The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1883. The School Committee Election.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 849, 23 January 1883, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1883. The School Committee Election.

If there was anybody among those present at the election of the School Committee who had not previously realised the absurdity of cumulative voting, the proceedings on that occasion must have convinced him. Even when care is exercised, this system of registering votes is open to grave condemnation, but when an election is carried on as it was last night the affair becomes a public scandal. There was evidently no attempt at organisation, the ballot papers were distributed haphazard, and not the slightest effort was made to discover whether those voted were exercising a right to which they were entitled. We do not mean to say anything at present concerning the new School Committee that has been chosen, but the manner in which the election was carried out is worthy of the severest reprobation. In the first place, the room where the meeting was'held was in almost total darkness, a few candles on the table where the Chairman sat supplying the only light. Then, again, instead of care being taken that only one ballot paper should be given to each voter, what could only be termed an indiscriminate scramble took place, and, so far as could be seen, there was nothing to prevent those persons present from giving as many voles as they chose. We are of course not in a position to say that anybody acted dishonestly in the matter, but an election should be above suspicion, and this cannot be the case when facilities are afforded, as they were last night, for people to register votes whether they were householders or not. The Opinion of the meeting concerning the cumbrous system of voting which is used at these elections was clearly shown by a motion that was carried condemning it. Still while the law says that School Committees are to be chosen in this way, the best should be made of a bad job, and some kind of organisation should be attempted. As it was, the proceedings of last night cannot be characterised as other than a farce, and if the School Committee that was elected turn out to be the right men in the right place it will be purely the result of chance. When we have had time to study the analysis of the voting, we shall have something to say on the question of how far the new Committee is representative of public opinion on educational matters in Ashburton.