SATURDAY, JAN. 21, 1899.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 35, 21 January 1899, Page 2

SATURDAY, JAN. 21, 1899.

Grevt dissatisfaction, if not something more serious, is sure to result from th« action 1 of the South Canterbury Board of Education at its meeting on Wednesday last, in reference to one or two vacant teachershrps. Ah everyone knows, the Education Act provides that previous to filling up a vacancy on the staff oi a school, the Board shall consult the comtnittee of that school. Until a comparatively recent date, it was the custom for the Board in this district to consult the committee interested by sending on all applications, except, perhaps. 'those whom the Board, knowing them to be quite unsuitable, would not in any case appoint. Usually tha Board or its officers indicated ■which were the most desirable candidates, and the order in which these might b.e taken, and, as a rule, the committee followed the lead thus given. This course, doubtless the one intended by the Act, always worked well. Some time ago the Board changed its mode of procedure. Instead of forwarding to tne committee ill applications and testimonials, it has sent only a selected list of candidates, and the tendency has been to make this list of the shortest. At last meeting of the Board, applications for three vacant positions were considered. There were three applications for one, five for another, while for the third, ■ the head teachership of Milford school, there were seventeen. The case With three applications was taken first, and it was decided to send orie name to the committee, and the same course, on the casting vote of the chairman, was adopted in the other two case 1 ?. Where the number of applications wt\i small and the positions subordinate ones, the committees will probably accept the Board's nominations, but it is not to bo expected that the Milford Committee will consent to be practically ignored in the appointment of a headmaster. Possibly the candidate selected •by the Board is most suitable, and, as is frequently the ease, the Board is in a better position than the committee to judge in the matter, but that does not alter the fact that it is a farce to send on one name out of seventeen, and call that consulting the committee. We believe the Board's action is a technical compliance with the requirements of the Act ; it is all the same a. most high-handed and ungenerous one, and it will not surprise us if the Milford school committee shows unmistakeably that it thinks so too. The school committees should combine to resist the encroachment on their rights with which we have been dealing. They kwe the remedy in their own hands, and should, place on th» Board only those candidates for seats who are willing to grant the committee an. effective voice in the appointment of. teachers to their respective schools.