EDUCATION BOARD ELECTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1845, 27 June 1918, Page 2

EDUCATION BOARD ELECTION.

YESTERDAY nominations closed for seats on the ,Wanganui Education Board. The Boat’d district is divided up into two urban areas (Wanganui and Palmerston), and three wards, viz., West, North, and South. Foxton is included with forty-seven other schools in the Southern Ward. For this ward there arc' two representatives, and one is required 'at.'the present ejection, which takes place on July 17th. Mr Alf. Fraser has been one of the representatives for this Ward for many years, and at each election has been returned unopposed, but on this occasion he is to contest the seat with Mr Hornblow, Chairman of the local State School Committee. The voting' is restricted to members of school committees —a very limited franchise. However, the point is that matters educational require stirring up, and the time is opportune to get new blood on to the Board. The conditions of some of the school buildings in this ward are nothing short of scandalous, and it is no use Board members} shrugging their shoulders and blaming the Department. It is their duty to arouse the general public and education boards throughout the Dominion, and make a combined attack, upon the Department, and force the hand of the Government for pressing reforms. But this will not be done unless school committees see to it that men are elected to the Board with the cause of education at heart, and with courage, initiative and enthusiasm, determined to overcome, obstacles which stand in the way of the educational welfare of the rising generation.

* ft ft ft THE Feilding Shir, after referring to Mr Ilornblow’s connection with ednentionnl affairs under the Wellington and Wanganui Boards, says :

We can heartily recommend Mr Hornblow to the Committees in the ward. His public life stands eminently to his credit. He is the live wire of the Hospital Board for this Coast, and has shown both sympathy with the patients and a grip of the essentials of the management of the institution. He would bring the energy of new blood into the Education Board, and he is a strong supporter of the recommendations for more teachers and a greater efficiency of the educational system that are being so opportunely placed before parents by the Educational Institute. “Better buildings” is one of Mr Hornblow’s slogans, attention to this need having been more and more impressed upon the Education Department, The Foxton Chairman has gone around the district with his eyes open, and he knows of the scandalous condition of some of the school buildings in this district. It is no sinecure for a business man to give his services to the State and the general public as a member of-an Education Board, but Mr Hornblow having decided to offer himself as a candidate for the Southern Ward, there is no doubt he will devote his time and talents wholeheartedly thereto —and we,expect he will be elected.