THE EDUCATION BILL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 32, 2 September 1871, Page 2

THE EDUCATION BILL.

[Tndkpkndenx, August, 28.] Tub Education Hill, so anxiously looked for, is at last published Wo propose to enumerate its principal provisions. Clause :i provides that there shall be a Minister of Education, being « a responsible .Minister of the Crown." This Minister is, by the 4th clause, to be ex officio a member of the Council of the University of New Zealand, and is to generally administer the Act. The sth section provides that the Governor may appoint a Secretary and Inspectors of Schools. The 6th clause provides that each province is constituted an education district. For every province the 7th provides there shall be an education board. Clauses 7 to 18 define the power and functions of the provincial boards. Clause 18 gives the board power to appoint teachers. The next two clauses refer to the nature and duration of their appointments. Clause ai provides that upon the memorial of not less than five of the inhabitants of an)' locality praying for the erection of such locality into a school district, the board shall ascertain fully the circumstances of the case, and if necessary call, by advertisement, a meeting of the occupiers of land and householders in the locality to elect a school committee. Sections 22 to 20 lay clown rules for the guidance of these school committees. Section 26 provides that if no school committee is elected the board may appoint commissioners. Sections 27 to 37 define further the powers and privileges of these school committees. Section 37 provides for common schools being converted into grammar schools ; 38 provides how the latter are to be conducted; 39 provides for model schools; 40 for high schools; 41 provides for high schools for girls ; 42 provides for trustees of schools relinquishing their trust to the board, and so private or denominational schools may become public schools ; 43 provides for libraries in school districts; ,44, libraries for teachers' associations; 45, exhibitions and scholarships ; and 46 for free schools. Clause 47 regulates fees to be paid in schools and exemptions; 48 provides for their collection. Clause 49 enumerates the purposes for which the board may expend funds ; 50 empowers the Governor to make advances for providing school buildings ; 51 prescribes the purposes to which the Governor may apply appropriations by the General Assembly. Clause 52 provides for aided schools in districts not within school districts; 53 for aided schools within school districts. Clause 54 provides that the Minister of Education may grant aid to a public school when refused by board without reasonable cause, and charge it against the capitation money of the province so refusing. Clause 55 defines what schools are deemed public schools ; 56 what provincial schools. Clause 57 provides for the inspection of schools ; 58 gives power to the Governor to cause inspection to be made of all schools, reformatories, gaols, hospitals, &c, maintained wholly or in part by the public revenue. Clause 59 provides that the parent or guardian of every child not less than seven or more than twelve, within a distance of two miles from the nearest provincial aided or other school, shall send such child to school. 60 provides the exemptions pleadable, which are—(l) That the child is under efficient instruction elsewhere : (2) That he is prevented by sickness or other unavoidable cause : (3.) That the road is not sufficiently passable ; (4.) That one of the Government Inspectors, or a master of any public school, certifies that the child has reached a standard of education prescribed by this act; 61 provides that if the child is not sent to school, notice is to be served on parents ; 62 provides that if the parent refuses or neglects to send the child to school, he may be summoned before the Justices, and ordered to do so. 63 provides that if he neglects such order he is liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings ; 64 provides that if so ordered the children are not to be refused admission on account of refusal or neglect to pay the fees. Clause 65 prescribes how those compulsory orders are to be attained.

Proceeding with our resume of the principal clauses of the Education Bill, we next note that the (30th clause gives the Governor in Council power to make,

alter, and repeal regulations and orders for the following purposes:

(1.) For tho organisation and management of tho department of education, and for fixing the salaries of the officers thereof. (2) For tlie apportionment and administration of a 1! moneys granted by the General Assembly for purposes of publie education. (3.) For the inspection of schools and the educational department of public institutions, and for defining the duties and powers of Government inspectors cf schools. (4.) For fixing the kinds and grades of elementary schools to be established in school districts. (5.) For the examination and classification of teachers. (6.) For the employment, education, and examination of pupil-teachers. (7.) For the issue of certificates of competency to teachers. (8.) For the examination and classification of candidates for provincial scholarships. (9.) For the establishment and management of a colonial normal or training college, of provincial model schools. (10.) For defining the standard of education which must be reached by a child, entitling such child to be exempted from attendance at a public school. (11.) For the guidance generally of education boards, school committees, school teachers, and others, in the carrying out, of »he provisions of this act, and for such other purposes as it is specially provided in this act that regulations may be made by the Governor in Council.

