HALF CENTURY OF SERVICE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 42, 20 April 1942, Page 4

HALF CENTURY OF SERVICE

WE do not often single out individual accomplishments for portrayal in our leader columns,, but we feel that in connection with Mr J. Rutherford's fifty years of continuous service on school committees in different parts oi the Dominion, that we have: good reason to do so. The record is as worthy as it is singular and isolated and indicates an example which might well be noted by the rank and file of parents throughout this district—particularly in Whakatane, where all too\>ften the reverse is the case. The a.verage parent unfortunately has the habit of taking the school for granted. It is a State institution, he argues, so therefore should not require anything further from him by way of service or even passing interest. Just how erroneous this attitude would be is borne out by the picture of a country without local administration. The State would then be very definitely the sole guardians of the children and the link with the"parents would be lost until by popular clamour the authority was restored. School committee service is therefore merely another expression of democratic govenment and without it we should have to be prepared to face State regimentation, dictum and thought. The Edgecum.be example should not be lost on those who often unthinkingly condemn the gratuitous work clone by committeemen.