SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTIONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1829, 30 April 1888, Page 2

SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTIONS.

I If there is one portion of the Education Act which requires amendment more than another, it is the clauses relating to the election of School Committees. Leaving out the question of the cumulative vote allowed to houso- ; holders, which is m itself a most abused privilege, there is a great element of vagueness about definitions m the Act which seem to have been inserted for the express purpose of causing annoyance and infinite trouble. School Committee elections m this district generally were conducted m a quiet and business-like manner, but other places were not so fortunate, and where local feeling was imported into the contest there was occasion for the display of obstructive tactics, while "exhibitions *of a more or less demonstrative character are reported to have takon place. All these unseenily experiences wo believe could to a great extent be done away with by having a better system of election. The clauses of the Education Act which bear on the election of School Committees are open to whatever construction the majority of householders preßent at a meeting wish to put upon them. Perhaps the ensuing 1 session of Parliament may Bee some amendment. The effort to effect a reform has . been made now more than once, and though the sense of the House has been m favor of doing away with the cumulative vote circumstances have arisen which have caused the matter to be shelved from session to session without the desired amendments coming into force. Very many meetings of householders have been held where not more than seven qualified persons have been nominated and these seven have been duly elected . Although this has been done m a majority of instances throughout the colony, the fact that such an elected Committee was illegal has never been brought out until recently. The Act provides that the election shall be "by ballot " without reference to any number of candidates, but though m a subsequent clause it seems to give the Education Board of the district the right to recognise the election — should it so choose, yet from a strictly legal point of view we believe the Board could not take cognisance of the acts of a Committee, if such Committee wero not elected according to the strict reading of the Act. It seems absurd that if any seven householders are nominated that the ballot should be resorted to. When any ordinary vacancy occurs on public bodies or at any election of public officers if there are only a certain number required and only that number nominated, they are declared duly elected without further delay. The definition given of a person qualifiedto vote at a School Committee election is a most vague and distressing one. While, on the one hand, some meetingp will allow a voting paper to bo given to every adult living within the school district, another meeting will rule that only heads of families and owners or tenants of houses are eligible to vote. Town Committees are no better informed on tho subject than country Committees, and even tho other day at Dunedin wo had the spectacle of Sir .Robert Stout, the late Premier and Minister for Education, proposing that seven house* holders nominated for a School Committee should be elected without further parley. Mr W. Hutchison, exM.H.R., w«8 present and pointed out that a Committee thus appointed would not be a legal one, and after sot#e £jme spent m discussing the Act it was decided that the farce of a ballot was necessary. Surely it is time a more I consistent and workable mode of electing a School Committee was instituted. The School Committees Conference m Dunedin have just been furnished with a copy of a Bill which Major Steward purposes introducing into £h# Legislature, having for its object tho abolition of the cumulative vote, and further, an amendment m other clauses bearing directly upon School elections. Should the "Educational Franchise Bill " pass into law during the enduing session a better order of things will prevail, and districts which now labor under tiio handicap of conducting an election upon a vague and uncertain basis will rejoice m the hopes of a better, more business ! like and happier style of working. ,