Clause 67 requires the Minister of Education to report annually to the Governor upon the progress and condition of public education in New Zealand. Clause 68 requires every board to furnish the Minister with a report of its proceedings during the previous year. Clause 60 compels the teachers of provincial and aided schools to make returns when required by the board or the Minister furnishing such information as may be desired. The 70th clause provides that for every province sufficient public school accommodation must be provided. The 71st clause provides that the Minister upon the report of a Government inspector of schools, or upon the complaint of not fewer than five persons being parents of families resident in any locality,, that there is a want or an inadequate supply of public school accommodation, shall refer the complaint to the Board of the province whose duty is forthwith to make all necessary enquiries, and if the complaint is proved to be well founded " therefore to take such steps as it may seem best for supplying such want or deficiency." The 72nd clause provides that if after three months the deficiency is not supplied, and a complaint to that effect is made to the Minister he will inquiries, and (clause 73) call upon the board to supply the deficiency. The next clause is important, and we give it in full:— If the board fail to comply with the requisition within three months after the sending of such requisition aforesaid, the Minister may take such steps as to him may seem fit for providing the required public school accommodation ; and all expenses incurred in thus providing such public school accommodation shall from time to time, as occasion may require, be by the Colonial Treasurer charged against and defrayed out of the capitation money payable under " The Payments to Provinces Act, 1870," to the province within which the public school accommodation is to be or has been provided as aforesaid by the Minister. Clause 76 requires every board in the month of January each year to make an estimate of its income and expenditure for the year, and if the amount of its revenue from lands, provincial appropriations or any other sources is insufficient to cover all the expenses, then it shall be lawful for the board to levy a provincial education rate to make up the estimated deficiency by a rate which by the next clause may he either an annual value rate or household rate as the board may determine. The 78th clause defines what property shall be rateable, and what exempted, and enacts that the annual value rate shall not exceed sixpence in the pound of the full net annual value, and the household rate shall not exceed the amount of twenty shillings for each house. Clause 79 enacts that Every annual value provincial education rate which the education board of any province is authorised to make or levy shall be made and levied by them at such periods as they shall think fit upon every person who occupies, or if there be no occupier then upon the| owner of any rateable property whatsoever within such province, according to the full net annual value of such property : Provided that every person occupying under lease or license Crown lands for pastoral purposes only shall be rated in respect of the same in proportion of one-third part only of such net annual value thereof as aforesaid. Every household provincial education rate which the education board of any province is authorised to make shall be levied by them at such periods as they think fit equally upon every person who occupies a house within the province. Clauses 80 and 81 provide further for

levying and amending rates. The 82nd clause provides for valuation by assessors of all rateable property, and a return of according to the form of rate imposed in each case.

And in every valuation for the purposes of an annual value rate the property rateable shall be computed at its net annual value (that is to eay) at the rent, at which the same might reasonably be expected to let from year to year free of all usual tenants' rates and taxes and deducting therefrom the probable average annual cost of the repairs, insurance, aud other expenses (if any) necessary to maintain such property in a ftate to command such rent: Provided that all rateable property which shall not since the sale, alineation, or other disposition thereof by the Crown have been improved by building, cultivation, or enclosure, or in other like manner, shall be computed as of the net annual value of five per centum upon the fair capital value of the fee simple thereof.

The remaining clauses provide for appeals against the rate to the Resident Magistrate's Court or petty sessions, regulate the cost of appeals, provide for the summary recovery of the rates, for the owner to pay the annual value rate in default of the occupier, for the rate due from the owner being recovered from the occupier, to be by him deducted from the rent, for a district levying a special rate .of not exceeding three pence in the pound, for defraying the district's proportion of the expense of building or improving the school buildings of the district, or for increasing the efficiency of the school or schools ; for empowering the board to levy a district school rate to defray the expenses of any commissioners they may find necessary to appoint in consequence of a local committee not being appointed or refusing to act; for enabling the Governor to make reserves for sites and endowments for schools, and vest these in the board, and for transferring all lands heretofore reserved as sites or endowments for schools, and now vested in the Superintendent, or any board, or other body, and subject to piovisions of provincial acts or ordinances to the education board of each province, and vesting them in the Board immediately upon its being constituted under the act. There are two schedules to the bill. The first enumerates all the provincial acts in force providing generally for education, and for management of school reserves. The second is the notice which any member of a school committee may give to a parent neglecting to send his child to school, and is as follows : To A.B.

You are hereby required to send your child CD., between the ages of seven and twelve years, to a public school; and if you fail to do so you will be summoned before two Justices of the Peace to answer for such neglect.

If your said child is (1) under efficient instruction otherwise than at a public school, or (2) if it is prevented from attending school by sickness or unavoidable cause, or (3) if the road between the child's residence and the nearest public school is not sufficiently passable for your child, or (4) if you have obtained a certificate in writing from a Government Inspector of Schools or the master of any public school, that your child has reached the standard of education prescribed by the regulations, and if you satisfy the school committee of any of these facts, you will receive a certificate exempting you from sending your child to school. In case you are unable to pay the school fees, on application to the school committee, or on appearing before two Justices of the Peace, they will determine whether your child shall be admitted at the public school free of charge, or what sum per week, month, or quarter, not exceeding the rate usually charged at such school, shall be paid to the school committee, managers, or teacher of the school for the education of your child. F.F., A member of the school committee of the district of Dated this day of 18 .