EDUCATION BOARD ELECTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12889, 24 July 1913, Page 2

EDUCATION BOARD ELECTION

To tho Editor

Sir, —There is a- good doal to be said on both sides of the question as to tho propriety of having au additional member of the Education Board resident in Wanganui, its headquarters, and Mr.' Bruco's contention can be sunporto I hy stronger arguments than geographical considerations of questions of the ratio of members to school rolls. My chief object, however, in this letter is noti to discuss this question, but to call public attention to what looks to me like a flagrant piece of electioneering. Close upon tho heels of an official visit to tho schools of tho Northern Ward, a.visit duly chronicled with great impressiveness in tho papers circulating in that district, comes ia long list of "ui'gent works," including tho re-building of oho school iiL brick and structural alterations in To anyone'conversant with tho\stato of the Board's finances those proposals must appear suspiciously likp an attempt to bid for vote:;. Tho maintenance fund wife mortgaged heavily to build Marton nnd Pa to a in brick, and it will take some years of close economy to restore it to anything like a Sound financial position. In fact, the Board's finances are very much on a par4 with those of the 'Wanganui Borough Council. One cannot, therefore, view this hurried addition to "urgent works" made at tho last Board meeting, tho meeting immediately preceding the election, as any other than n vote-catch-ing device. It seems to me a pitiable thing that a public body such as rvn Education Board should lower its d'gnity to this extent, and it is ..an. additional argument in favour of a reform in tho election of Education Board members. A similar proceeding, by the way, took place in tho Middle Ward last year, and just about the same time, too. I trust that committee-men in both ward:; will refuso to countenance such methods, and will vote for new members, who will have too great a- sense of personal dignity to take part in. such electioneering tactics. A candidate, by tho way. who goes round a district buttonholing eornmittcemen, 's not likely to have much sense of any dignity, public or personal. T am. otc.\ '•'EDUCATIONIST."

(Tho acts of public men are frequently liable to b6 misunderstood, and tho tendency to attribute improper motives is far too common. Wo hold no brief for tho Education Board, but it seems to us that tho fact of the members visiting the schools, making themselves personally conversant with the more pressing requirements, and logically concluding their self-imposed work by making tho necessary provisions for meeting those requirements^ is a cbmmondablo <nml not a blameworthy proceeding.—Ed., "Chronicle.")