIBILITY" OR "CAPABILITY!"

Sir,— article on Education Board Franchise in the Herald gives me an opportunity of driving another nail into the coffin I have been trying for some years to make fdr the bad and unatatesmanlike method.of electing these highly important public bodies. The Herald does not ap-. prove of any change, for which I am sorry. But I can hardly wonder either, for affairs educational are so well managed in this Paradise of the North, that any change whatever would almost seem as if it must be for the worse. But every place is nob like Auckland, sir, worse luck! In my advocacy of the change for which! am l struggling, I have not said that we should get better boards, although it might, perhaps, be possible to get «ven that. My main argument goes towards responsibility. i Can it be thought desirable to continue a system under which public money to the amount of over one million pounds sterling, contributed by the whole taspaying_ portion of this minion's population, is administered by a publio body whose franchise is in the hands of an insignificant minority ! Can it be thought that a body elected under » wide and effective franchise could not be moro careful of its actions than one whoso constituents were unable to bring them to account when they come up for re-election? The institute have asked for the rediviaion of the Dominion into four education districts, and 1 make bold to say that if ever that comes to pass the demand for an improved franchise will be irresistible, and I feel certain that few will oppose the introduction of a new and improved system, a " reform" system when the Education Act is thrown (as they it is to be) into the meltingpot. Surely something better can be evolved from the minds of statesmen than we have at present. If the steersmen at the helm of State cannot grapple with tho situation when it arises i I hope they will hand it over to the Educational Institute, and I am sure they will deal with it in a satisfactory manner. James Aitken.