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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2989, 24 January 1881, Page 2

The school committee elections throughout the Colony take place this evening, aud we shall offer no apology for again drawing the attention of householders to them. Hitherto very little interest has been shown in these elections, the attendance at them, compared with the number of those entitled to vote, being very small. It should be known that all householders in a school district are voters for that district, and are eligible for election. As the school committees are composed of seven members, so each elector hap seven votes, and he may give all his votes to one candidate, or he may distribute them amongst the candidates as he thinks fit. The process of election is both clumsy and tedious, but until an improvement is effected by the amendment of the Act there is no other course to pursue than that now laid down by the law. Mr W. Hutchison, M.H.R. for Wellington, in a late issue of the New Zealand Times, his pointed out some of the faults in the Act, and has suggested the direction -which an amendment should take. He says : — "The outgoing committee is required to give a full report of its proceedings during the year, and thereupon the voters are called upon to elect a new committee. The Act, it may reasonably be inferred, means that the committee's report should be discussed and approved or disapproved of, but under present arrangements no provision is made—indeed, no time can be spared for doing so, wbich is clearly either an oversight or a mistake. There is small use of a report if it cannot receive consideration and be turned to profit, either in the way of warning or counsel. The remedy, I presume, must be sought for in two meetings—one for receiving the annual report and nominating members of committee; the other for discussing the report and electing a committee from the members who have been thus nominated. Even this last point appears to me to be of considerable importance, as at present there is no opportunity of becoming acquainted with the qualifications of the candidates proposed, in consequence of the election following on the heels of the nomination. These improvements in detail will, no doubt, be gradually effected ; meantime, the first object is to induce the public to take an intelligent interest in the various schools with which they are locally connected, and this can best be done at present by attending the annual meetings in considerable numbers, and taking as much paing as possible to select the most fitting available men for members of the school committees."