SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 416, 12 October 1875, Page 3

SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

CHRISTCHURCH EAST. The annual meeting of householders in the Bast Christchurch District was held last evening in the Congregational school room. There was a very small attendance, only eighteen householders being present at the opening of the meeting. The Rev W. J. Habens said the meeting had been called under the 20th section of the Ordinance, and he would now read his appointment to preside thereat, aud also to take a poll if necessary. [Mr Habens then read his appointment under the hand of the Deputy Superintendent, and also clause 20 prescribing the mode of conduct of the said meeting.] The first business would be to read the report of the committee for the past year. The chairman then read the following report:— “ In compliance with the 20th clause of the Education Ordinance, 1875, the committee submits the following report of its proceedings during its term of office, and the accompanying statement of its accounts made up to this day of meeting. “ The statement of accounts does not exhibit the amounts received from the district by way of rates, &c, nor the whole expenditure within the district for sites, buildings, See, but only the amounts received and expended by the committee. The education rate, so far as collected, has been paid to the committee’s account at the Bank. The building rate has been paid into the Provincial Treasury as collected. The committee has no official knowledge of the number of householders, or of the amount of arrears of rates, or of the amount raised by building rate, aud no means of preparing a full statement of the financial position of the district. This is the more to be regretted, inasmuch as it has not been the custom for the Education department to include in the annual report a record of the sums received and expended within each district, so that no complete view can be obtained of the whole cost of education in any district or in the province. “ The committee at its first meeting elected Mr W. H. Wynn Williams as chairman, who rendered very valuable service in that capacity until the recent change was effected, by which the Board of Education was abolished. Upon the resignation of Mr Wynn Williams, the committee elected the Rev W. J. Habens as chairman, and invited Mr H. Thomson to become a member of the committee. The place of Mr W. Dymock, who resigned on the 6th July (being about to leave the province) was filled by the election of Mr Sandstein, at a meeting of householders on the 29th July. The committee desires to give public expression to its regret at the retirement of the two members who have resigned during the year. The committee has held twenty-six meetings, and no meeting has been allowed to lapse tor want of a quorum.

““The number of children who have attended the schools of the district for the quarter ending September 30th, is 1501, of whom 782 are boys, and 719 girls. The average attendance for the same period is 889, or 59" 2 per cent of the number on the roll. The increase, as compared with the corresponding quarter of last year, is 357 on the roll, and 262 in average attendance ; and there is an improvement in average attendance from 54'8 per cent to 592. The largest attendance was for the quarter ending 31st March, the number on the roll being 1661, and the average attendance 1022, or 55 per cent. The falling olf during the last two quarters may be attributed to the winter weather, and to prevalent sickness, the results of which are most noticeable for the quarter ending June 30th, when the roll number was 1469, and the average attendance 737, or little more than 50 per cent. The progress and fluctuations of attendance for the year are represented in one view in the following table:

