SCHOOL COMMITTEES

Southland Times, Issue 18810, 1 May 1920, Page 2

SCHOOL COMMITTEES

IS THEIR DAY DONE? COMMISSIONERS SUGGESTED. The Mayor (Mr John Stead), who is retiring after 42 years practically unbroken service on school committees, thinks, he told a Times reporter in the course of an interview yesterday, that the day of school committees is almost done. They have little real authority, he pointed out, either in connection with the administration of the teaching department or in actual maintenance of schools. In view of these circumstances, he believes that school commissioners, appointed by the Government, might execute the minor matters that fall to the lot of committeemen with advantage. Only a very small dole was given to committees for expenses, and, in the case of the South Schoci which he took to be typical, it would be impossible to run the institution but for concerts and voluntary contributions by parents. Taking the heating expenses of the South School as an example, he declared that a cord of wood at one time cost 13s to the committee, and now its price was 355. Sanitary and-water charges, moreover, amounted to approximately £2O per annum and stationery had increased considerably in price, j “We are continually hampered by a want of ( funds,” he concluded, “and if committees are not treated more generously, it would be better to evolve some new system.”