SCHOOL COMMITTEES' CONFERENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 816, 19 March 1910, Page 3

SCHOOL COMMITTEES' CONFERENCE.

A conference of public school committees was held on Thursday evening last, at the Town Hall, Wanganui. There were representatives from Patea and district in the north, from the Main Trunk line, and as lar south as Foxton, the Rev G- K. Aitken having been appointed to represent the local committee.

The conference met at 5 p.m., presided over by Mr W. Bruce, president of the Association, with about thirty delegates present.

The hour before tea was occupied in discussing a constitution for the Association, which was named “The Wanganui School Board District School Committees’ Association,”

The delegates were entertained at tea in Buttlel’s rooms by the Wanganui members of the Association, and a pleasant hour was spent. Several toasts were proposed and honoured, and the delegates found themselves again at work at 7.30. The constitution was fully discussed aud adopted. The principal point in the constitution is the provision for branch associations being formed throughout the district at suitable centres, as the distances from the extremes to Wanganui are too great to admit of representative gatherings. The question of the evening was the reduction to Boards and School Committees of Government grants on behalf of education. There was a perfect unanimity at the conference that the Government was dealing unfairly with the Boards aud committees in reducing the grants, and it was unanimously of opinion that a vigorous protest be made against the Government’s action. A motion was carried that a deputation consisting of the four M.P.’s within the district, members of the Wanganui Kducation Board, aud some members from the school Committees’ Association, wait upon the Minister aud lay before him the needs of the district, and the injury suffered through lack of funds.

A discussion on the erratic way in which holidays were granted was dealt with, and a resolution forwarded to the Board,

Mr Field, of Aromoho, brought an important motion forward on the status of school committees, and while no immediate action was taken, it raised a question of vital importance to the existence aud duties of school committees. The Committees’ Association is a live body, aud will make itself felt, but to be thoroughly effective must have behind it the whole of the school committees throughout the Kducation district.