PRPOSED AMALGAMATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1853, 10 December 1874, Page 2

PRPOSED AMALGAMATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

MEETING OP SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

A meeting of members of the various . School Committees was called for last night by Mr Adam Porter, the primary object being the discussion of the proclamation issued by the Central Board of Education making the Thames one district. Neither Tararu nor Parawai were represented. There were present: Mr Wm. Kowe (Chairman), and Messrs Mcllhone, Sims, Dewar, Porter, Speight, Lawlor, Greenville, Berry and O'Haire. The meeting having been called by Mr Porter, that gentleman said he had called the members together in consequence of conservation he had had with other members of the Committee relative to the proposed amalgamation of the educational districts into one. They believed the amalgamation would be unsuitable in many respects, and considered it right to call a meeting to protest against the action taken by the Central Board. He had done so in the absence of Mr Howe, who would have been requested to do it had he been at the Thames at the time. The question, now was could they effect anything by a protest now the amalgamation had been gazetted. Mr. Lawlor said the question suggested itself, had the Central Board acted on their own responsibility in the matter. If so, they paid no compliment to the committees, to whom some deference ought to have been shown. In no part of the Province had the Education scheme succeeded so well as it had done on the Thames; and the Committees should therefore have received from the Board the attention to which they were entitled. Mr. Speight said the Board had acted entirely upon its own responsibility, and he thought the least it could have done would have been to ask the opinions of Committees. At a meeting held at the Governor Bowen, when Mr. O'isullivan was present, for the ostensible purpose of forming a High School, it was said it would be advisable to turn the four districts into one. He did not attend that meeting, because he understood that it was being held for a specific purpose not connected; with committees, but had he known that the question of amalgamation would be introduced, he should have been there to oppose it. If they could not now protest against the action of the Central Board they could at least express their views on the subject. Mr Mcllhone said the conclusion the Board appeared to have come to was that if the matter were placed before the several committees and one were to object it would be difficult to act in the face of that objection.

The Chairman said lie had received no intimation of the change. His opinion was that the amalgamation was brought about in consequence of some communication from the Secretary of the Kauaeranga Board, who had received a letter from the Secretary of the Board of .Education. The whole transaction appeared to be irregular and uncertain in the extreme. He had sent a letter to the Board expressing his views on the matter; (We publish the letter as follows : — "I cannot approve of the action taken by the Central Board, in amalgamating all the school districts at the Thames, until some provision is made for the election of a larger commit"tee; As at present, the representation of districts could not be equalised, and it will cause strife and dissension; and, moreover, it should not have been done without consulting the several committees on the subject, and I wish to protest against the course taken. 1 quite approve of the unity of the districts, but provision should be made. The action is nuprecedented, and the work has been clumsily performed —W. Bowe." Mr Bowe said further that he had received a private letter from Mr Moss requesting him to meet Mr Berry regarding the election of a committee. But he had nothing to do with private communications, and would not recognise them. The Waiqtahi Com* mittee had expressed themselves in the matter very strongly. Some conversation ensued, in which all \ the bearings of the question were freely ' discussed. It appeared letters of an unofficial character 1 had passed between members of committees and the Central Board. Mr Speight said in the letter fo Mr Berry the Board siated that the Committees would be communicated with, but no communications had been made. He suggested they should send up a united protest against the steps taken. They should be better able to judge about the district than the Board. The whole thing seemed to have been conducted privately. A letter was read from the Secretary to Mr Berry relative to the subject, and stating that actioft had been taken chiefly on the recommendation contained in Mr Berry's letter. Mr Berry explained that he had never aeked them to do so. He considered now that the whole place could be worked much more harmoniously as one district. He had merely stated facts. The general opinion of the meeting being that some steps should be taken to give expression to the feeling on this point— ; Mr Mcllhone moved sthe following re-' solution :—" That this meeting considei'3 it to be most injurious to the welfare of the present school management at the Thames to make the alterations as determined by the Central Board with regard to the amalgamation of the several school districts at the Thames, until such time as provision is made by law for an increase in the number of members of school committees in large districts; and this meeting, would respectfully suggest to the Central Board the advisability of deferring the proposed amalgamation until such time as the increase in Committees becomes law." Mr Sims seconded the motion. Mr Berry thought little success would be achieved by this course. It would not be wise to suggest any alteration. They would be saying, here you are fighting amongst yourselves. Mr Eowe said there was no fighting. Mr Berry said there was, about the High School —the Kauaeranga Committee wanted it in their district, and the Waiotabi in theirs. • Mr Eowe said the Waiotahi Board had never expressed any opinion about it. They only wanted to be consulted. Mr Berry, in answer to an observation from Mr Sims, said he could not see what right the Waiotahi people had to dive into the question of their action regarding the High School. Mr Eowe said they had a right because the Committee had taken away a teacher from the Waiofahi School, contrary to agreement entered into at a meeting in the Exchange Building. Mr Berry contended that no agreement had been come to, and asked for proofs. After some further remarks, the motion was put and carried. Some desultory discussion ensued regarding the best position for a High School site. Eeferring again to the action of the Central Board, Mr O'Haire said that the best course to pursue was to suffer the extinction they had received, and quietly retire. He further remarked that the Board had been in the habit of receiving private opinions fiom committeemen and then making use of them officially. He considered the action of the Board ungentlemanly, and disrespectful. The Waiotahi Board —of which he had been a member from the first—had always done its duty well, and they should at least been consulted. Mr Greenville said it appeared that the Education Act had proved too successful on the Thames, and attempts were being made to wreck it. Mr Speight said^two enemies of the Act being placed upon the proposed committee of five would be quite sufficient to kill it. The idea embodied iv some suggestions made by the Board, that the committees might elect a single member from out of each of the bodies to be nominated by the public as the committee, was very generally rejected by those present as impracticable. , . ■ After some further "discussion of a general kind the meeting adjourned.