The returns for last week, in which, as being the first week of a new quarter, a new roll was commenced, show that 1220 children were present during the week, with an average attendance of 987. An analysis of the class lists for the last quarter shows that of 1501 children on the registers, 89 are under 5 years of age, 909 between 5 and 10 years, 487 between 10 and 15, and 16 over 15 years of age ; and again that only 698 are being instructed in such subjects as grammar and geography, which leaves 803 doing the work of the Ist and 2nd standards. Although the organisation of the schools has necessarily been to a certain degree incomplete, and must remain so until the opening of the new school, the committee is of opinion that this is not the cause of so large a proportion of the children (800 out of 1500) being thus practically in the infant department. It is to be remembered that many children are now at school whose education was formerly neglected, and that such children naturally go to swell the numbers of the lowest classes. But it rests with the parents to effect the most certain change in the proportion between the classes, partly by keeping their children at school to an age beyond what appears to be customary, and so filling the highest classes, and partly by sending all the children with the greatest possible regularity. In large towns in England, though so many of the parents suffer under abject poverty, and have therefore great inducements to keep their children often at home to assist them in their labors, it is not thought too much to expect that the average attendance shall be 75 per cent of the number on the roll; and in the schools of this district the average at present is under 60, That is to say, after making every allowance for reasonable causes of absence, and excusing every day about 375 children from attendance, there are still about 235 absent every day whose presence might reasonably be looked for. Until greater regularity is secured the schools can never accomplish the full results to which they are competent. “ The instruction of the children is committed to the charge of thirty-seven teachers as follows: —Seven certificated masters, two assistant masters, four certificated mistresses, two assistant mistresses, and twenty two pupil teachers (seven male and fifteen female). This gives one teacher to forty children on the roll, and one to twenty-four in average attendance. During the year eight adult teachers and fifteen pupil teachers have been appointed, and four adults and four pupil teachers have resigned; the whole staff having been increased from twenty-two to thirty-seven during the period, the adults from eleven to fifteen, and the pupil teachers from eleven to twenty-two. The increase and the present number are both larger than would have been requisite if the school had not been so much divided by the necessity of procuring accommodation in many separate buildings. “At the date of the last annual report there were four schools open—viz, at the Music Hall, St John’s, and the two new buildings which had just been brought into use at Bingsland and at the South town belt. The school at Bingsland soon became so crowded that in order to relieve it St Luke’s schoolroom was opened at the beginning of January, and at once filled. Bingsland school not being sufficiently relieved by this measure, the committee on the Bth February re opened the Avonside (parish) school. In the month of November, St John’s school being much too full, the committee removed some of the children to St Andrew’s old schoolroom, which was occupied till the month of June, but has since been closed, a more suitable room being rented from the trustees of Trinity Church, There are thus seven schoolrooms at present in use, five of which will be given up when the new central school is opened. “ It devolved upon the committee to complete the arrangements for providing furniture for the school at the South town belt, which has been fitted up as a junior school. It has been found necessary to purchase new furniture also for the Music Hall and St John’s schools, but this, with all such property belonging to the district, will be removed to the new school. “ On the recommendation of the committee the Government has acquired land in extension of school sites as follows;—One acre and a quarter at the South belt for £678 2s 6d ; one acre and one sixteenth at Gloucester street for £962 10s ; and a quarter of an acre with cottage at Bingsland for £2OO. The committee endeavoured to obtain a still further addition to the Gloucester street site, but the expenditure was not permitted. The areas of the respective sites are now—Gloucester street, 2 13-16 acres ; Bingsland, 2f acres ; South belt, If-. At the South belt a lavatory and coal shed have been erected, asphalte laid round the building, some fencing done, and the most necessary drainage attended to. Permission has been obtained for the rest of the fencing, and for filling in and levelling the lowest part of the ground. The plans for this work are in a forward state, but some delay has arisen from uncertainty as to the future course of general drainage in that part of the city. At Bingsland only the most necessary part of the required work of levelling has been carried out, and much remains to be done to put the playground in proper order. “ The central school in Gloucester street is nearly ready for occupancy. The principal contract is practically fulfilled, and the lavatories, fencing, outbuildings, levelling, and drainage are in hand, A cottage on the ground is to be appropriated to the use of a care-taker, and the Minister for Education has decided to build a house for the head master. The furniture for all but two rooms is ordered, or can be removed from the temporary schools. Tbe head master is expected to arrive some time in the month of November, and the committee believes that all arrangements for the opening of the school may be completed by the end of that month. Protracted negotiations with the Minister for Education with regard to the emoluments of the office of head master, and to furniture, have had the effect of delaying the opening by several weeks. “ Mr A. Loughrey, B.A. (Melbourne), who has had more than fifteen years’ experience in State schools, eight years fcs head master, has accepted the position of herd master of the central school, Miss A, J. Bolton, late

teacher of mathematics at the Scotch Ladies’ College, Melbourne, and formerly a certificated teacher in the State schools of New South Wales, holding a first class certificate in Arts from the University of Sydney, has been appointed head mistress. Miss Bolton arrived six weeks ago from Melbourne, and has taken some part in the conduct of the school now under Mrs Haughton’s care, but is not included in the enumeration of teachers in an earlier part of this report. Mr Hill, whose efficiency has been proved at Bingsland, and who holds high class certificates from the educational authorities in England, is to be second master ; and Mrs Haughton, who has managed the girls’ school at St John’s with great satisfaction to the committee, will be second mistress, Mrs Hill, who has good English certificates, is to take charge of the infant department. The other appointments have not yet been made. “ The committee having ascertained in the mouth of December that the Board of Education would lavourably entertain proposals for enlarging the Bingsland school, invited and received tenders for the erection of two class-rooms, but at this stage the Board found itself unable to sanction expenditure for the enlargement until the meeting of the Provincial Council. The committee understands that an amount was put upon the Board’s estimate for the year. The matter has since been brought under the notice of the Minister for Education, who has decided that it must stand over till after the opening of the main school. “ In the interests of some families living on the north of the River Avon, the committee made application to the Minister for Education for a foot bridge to be placed across the river near the East belt. The Minister advised that the committee should apply to the City Council, and he himself wrote to the City Council on the subject. The action of the committee in this matter was attended with no success. The Minister for Education informed the committee that there were no funds available for the purpose, and the City Council declined to undertake the work without a special grant in aid. The committee would have been glad if the bridge could have been obtained, not only because it would have been a convenience to some children who will attend the Gloucester street school, but also because it would have made it more easy for the committee to maintain its policy of making one strong central school, highly organised, and very efficient, and maintaining junior schools only in the parts of the district which are farthest from the centre. It is, however, to be hoped that the residents at Bingsland, when they find how superior the central school is to any that they could reasonably hope to have maintained at Bingsland, will be content for the present to allow their elder children to attend the central school and accept suitable provision for the younger children nearer home. The arrangements for classification of children at the main school, and the quality of the staff so far as already appointed, should make it a very favorite place of education, as the committee believes it will be a very efficient one.

