PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1881. BUILDING SCHOOLS.

Patea Mail, 2 July 1881, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1881. BUILDING SCHOOLS.

It is time the Education Board at Wanganui should be reconstructed. Outside districts are not adequately represented* > Patea district ; has over five thousand people within the education area governed from Wanganui. How are we represented on the" Board ? Two members from this district have seats on the Board, but the whole area north of the Patea river is practically unrepresented. The two who do represent us are supposed to sit for the whole district. But is the County of Wanganui represented only in the same proportion? There must be a central location for the Education, Board, yet that is no reason why the official centre should have a real and expensive preponderance in managing the affairs of 1 a whole district. An Education Board should be itself educated to a proper sense of its'duties, and should know no difference between centre:*and; extremities. The Board’s committee are located at the centre for convenience. The .result has been; that the cpmnjittee have worked the f \Board as if it existed for the benefit of W anganni. The three! committee-men could always count on' one or two of the outside members being absent-from any Board meeting ; and so the local , committee have «worked ” the machinery for; tk>cal advantage. This sort of thing should be stopped. Let another country meth-; her be appointed for the north, and one more for the south .The present, balance! is condemned by the unfair preference to.; Wanganui' The Chairman of the Board, acknow-; ledges tsat Wanganui has been fkypr|d ; in the proportion of school expenditure. The admission is superfluous. It is like ; piling ; up'tob much evidence of the pame sort. Yet the Board have just been

-asked by a depntaligq ,to grant .£4OO [ out of £IOOO to rebuild one Infant School at Wanganui. They would not, press for £4OO if .the Board, could not give-it, but would accept admitted the accommodation is sufficient if the infants -under five years are not 'replrdbedi' It was admitted ’-also that there is an extra building known as the bid school which is used at present; but thisHs not grand enough for modwtr Wanganui, and so the local School Committee want to put a fire-stick to TETolcfraairig, as one of them said } and get<-a hattdlome hew ; school in its place. This sort of argument was too much even for some local members,-who timidly put in a plea for the urgent claims from blit-districts' which had been standing over for want of funds. When funds did reach the Board to the extent of £IOOO for school buildings, the natural modesty of. Wanganui could not contain itself, but sent a deputation to gobble £4OO or even £2OO. The Board had the sense to say nay; this time.