South Canterbury Times, TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2444, 18 January 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1881.

The householders of Timaru will have the opportunity on Monday evening of electing a School Committee for the ensuing year. The retiring Committee have done some good work, and we may venture to say they have also made a few mistakes. They have, however, given .away their valuable time and energy gratuitously and ungrudgingly, and although we may be inclined to differ with the action they have taken in some things, we must give them credit for good intentions. We are not aware whether they have grown tired of scholastic harness of if it is their intention to submit to reelection, but we believe the electors might do worse than infuse some new blood, if they do not altogether change the composition of the present Committee. Under the Education Act,

when its clauses are fairly and not arbitrarily interpreted, School Committees possess administrative powers of a most important character. The Education Board is, strictly speaking;, merely a distributing body, whereas the School Committee exercises a controlling judicial prerogative. The Board is but the creation of the united Committees, and beyond having to dole out the funds placed at its disposal to the best advantage, its privileges are exceedingly circumscribed. We are aware that the Board in this district has endeavored to wrest the power of selecting teachers from the hands of the Committees, but these efforts have been successfully resisted. The Education Act may be ambiguous in places, but there can be no mistake about the intention of the Legislature as indicated in the clauses that relate to the dismissal and appointment.of teachers. The power of selection or recommendation is delegated to the Committees, the Board simply retaining the- right of confirmation or veto. The Committees being directly responsible to the parents, have a controlling influence over the schools, teachers, and children to which the Board cannot .legitimately .lay claim. Tt will therefore be seen that the School Committee, as an active part of our educational machinery, is of far more consequence than the Board, even though the latter holds the purse-strings, and 'is, in some respects, a Court of Appeal. In the selection of candidates for the responsible, office of members of committee, it is in the first degree desirable that their opinion of the Education Act should be elicited. Within the past twelve months powerful agencies have been secretly at work, forging the weapons by which it is hoped to stealthily undermine the existing 'national system. . The denominationalists have resolved to make a determined struggle to change the secular character of our schools. Another class, equally powerful and unscrupulous, have determined to rcrclicve their pockets at the expense of poor parents by re-imposing school fees. The existence of antagonistic, organisations points to the advisability of householders taking a greater interest in the election of School Committees than they have done hitherto. It is bad enough to have members presiding on our Education Boards who are opposed to a national system of education, without having false or wavering disciples introduced on the Committees. It matters but little to what religious persuasion the candidates belong, or whether they belong to any religious persuasion at all, so long as they conscientiously approve of a free, secular, and compulsory system and pledge themselves to administer the the Education Act in its integrity. _ If they refuse to do so, however anxious, they may be to thrust themselves forward, the electors will exercise a wise discretion in deeming them ineligible, and declining to place them in a position which they are unfitted to fill, and in which they might be able to do much mischief.

To shew the advisability of tbeparents of Tiinavu insisting upon the Education Act of tin; colony being made the creed of their school representatives we need only allude to one part of the programme of the expiring Committee with which we have joined issue. We refer to the process of- supplementing the incidental' fund ■by means of begging circulars. The Committee justified their action on the ground that the allowance made by the Board was insufficient, and that parents having nothing to pay for tuition, could not reasonably object to a. small levy of.. .this kind. What we have contended is that the Education Act neVer contemplated such expedients for raising the wind on the part of School Committees, and that by their example the Timaru committee were inserting the thin end of a wedge which might end in the re-im-position of fees, and the destruction of oui-national systehl. The introduction of this voluntary subscription process was, in our opinion, a direct violation of the spirit of the Education Act. It was calculated-to .promote vicious distinctions- in - schools between the children of poor parents and those more comfortably situated. Since these circulars were originally distributed, other circulars in reference to prizes, &c., have been issued by the Committee, and on' each occasion the parents have been offensively reminded that their children received their education free, and they were consequently expected to contribute. If we applied a reasonable interpretation to these circulars, we should say that the late Committee was strongly opposed to a free system of national education, and if so they occupied altogether a false position. Parents who take any interest in preserving the present system will do well to attend the annual meeting on Monday evening, so that representatives may be selected who fully approve of the Act which they arc called upon to administer.