The Guardian (And Evening star,with which is in-Corporate the west coast Times.) WEDNESDAY, JULY 25th. 1923 REPRESENTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 July 1923, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening star,with which is inCorporate the west coast Times.) WEDNESDAY, JULY 25th. 1923 REPRESENTION.

The Government contemplates an amendment to the Education Act, whereby the representation on the Board is to l>e adjusted. There are slight variations proposed in the ease of all the Beards, but as affecting the Coast (comprising the Grey and Westland districts under the Canterbury Education Board) one member of the new Board is proposed to bs allocated to the district. At present theie are two members representing jointly the Coast and North Canterbury, which together, constitute a ward or division under the Board. E'er the time being tho two members are Coast residents, but they represent North Canterbury as much as the Coast. The new constitution proposes to join the northern district of Canterbury to another wnrd, and tho Grey and Westland districts become a new and separate ward entitled to one representative only. When the matter was discussed by the Canterbury Education Board last week, Mr Wild moved and Mr Bignell seconded that owing to the large and scattered district on the Coast, two members be given to the West Coast, being one for each district formerly

controlled by a separate Board. The motion was lost, only the mover and Becondcr supporting. The attitude of the Board members did not show much consideration lor the Coast. This was emphasised turther by the remarks of one el the members who stated that the intended alteration was brought about largely through the unfair representation of the West Const which had two members, while North Canterbury had none! This is putting the position very unfairly arid not in accordance with the circumstances, as the gentleman responsible for the .statement occupying a seat on the Council of Education, must know surely. North Canterbury joins in the election of the present representatives, who are as much the Canterbury as the Westland representatives. The Coast should get busy and make its protest direct to the Minister and to Parliament. The important and extensive district on the Coast stretching from Tot am Flat to Okuru, a distance of considerably over 200 miles, and having schools dotted all through that range of country should have a greater representation than one member on the Board. For less than the same range of country. Canterbury will lia.ve ten or eleven members, and it is grotesquely unfair that there should he such a disparity between the representation of the two Coasts. The matter should he ventilated by the public bodies at the iirst opportunity so ; ; s to secure the support of public opinion in backing the request for more equitable representation. It i.s surely not asking too much to request two representatives where before there were two Boards, and this allocation should be insisted upon when the measure i.s before Parliament. Once the Bill is passed it will he extremely difficult to secure a change, so that unless the alteration is effected now, the injustice will go on indefinitely. The various .school committees should lead in the protest, for it is of vital importance to those bodies that their wants should he brought forward and supported by their o\vn representatives. A single member from one locality only could not do justice to the whole requirements of the district. The member should he in touch with the locality and know local conditions if he is to he of service alike to the Board and the district, ljoft solely in the hands of one member, the interests of the district ns a whole would suffer and there should l>o a strong and persistent demand to the Government to give the Coast a fair deal in this matter of representation.