EDUCATION DISTRICTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1916, Page 3

EDUCATION DISTRICTS.

A CURIOUS POINT OF LAW. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Jan. 21. Recently the Crown Law Office has been called upon to interpret a point ot law in connection with the re-arran»e-'ni'iit of the education districts. The Education Department is about to issue regulations governing the election of the Education Boards in July next, but the solicitors to the Otago Education Board have held that tile extensions of the term of ,tho old Boards, from January to August, under the amending Act o"f last year, extended the operation of sections S to 3i of the old Act, so as to include all matters, concerning the election of Boards up to August. If this opinion were upheld, the existing boards, and not the Education Department, would exercise authority in connection with the elections in July. The Minister for Education disagreed with the Otago Board. He held "that the provision for the extension of the term had reference only to any steps •eccssary for the maintenance of the old Boards, and had no relation to proceedings taken in anticipation of the constitution of the new Boards.

The interpretation placed upon the Act by .the Minister has been upheld by the Solicitor-General, who states that the purpose of section 4 of the Education Amendment Act, 1015 (No. 2), was :to supersede or interpret the unworkable provisions of the Act of 1014- as to the first election of the new Education -Boards by means of regulations' issued by ,thc Governor in Council. It was expressly provided by the section that for the purpose of providing for the first election the Governor in Council might make such regulations as he deemed necessary or expedient, and all such regulations were to have ;the force of law, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the principal Act. The Soli-citor-General, therefore, had no doubt ■that regulations might be effectively made providing that the election should be held on the third Wednesday in July, lfllli. in accordance with the provisions of the second schedule of the Act of 1914, with such amendment of that schedule as might be required to make it workable. The existing Boards must be nominated to conduct the election, the secretaries of the Boards being made returning officers.

Regulations are now being drafted accordingly. One of the regulations will deal with school districts that are partly in rural areas and partly in urban areas. It will be provided that a school district of this character shall be deemed to be wholly within the area in which the principal school buildings of the district are situated, or within such area as the Director of Education may determine.