NEW PLYMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 104, 23 October 1911, Page 4

NEW PLYMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL.

The Board of Governors of the New 'Plymouth High .School is non-elective and responsible to no one but the "Governor-in-C'oiincil." There is probably no other body in the Dominion controlling a high school and accompanying land endowments with such an undemocratic constitution. That is perhaps the reason why there is no othpr body in charge of a .secondary school of the importance of the local one that is as much out of touch with the public and so insensible to what is expected of it, and why the school has not risen to the position it should long ago have enjoyed and which the founders had in their mind's eye—that of being THE secondary scholastic institution of Taranaki. On Saturday we published a message from Wellington that an Amendment Bill had been introduced into Parliament by the Hon. T. Kelly, and read a second time. This Bill seeks to alter the Board's constitution in the desired direction. It i provides that the members of the Board shall be appointed and elected as follows:—Three members shall be appointed by the Governor; one member shall be appointed by the New Plymouth Borough Council; one member shall be appointed by the Taranivki County Council; and two members shall be elected by the parents and guardians of the scholars attending the High .School, The Bill also contains the following provisions:—The first election of members bv parents and guardians as aforesaid shall be held in the month of January, 1012, on a day to be fixed by the Governor. and subsequent elections shall be held on the same day in every succeeoing year; all such elections shall be held in the manner prescribed by regulations. The first members to be appointed by the •Borough and County Councils aforesaid shall be appointed (luring the month of December. 1011. The members in office oil the commencement of this Act shall continue to hold office until the date fixed for the first election of members liy the parents and guardians as aforesaid, and on that date four of the said members shall retire from office. The four to Tetire shall he those who have been longest on the Board without reappoint- \ ment, and in the event of two or more of those members having been in office for an equal length of,time, the member to retire shall be decided by the Board •by lot as between those members. Of the members appointed by the Governor,! one member shall retire in each year! The member to retire in the year 1012 and the member to retire in'the year 1013 shall be decided by the Board by lot, and thereafter the member who has been longest in office without reappointment shall lie the member to retire. The members appointed by the Borough Council and the County Council respectively shall retire annually. Of the members elected hy the parents and guaidians as aforesaid, one member shall retire in each year. The member to retire in the year 1012 shall be decided by the Board by lot, and thereafter the member who has been longest in office without re-election shall be the member lo retire. The members of the Board shall come into office on the' day appointed for the election by the parents and guardians as aforesaid, and shall hold office until their successors shall come into office. Any vacancy which may arise otherwise than by effluxion of time shall be filled liy the person or body who appointed the vacating member J\ e understand that the Bill will not be further proceeded with this session owing to congestion of Parliamentary business, but there is everv possibility nf it reaching the Statute Book the following session, so (hat in a verv short time we may look for a radical alteration in the constitution of the High School Boaril. a desideratum that will be anticipated with interest and gratitude by those who have the welfare of the institution at heart.