SCHOOL COMMITTEE AND BOARD OF EDUCATION ELECTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6513, 16 June 1899, Page 4

SCHOOL COMMITTEE AND BOARD OF EDUCATION ELECTIONS.

A pubfic meeting was held last evening, in- Trinity Hall, to hear papers by Mr J.. R. Bruot, Chairman of the East Christchurch School Committee, ofa the present mode of electing School Committees and Boards of Education. Mr M. Sandstein presided. The attendance, though not large, included representatives, from most of the city and surburbar school committees. Mr C. Lewis, M.H.R., Mr A- E. G. Rhodes, Mr I. S. Foster (headmaster West Christchurot School), Mr :T. Hughes (headmaster: Waltham School),. Mr T. &. Weston (a member of the Board of Education) and Mr H. C. Lane (secretary) were also presents The Chairman stated that apologies had been received from a>- number of gentlemen, including the following:— The Hon. C. C. Bowen, ih&- Mayor of» Christchurch,, Messrs G. J.. Smitbj, W. W. Tanner and J. Joyce, M.H.R.'s R. C. Bishop, T. W. Beckett, H. W. Peryman, M. Dalziel and H. G. Ell. The first paper was. entitled, "Softool Committee Elections: Seme Defects, aawl a Remedy." Mr Brunt said that since the : present Act had been iiu force, some eigfit ! years, complaints had been, rife at the an- ! nual meetings of householders about the : loose way in which the elections were car- , vied out. The chief obstixeles to perfe"o£ j success • were :— (1) Want of privacy in. rei cording votes ; (2) a propericheck, to know jwho were qualified to vote; (3) the duah j nomination ; (4) want of room ; and (5£ opportunities to vote. The present system' depended, in a very great measure, upon jthfc bionour 'of the individual, and,- per* jsonally, he did not think that ifc was much j abused. However, the doubt remained, sand a remedy was wanted. The machinery of; the present Act was ample for ninetenths of the annual meetings for the electing of committees, but for tfia other tenth la 1 , remedy" was' required. One scheme that j had been* advocated was thati the elections isfiouTd be carried out on the jsarliamentary ißasisy the- popular vote. TBere were objjpotions' to this, because, in tmV North Canterbury district, for instance^ there were ten parliamentary constituencies, which would have to be divided between some 18CT school districts, each requiring a special electoral roll. Some school ' districts were in more than one parliamentary district", and' in some parliamentary 'districts there was a large number of school 'districts, and it would be thus seen that the application of this principle to the whole of New Zealand would' 7 entail a very large amount of labour, and cost' many thousands of pounds. He considered that, to overcome and •strengthen weak spots in the'pTesent Act, a few special clauses should ber added, making ft permissible for any school district to come under its 'provisions by giving certain notice to that effect. The most important additions -proposed were that in districts whicli Lad applied to comer' under these special provisions, (nominations' for committees should close on the night of the annual meeting of householders 7 that if an election were necessary, it should, take place wifcluh seven days of the date of the annual meeting; that the place of polling should be the main and side schools in any district, and that the day of election should be a general school holiday ; that' the head-roas-ter- snould act as returningK>m"cer, being assisted by. his iinder.-mastersT that voters, on presenting themselves to vote,, should state their qualifications, and" that personsguilty of impersonation or misrepresentation: should be liable to prosecution.

