CENTRAL CONTROL

Hokitika Guardian, 1 August 1927, Page 4

CENTRAL CONTROL

EDUCATION IN DOMINION. A NATIONAL CONCERN. (Taxpayer). Air A. Burns, the chairman of the Auckland Education Board, has banded to the press a statement in which lie strongly deprecates the proposal

that the education hoards should be abolished and tlie administration of the primary schools entrusted to the Department! iof innd the school committees. His objections to the proposal appear to be (1) that lhe Auckland teachers would lose the ‘’scope - ’ they (now enjoy; (d) that electors would be robbed of their opportunity to remove members of the Board who did not give satisfaction, and (3) that the 'Minister, deprived of the advice of the boards, would become “merely the mouthpiece of his Department.’’ The “scope” Mr Burns would preserve for the Auckland teachers apparently is some perquisite they enjoy on account of the size ot tlieir district. If this perquisite were justified by the circumstances there would be no reason why it should disappear with the abolition ol" the boards. As for the electors privilege of ejecting from office unsatisfactory members of the boards, tins would be lost in one shape, only to be recovered in another. When the boards were abolished the school committees ol necessity would be endowed with wider powers than they possess at pro sent and unsatisfactory committee men could be dealt with as unsatisfactory members of boards may be dealt with now. No qualified elector would be denied the expression of bis righteous indignation at the ballot box. The 1 assumption that the abolition of the 1 education boards would forthwith reduce the Minister to the status of an automaton in the hands of the off', cers of liis Department is simply ridiculous. Ministers of the Crown, while giving due weight to the experience and judgment of their administrative officers, are not in the habit of dele gating their own authority and responsibilities to members of their staff. In the concluding paragraph of his I appeal to the public to save the eduction boards from extinction, Mr Burns betrays an astounding misconception of the difference between these hoards and the other local governing bodies he mentions in the essential matter of finance. “fi education boards arc abolished how about other local governing bodies, such as hospital and (harbour ’boards?” he asks. “The operations,” ho declared, answer, ing his own question with a cheery disregard to the facts, “could be controlled by officials in Wellington, the same as proposed for education aflairs. It is amusing to hear those in authority stating that they have to pro vide the money and claiming what they have done for education. But they are only trustees for the public and distribute the public’s money.” j No ione, except perhaps Mr Burns, i imagines that when a Minister talks I of having provided the money for tins I public service or that lie intends to imply lie (has found the necessary funds out of his own pocket. But the attempt Mr Burns makes fo establish I an analogy between education hoards j and the hospital boards, and harbour

boards, lie mentiones in order to give weight to his argument, surely is the quaintest of all his quaint expedients. T;ho educations boards obtain their whole revenue, through the Education Department, from the Consol) dated Fund, to which every taxpayer in the Dominion contributes, while the hospital boards and the harbour boards obtain their revenue from local rates, services rendered and Govern nicnt subsidies. In the case of the harbour boards the groat hulk of the revenue is obtained from the services of the hoards and their staff, and in each case there is only one spending authority, whose audit is accepted by the Government. Surely it is not too much to expect that in reflection Mr Burns will recognise the difference. Mr Burns finds comfort in the fact that “the Prime Minister lias taken steps to reduce central control in the If ail way Department." and thinks “«!liis has shown so marked an improvement- ’ that “it should be extended to other departments." Doubtless Mr Coates himself will he surprised by his friends’ discovery. The Railway Board possesses all the powers that formerly were held by the General Manager. It has delegated however. to officers attached to certain sec tions of railway line 'extern cl eel powers of a purely local character with the object of saving Lime, assuring efficiency and lessening cost. How this improved organisation assists Mr Burns’ appeal for the preservation ol the 'education boards it is difficult to conceive.. TKe ■genera,! poSic.y of the railway system of the Dominion is absolutely controlled by the Railway Board under the authority of the Minister. In other words the divisional .superintendents, one in each island are responsible to the Railway Board for the general running of all trains in their respective divisions and for the efficiency of the service, just as the school inspectors are responsible to the Education Department for the efficiency of the school staffs and for the quality of the teaching. The district traffic managers, the district chief clerks and officers of a similar status ail aro responsibe to the central authority, hut without the loss of tune, the duplication of work and the waste of money perpetuated in the* GiR: ition Department by the maintenn ee of a system of administration which served its purpose well enough tlii ty or forty years ago. in the days of sparso population and irregular communication, but which in this genc.n- ---■ tiou is a positive hindrance to ] regressive development.