The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1876.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 165, 8 November 1876, Page 2

The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1876.

This district lias always shown a most creditable interest in the cause of education, and the provisions of the now ‘•'Education Boards Act,” which has recently passed, will be read eagerly wc have no doubt. Wo have not yet received the Act in question, and are therefore indebted to our Taranaki contemporary for the following abstract. It came into operation the day after the prorogation of Parliament. It provides “ that all the Boards at present in existence shall remain so until the Ist December, 1877, the present members holding office, and in the event of any or all refusing to act, the Governor has power to appoint others in their stead. The Boards arc-to be corporate bodies, and by that name to have perpetual succession and a common seal, and may take and hold land for the purposes of the Act. All the property, powers, and duties that present Boards or the Superintendents possess for educational purposes in any Province are vested in the newly-created Boards. The present rules of Boards are to remain in force, hut they may be altered, subject to such alterations being approved of by the Governor. The Boards have to meet at least once a month, and the chairmen have an original as well as a casting vote. The Act provides that no resolution or decision come to at any meeting of a Board shall be revoked or altered at any subsequent meeting unless notice has been given previously. The powers and duties of local committees are to remain unaltered, but the Boards are to cause an inspection to be made of all schools within the district, and to forward a report of the same to the Minister. All moneys received by the Board are to he paid into the Bank, to the “Education Fund of the District,” which may be expended for the following purposes: —(1.) For payment of salaries and other expenses connected with the administration of the affairs of the Board. (2.) For purchasing or renting school sites, playgrounds, and buildings, or for erecting, fitting up, repairing and improving school buildings and playgrounds. (3.) For payment of teachers salaries. (4.) For establishment and maintenance of normal or model schools. (5.) The establishment of scholarships. (G.) Subsidising school libraries. (7.) and generally for payment of all expenses necessarily All rates, with the exception of capitation rates for children, authorised to be levied for education.purposes by the Ordinance, are abolished, but all capitation rates on account of any children of any householder, and all school fees or _ rates of any scholars attending a public school are authorised to be continued to be levied and collected. All land reserved as sites for schools or as endowment for educational purposes under “ The Public Deserves Act, 1854,” or other Acts, are vested in the Boards, who may let such land . for any period not exceeding twenty-one years, but such letting has to be done by public auction. The Boards, with the consent of the Governor, may raise money by mortgages

without a power of sale of any portion or portions of the land vested in them, or by means of debentures, and such money may be expended in the erection, enlargement, or improvement of school buildings or other works of permanent utility. The Boards have to keep accounts of the expenses and disbursements, and snob accounts and balancesheets, audited in such manner as the Governor may order, are to be forwaided to the Minister along with the annual reports of the Boards. The report has to contain a full account of the income and expenditure of the Board, a list of schools and such information relative to educational matters as the Minister may direct. There is a clause in the Act which gives the Governor power, if lie thinks fit, to place temporarily under the charge or control of a Board, or School Committee, any public library, Mechanics’ Institute, museum, or educational institution of a like character, for which no adequate provision had been made. The Act is now in operation.”