: The second paper was, "Board of Education Elections : A way to Overcome the •Present Anomaly." Mr Bitmt said that a Bill had been introduced last session to ■ improve the method of electing members of . Education Boards, the main- idea being that j instead of committees voting as one, as at j present, provision had been made for - irt-- ! dividual members of comimfetees voting, ■ an i electoral roll being formed? of the whole -of the committees in the several districts.- He tEsraghfc that had the projjjosed Bill becomela.w the chance of having a measure that would prove acceptable to the committees, and remove the present: anomalies in the Act, would have been a much more difficult matter to bring about Cnan was now the case. The district supervised by the North Canterbury Board of Education, I comprising 170 odd sc&ool districts, ex-; | tending from the Rangitata in the south to I the Kaikoura in the? ua>rth, and including' j the Peninsula, was too> large an area.-ifr.bßi i which to obtain fair- till-round represents- - Xion. At present the- country could; overwhelm the town, auxl the sooth, if combined, could swallow up the north. Tlie--total number" of names of committeemen • that the proposed electoral roll would hftver contained was about 1150. He gave • the, following figures :: — Country,. 150r' schools* 977 individual : voters, 8500 scholars ; : sub* urban, 11 schbolsj, 81 votes, 1480, scholar.town, 11 schools,, 99 votes, 6850 scholar*. This showed what a complete- farce tbjß= proposed Bill wonld have been, and how little calculated; to overcome the present; anomaly.. To slrow the unequal 'position?- oj the voting, on the present principle, of one-commit tfceM>ne-vote, there, were four* schools iin. tfce newly-formed district of' Cheviot, tlte: total number of scholars- Bieiiig: 190, having; equal voting power, witfi the four cityacljools, which) had betwee«. them 4450 scljfju&rs. Then there were twelve country schools averaging about fifteen scholars* ' each, whose- votes- couljl. overbalance the votes of the whole cf >.he town Qoaunittees. He proposed that the present ! unwieldy district should;, be cut up ittfio, say, eight separate Begird districts,, upon the same principle as the ward system in municipalities, each district to return its, own member or members as the case might be, the total number to be elected to be tea (one more than at present), who should constitute the Central Board, in the following proportion; District,. Schfe. Schlrs^Mem. .I- Town ix 6850* 3 2.. Lyttelton-Avon 1& IJIQQ, 1 3. Riccarton 18 1250 1 4. Ellesmere .2£ 1150 i " 5. Selwyn 0 4 1400 1 6. Ashburfeon-RangitatJi 3(J. 17QQ 1 ' 7. Kaiapoi 20 1850 1 8. Ashley 25 1250 1 He had based his proposal upon the Parliamentary electoral plan. This would be in readiness, in cass it should be decided at some future time to give the vote <11 the popular basis, &u.t,, ke thought, when the plan was brought into operation, they would hear of no. further discontent. The Chairman, asked for a resolution on the first paper.. Mr A. Marshall moved.—" That this representative meeting of School Committees and the general public strongly recommend that an amended Act be brought in during the coming session embodying the principles advanced by Mr J. R, Brunt in the direction of special clauses being pro vibA to meet the cases of those school districts which .find they are cramped by the »resent Act," Mr H. Allison seconded the motion Mr D.Lumsden said he was in favour of the electoral roll being used, .but half a loaf was better than no bread, H tt<i he would accept any reform on the present system, which he considered" a blot on the name of education. . . Mr N. K. Bowden sriid he disapproved of Mr Brunts proposals. If tbey foan-i they had not room at East Christchm-h for their meetings they should turn their side schools into main schools Mr Clark said he was in V avom . of electoral roll being u Sec j Mr T. S Weston said thai; he considered the present meetings of h QllSeholders , elect committees were shams.. Sne committees were supposed to vepvesent the peQnjte but they did not; they represented the- few who attended the meetings The sovxdncss of the electio.n.of tb& Board of Education depended on the soundness ■of ths mode of election of the committees. He >rouUVlik« to see ii proper elcctcwl roll and b-Hot conducted in the wsual way. Th-> ospenss mijrht be greater, ljutiheimportr.ncec.f- tho question vrcukl JttsUfJ' Jt - --^~ cIM uot s:e why

members" of Board's of Education' should* iiot be returned in the same manner as- members of other bodies. No Board- was so important as the Board of Education. (Applause.) Mr j. B. Sim said he held that if the present elections were shams, it was not the fault of the Act, which was a most liberal one. There were 1 , perhaps,- one or" two anomalies' in the present AcL but they were not serious. The tenor of Mr Brunt's paper was that they had not sufficient room' at ,East Christchurcli. j The suggestion was made that it would I be better to allow time for consideration of ithe papers, and to postpone the passing of any resolutions. _ • The Chairman, speaking on" the fifst'paper,* said that Ms experience of school committed elections led hiiri' to favour the suggestion* that nd nominations should be made at tlitf" annllal" meetings! He thought that the provision of a penalty would prevent any people voting wlro were not qualified. Mr Watson moved, and Mr C. Chaplin seconded, as an amendment—" That ' the paper be received and referred to the various school" committees' for their consideration, and that a future meeting be held on the subject' * The original motion was withdrawn, in favour? -of 'tne amendment, which was carS ried. ■ • Dealing- with the second paper, Mr J. B. Sint moved, and Mr N. X.' Bowden I seconded"— "That this- meeting"Gf'representatives of . scliool committees having heard the views of Mr Brunt with reference to [the election of Education 1 Boards, is entirely in- accord with them, and would rej,<roectfuiry urge the Minister of Education. !t*> introduce a Bill into Parliament, to amend 'the Act on tire lines- indicated by Mr .(Brunt." ' ] Mr J. Elli'soii moved, axid Mr IT Lumsden as an amendment — -"That the Second parperbe received and referred to" the various school committees for "their consideration."" ■■ Mr C. Lewis, M.H.R., said that, if these qnestions were to be deferred until all the School committees had expressed their opinions, any representations would not reach Parliament until September. The BilT introduced^rast' : session ha.d been brotitjht in : somewhat late, and" had been slaughtered in consequeTice. .The amendment, en being put, was lost, and" the motion was carried. Votes of tha-nlcs to Mr Brunt and "tne Chairman closed" the meeting-.