LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 209, 10 May 1912, Page 7

LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL

PROTEST BY EDUCATION BOARDS. The North Canterbury Education Board lias circularised the various education hoards throughout- the Dominion •with a view to taking united action in representing to the Government the ne- j eessity of maintaining the present system of control in the education of the young, and with this object they suggest that one or more members should be appointed to meet in conference at Wellington prior to the meeting of delegates on Mav 21 re 'the Local Government Bill. They object to the inclusion of education boards within the scope of tlie Local Government Bill on the following grounds: —(1) That the education of the children was of such vital importance that its administration should be kept entirely separate from that of all other public services, and was sufficient in itself to require the undivided attention of public bodies directly responsible under the Education Department. (2) That as the duties connected with the administration of primary education are utterly dissimilar to those of the other public bodies mentioned in the Bill, no overlapping can be said to exist. (3) That to place the administration in the hands of committees subordinate to public bodies consisting mainly of borough and county councillors would be a retrograde step and eminently unsatisfactory to all concerned, and especially so to school com- m mittees. (4) No good grounds have been disclosed for abolishing the present system under which education boards are elected by the school committees.' (5) The appointment of twenty-four sectional committees with restricted powers and functions to discharge the duties * now performed by education boards would make neither for efficiency nor economy. (6) The tendency of the provincial councils, when appointing education committees, would probably be to appoint their own members, and therefore the expert knowledge sought to be secured by the Bill might not be gained. (7) The introduction of the obnoxious principle of local rating in order to provide part of the cost of school buildings and school sites was a drastic change, which, when foreshadowed last year, met with general and emphatic disapproval, and would undoubtedly tend to weaken, if not to destroy, the present national system. The North Canterbury Board therefore considers that the administration of primary education should continue under the control of bodies elected by school committees for the special purpose of discharging the functions and duties connected with such education.