SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3769, 25 March 1891, Page 2

SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

As the annual elections of School Committees throughout the colony take place next mont'i, a summary of the new Act under which the elections will be held should be ot interest and service to our readers. In addition to the abolition of the cumulative vote several important alterations have been made in the details. Not later than the first Monday in April the Education Boards fix the date of the annual meeting of householders to elect committees, and call upon the householders to nominate persons for the new committees. Nomination papers must be signed by the proposer and the candidate. The nominations must be in the hands of the chairman on or before the third Monday in April, and upon the third Tuesday a list of the names of candidates is posted upon the outer door of the school. If only seven candidates are nominated they are duly elected, and the annual meeting has practically nothing to do. If less than seven are nominated they are duly elected, and the meeting nominates and elects the balance. If more than seven have been nominated, the election proceeds in the manner following :—ln every school district within a borough the committee provide a ballot-box, -which remains open at the schoolhouse from 9 o'clock on the day of th e election until the hour of meeting, and any householder may vote during the day. In school districts not a borough, the chairman of the existing committee receives the ballot papers, which must have the voter's name thereupon, or on a separate slip of paper attached or enclosed in an envelope and to be in the Chairman's hands by 4 o'clock. The votes received during the day are taken into account at the meeting in the evening, and no person who has already voted may receive another voting paper. Anyone therefore, who votes during the day loses the auonyuiitv of his vote, and his signature must be attested by a Justice of the Pei»ce, apostmaster,or a State-school-master. The proceedings at the meeting in the evening are to be much the same as at present, except that no voter may give any candidate more than one vote. Only householders may take part in the election, and a householder is defined by the act to mean any mule or female person who (being the owner, lessee, or tenant) resides in any dwellinghouse within the school district, and the parent or guardian or other person who has the actual custody of any child attending any State school situated within such district; and in school districts situated in a proclaimed goldfieid also means and includes every holder, not being an alien, of a miners right. The act (says the Otago Times) lias boen so loosely drawn up that it does not limit the number of candidates any householder may nominate, and it, no doubt inadvertently, seems to permit plural voting, since a parent may be a householder in one district and he entitled to vote as such, and the parent or guardian of children attending a school in another, ano the act docs not forbid him to vofct iq both, nor in as many move as h( is qualified for. Neither does th< act provide for any custodian ot the ballot box during the day, nor specif] the form of the ballot papers. Whih briefly describing the new method o electing committees, we have pur posely avoided raising doubtfu points, m which the act appears ti abound. They will become apparen in the actual work of administration They may be avoided by thi exercise of common sense, Possiblj the act may bo amended next sessior and as it provides for the partici pation of chairmen of existing com juitteos, who may be presumed to b( conversant with the usual procedure we do not doubt that complication: may be avoided. But negligence o the preliminaries may lead to serious mischief.