THE EDUCATION DISTRICTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16040, 5 October 1915, Page 6

THE EDUCATION DISTRICTS.

The recommendation of the Education Commission that the number of education districts be reduced to seven will be generally welcomed. At present Xew Zealand is divided into thirteen education districts, but for some years it has been recognised that the maintenance of a number of the smaller districts tends to increase the cost of education and to reduce its efficiency. There is thus an immediate public advantage in the amalgamation of certain small boards, while education will ultimately gain by the widening of opportunities to teachers resulting from the creation of large education districts. The teachers throughout Xew Zealand have shown good reason for the support they have always given to the proposed reduction of the number of districts. Teachers in a great district such as Auckland have opportunities for promotion which never .come to equally capable teachers in the service of the Grey, Marlborough, or Westland Educa- . tion Boards. By the elimination of small districts opportunities will be in a measure equalised, and so long

as community of interest and. ease of administration are not sacrificed in the final adjustment of boundaries, the adoption of the report will be wholly in the interests of education in New Zealand. Three years ago the Education Commission set up by the Mackenzie Government re-' commended the reduction in the number of districts to five, whilst the Teachers' Institute has favoured four. An attempt as made to arrive at a compromise on the Education Act of 1914, but this failed, and the present commission was appointed with instructions to provisionally divide the Dominion into not less than seven and not more than nine districts. With the same limitation the report now presented may be amended by Parliament, and there would seem to be room for some minor alterations in order to prevent the introduction of arbitrary boundary lines, which will of themselves lead to waste and inefficiency and thus defeat one of the main purposes of the change. Some of the proposed detachments from Auckland to strengthen the Wanganui district may be justifiable, I but the suggested attachment of Opotiki and Whakatane to Hawke's Bay can only be described as an absurdity. The commissioners refer to the Hawke's Bay district as one of the weakest, and it is evident that in disconnecting Opotiki from Auckland and linking it up with Napier they have completely lost their sense of administrative convenience in order to create a balance in school population. The protest sent from Opotiki is altogether justified. In other respects the suggested boundaries are reasonably open to discussion, but it would seem that the recommendation as affecting Opotiki and Whakatane only needs to be mentioned to ensure alteration. On the broader I issue of the reportthe limitation of i the number of districts to seven— Parliament need not hesitate. There will no doubt be local protests from districts which are now education board centres, but these should not be permitted to stand in the way of the adoption of- a great educational reform.