The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1912. THE HIGH SCHOOL BOARD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 249, 20 April 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1912. THE HIGH SCHOOL BOARD.

At the High School Board meeting the other day the question of the constitution of the Hoard was raised by a motion from Mr. E. Doekrill in the direction of giving the parents of children attending the school greater direct representation on the Board. Under the Bill introduced into Parliament last session by the Hon. T. Kelly it waa suggested that three members should be nominated by the Governor, one each by the Taranaki County Council and tine New Plymouth Borough Council, and two by the parents or guardians of the children. Mr. Dockr;U's suggestion was that the County Council and the Borough Council should be eliminated as nominating bodies, and the parental representation increased to three. But this wicked proposition moved Mr. 0. Eyre-Kenny to an access of holy horror, which, however admirable in its righteousness, was almost hurtful in its expression. "Parents," he said pathetically, "were too apt to foe ruled by their children. They had prejudices, founded often on children's complaints, and three members elected in this fashion would perhaps give a preponderating influence of a dangerous and mischievous kind. The present constitution of the Board was, in his opinion, an excellent one. If elected, as ntow proposed, the Board would be an inferior one." Of course, when Sir Oracle opens hie mouth in this fashion it behoves no dog to 'bark," but, at the risk of wounding 'Mr. EyreKenny's tender susceptibilities, we must join issue with him on this matter. He may, of course, have been reflecting the influence upon his parents of his own distant youth, and have been speaking with the loud voice of personal experience, but he -will find it hard to convince the community that the children of today are the rulers of the family circle. The suggestion is a deliberate insult to the intelligence of the parents, and is not at all complimentary to his own. The parents of the children have a far greater interest in the well-being of the school than even the most learned and mighty outsiders, and the whole history of social and educational organisations goes to prove that they are best administered by those directly interested. The suggestion, too, that the Board as at present constituted is an admirable one, is open to very grave doubt. Of course it ought to be, for it says so itself, and there should be no appeal from such a haughty and dignified protestation. Still, a naughty and frivolous community that has not quite such an egotistical "guid conceit o' theirsol's," even at the risk of making (Mr. Eyre-Kenny and his staid and sober fellow-counsellors very angry, is prepared to rebelliously dispute the suggestion that the constitution of the [Board cannot be improved. Frankly, it is ponderously out of date, and a leaven of live youthfulness to stir its old bones would materially assist the progressive headmaster of the school and improve its efficiency. We do not count our years until we have nothing else I; ft Lo count, and Mr. Evre-Ivenny, in his

condemnation of modern methods, appears to be approaching the time when he will be necessarily engaged in this gentle mathematical problem. So far from disapproving of Mr. Dockrill's proposal, it is, we consider, hardly sufficiently democratic, arid it could be improved by an extension of the franchise for the election of the people's representatives to the householders as a whole, ir we and our children are the fools Mr. EyreKenny depicts us, we should logically have no representation on the Board at all. Having admitted the principle, he simply stultifies himself in condemning its extension.