WOMEN ON SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43085, 27 April 1907, Page 4

WOMEN ON SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Apropos of School Committee elections it is interesting to note that the Vnldhurst prinjary school (Christchurch) is controlled >by a committee composed entirely of women, and thiat the innovation has been working satisfactorily for three years. The members say they have been very Well treated bv everyone. When they first took office some of their neighbours were inclined to look .'upon them with suspicion, perhaps with -a little pity but when the householders saw that they intended to carry lout their duties in' a quiet and 'businesslike Way, they began to think that there-,might not be any objection to -a committee of women after all. Now they seemed to have entire 'Confidence in the administration, and the men .declared that they hlad no desire to undertake work again which the women could do so well. The chairwoman, in a recent interview with a reporter, was very careful to make it plain that she had no fault to find with the way the mem had done their work. They were very busy, slie said, and occupied with other affairs, and they could not be expected to understand children as well as women did. But she thought that without reflecting on the men in any way, she coyld say that the general condition of the school had been much improved during the past three years. The teachers and the children felt that more sympathetic 'attention was bring given to their. affairs, that their interests were being closely watched, and that the committee was anxious to give' them all the assistance it could. The members of. the committee were all ready to acknowledge the courtesy they had received from the men, even from those they hiad supplanted, in the management of the school. “They say they don’t mean to take up the work again,” one smilingly explained “now* they see we dan do it so well.” There are some trifling disadvantages, however, in! having a committee composed entirely of women. Just now the Yaldhurst ladies are arranging r ai bee’ among their male Mends to do some fencing and other work about the school, which they 'are scarcely able to undertake themselves. “If We were only -m'eni,” the secretory * protested, “we shouldn't have to worry the husbands and brothers.” They do not daim ; that women should monopolise the) management of the stehlool; indeed, they think that a mixed committee, especially in the towns, Would be better than one composed Wholly of women; but they believe that the members of their sex are 'always capable of doing, good Work where children have to be oared for, and the results they have achieved certainly justify their belief.