EDUCATION BOARDS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144852, 2 December 1915, Page 7

EDUCATION BOARDS.

IO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In an old Latin grammar I once came across the sentence, “The anger of Sempronius seems to me very laughable.” If you substitute the name of Mr. Pirani for that of Sempronius you have the matter in a nutshell. AVe all knew how wroth the chairman of the 'Waitganui Education Board would be, especially seeing that ho is still smarting from his defeat m the recent election of members of the Council of Education. Air. Pirani does not hesitate to imply that the Taranaki Education Board is incapable of doing the work in agriculture that is being done by tho Wanganui Board, lie evidently forgets that it is far better to have the education districts somewhat more approximated in size than was formerly the case, and that it is just possible that the members who administer tho affairs of the Taranaki Education Board are quite as capable of doing what is best in tho interests of education as are the deeply-injured members of the Wanganui Board. In one respect, at any rate, the Taranaki Board shows clearly its better grasp of the spirit of cdn : cation. In Tafanaki there does not exist that constant harassing of teachers and the system of espionage and nepotism that has so long prevailed in the AVanganui Education District. Tho teachers of that portion of the Wanganui district which is to be transferred to Taranaki are to bo congratulated upon this improvement in tho conditions under which they work. It has always seemed to me absurd that any public body or any member of a public body should claim to have a vested right to a seat or to any consideration inconsistent with tho general weL fare. Yet such a claim docs Air. Pirani make. AVhat does it matter who administers the control of the “25 schools and the 2000 pupils.” so long as the administration is efficient? ’But Air. Pirani clearly implies that the Taranaki ’ Board is incompetent to administer the affairs of education as well as the AVanganui Board, a board which is a by--1 word in a most uncomplimentary sense from one end of New Zealand to the ( other. I hope that tho Minister will • take no notice of Mr. Pirani’s threat to “take no further part in tho adminis- ; tration of education.” The _ Minister need riot be alarmed. Air. Pirani and the other members of the AVanganui Education Board are not in the least . likely to resign. Surely Air. Pirani does not seriously think that his resignation would make tho slightest difference to the cause of education. I am most certainly of opinion that the present arrangement of education' districts is, at best, but a compromise. I hold strongly that there should bo only four districts, two in each island. This reform will, I feel sure, come in time; but until it does come the districts should, in the name of common sense, bo somewhat approximated in size.— I am, etc., TARANAKIAN.