“It remains only for the committee to render thanks to the large body of teachers for very good work done in circumstances somewhat adverse to success, and to acknowledge the support and countenance generally afforded by the late Board and by the Minister for Education.” The chairman then read a statement of accounts audited to 30th September last. The Ordinance required the accounts to be audited up to day of meeting, but the Provincial Auditor required them to be audited to 30th September. The best way would be for him to read the accounts as audited by the Provincial Auditor first, and then those up to that date which had not been audited. From the first of these, it appeared that the total receipts during the year, to 30th September, had been £4547 Bs, and the expenditure during the same period, £4115 16s sd, leaving a balance carried forward of £431 12s 3d. The other accounts shewed practically the same figures, the totals being —Receipts, £4604 7s lid, and expenditure £4304 14s sd, leaving a balance to be carried forward of £299 13s 6d,

Mr Wynn Williams said that it was only due to those who had elected him on the committee to explain why he had thought it necessary to resign. It was simply from the reason that he thought the committee, looking to the fact that the administration was in the hands of the Government, would would get on far better without him, from circumstances well known to the meeting. He begged to move the adoption of the report. The chairman said that the committee had urged upon the Minister of Education the necessity for more land at the Gloucester street school. They had succeeded in obtaining about a £IOOO expenditure in this direction, but they found that they could not go much further without bringing more pressure to bear. As regarded an infant school in connection with the Gloucester street school, he might say that the matter had been brought before the Minister, but they were unable to show that pressing necessity existed for it.

Mr Tombs seconded the motion for the adoption of the report, which was carried. The chairman said the next business was the election of a new committee. On reading the new Ordinance he found that no number of members was absolutely fixed. All that was said was that at the April election, and all succeeding elections, either four, six, or eight should be elected. Reading the regulations of elections placed in his hands, he thought that the Government meant the same number to be elected as was provided by the new Ordinance. There could be no doubt that there was an intention to reduce the number, and to prevent any misunderstanding he thought it would be better for sprue one to move a resolution fixing the number of the committee. Mr Ness moved “ That the number of the committee to be elected be eight.” MrH. Bennetts seconded the motion, which was carried. The following gentlemen were then nominated: —Revs B. A. Lingard, W. J. Habens, Messrs Kirk, Bray, Tombs, VV. R. Mitchell, Thomson, Waller, Jameson, Yeel, and J. S. Williams. A show of hands was taken with the following result:— Kirk ... ... ... ... Id Rev W. J. Habens Jameson... ... 18 Bray 14 Tombs ... ... 7 Mitchell 19 Rev B, A. Lingard ... ... 7 H. Thomson ... ... ••• 17 Waller 2 J. S. Williams 9 J. 0. Yeel 19

The chairman declared the show of hands to be in favor of the following gentleman, viz—Rev W. J. Habens, Messrs Kirk, J meson, Bray, Mitchell, Thomson, J. S. Williams, and Vecl,

No poll being demanded, the chairman declared these gentlemen duly elected to serve as the school committee for Christchurch Ea«t for the ensuing six months. The meeting then terminated with a vote of thanks to the chairman.

Quarter Ending Register Average. Average in percentages of Register. Sept. 30, 1874 1144 627 54’8 Dec. 31, 1874 1336 884 66 March 31, 1875 1661 1022 55 June 30, 1875 1469 737 50 Sept. 30, 1875 1501 889 592