The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH, 26, 1891. School Committee Elections

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 117, 26 March 1891, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, MARCH, 26, 1891. School Committee Elections

As the elections of School Committees will take place under the Act which was passed last year, we make a few quotations therefrom for the information of those concerned. The word "householder" means and includes every adult, male or female, person who (being the owner, lessee, or tenant) resides in any dwelling house within the school district, and the parent, or guardian, or other person, who has the actual custody of any child attending any State School situated within such district. The word " dwelliDg-house" shall be deemed to mean a permanent structure, and shall not include a tent or other temporary shelter. Notice of the annual meetings shall be published not later than the first Monday in April, and the names of persons nominated for election as Committeetnen must be sent in to the Chairman on or before the third Monday in April. The names of candidates are to be displayed on the outer door of every Schoolhouse on the third Tuesday in April. On the day appointed for election, if only seven persons are nominated, they shall be declared to be elected ; if more than seven nominations are received then an election by ballot will be held. Every householder may exercise as many votes as there are persons required to be elected or any less number of votes ; but no householder shall be entitled to record more than one vote for any one candidate. The ballot will be taken as follows : — The ballot box, which shall be locked, shall be placed in the Schoolhouse during the whole of the day from 9 a.m. until the hour appointed for holding the election, and aay householder may deposit in such ballot-box a voting paper containing the name or names of the candidate for whom the householder desires to vote, and such householder shall sign his or her name upon such voting paper, or upon a separate paper attached thereto, or enclosed therewith in an envelope, and such signature shall be attested by a Justice of the Peace, a Postmaster, or a btate Schoolmaster, and every voting paper not so attested shall be set aside as informal. At the commencement of the meeting for holding the election the Chairman shall unlock the ballotbox and make a list of the names of the householders whose voting papers are therein and hand the same to the scrutineers, and in distributing ballot papers to the householders present ballot papers shall be withheld from j all persons whose names appear on the list ; the voting papers found in the box shall then be placed together with those filled up at the meeting | and used with them in determining the election. In school districts not situated within the bounds of a Borough any householder may send to the Chairman of the School Committee (to reach him not later than 4 p.m. on the day of the election, enclosed in an envelope) a voting paper, containing the name or names of the candidate or candidates for whom he or she intends to vote, ander the same conditions as before named. We confess that this Act is not very intelligible. The definition of a " householder" is vague and undecided, and capable of interpretations the framer of the said Act never intended. The mode of carrying out the election is cumbrous, and certain to lead to endless complications, unless the Chairman of the meeting is gifted with almost superhuman foresight, indomitable courage, and a determination to enforce his own con-, struction of the several clauses as the correct ones. The householders will require to display perfect submission — and blindly do as they are told. | Unluckily these contingencies are not i likely to arise, and we will express j little surprise if a large proportion of the ejections, in this respect, held in the colony, do not end in a regular fiasco.