50

Mr. GEORGE MADGE TAYLOR,
to be District Constable, Moutere. Date of
Appointment, 12th August, 1861.
ALFRED GREENFIELD,
Chief Clerk.

REPORT OF THE CENTRAL
BOARD OF EDUCATION.

To his Honor J. P. ROBINSON, Esq., Super-
intendent, Nelson.
Nelson, May 6, 1861.

SIR,—
I have the honor to forward to you the
general and building accounts of the Central
Board of Education, to the close of the year
1860, together with an estimate of the coming
year; on each of these it appears desirable
to offer some explanations and remarks.

General Account, 1859–60.

The principal disbursements in this ac-
count are those made to the Local Commit-
tees for Schoolmasters' Salaries.

The legal expenses are those rendered
necessary by the transfer of the property of
the Nelson School Society to the Board, and
the purchase of Freehold sites for schools in
various localities.

The plan, in furtherance of which the sum
of £400 was voted for books and school ap-
paratus, has been successfully carried out.
The schools have been furnished with maps,
and other aids to the teacher, and the child-
ren have had the opportunity of purchasing
their books at prices in many instances below
those at which they are published in England.
They have largely availed themselves of this
privilege, and the proceeds as they arise, are
transmitted to England for fresh purchases.
Mr. Henry Seymour giving to the Board the
aid of his valuable and gratuitous services.

The loan of £3,000 for building pur-
poses having been expended, the Board has
been enabled to supplement it and carry on
the work by making grants from the gene-
ral fund, amounting in this account to
£440 0s. 6d.

General Account for half-year ending
December 31, 1860.

It will here be seen that a change was
made shortly after the present Board was ap-
pointed, by transferring the payment of the
Schoolmasters' salaries from the local Com-
mittees to the Board, and by voting an an-
nual sum of £10 to each school for inciden-
tal expenses, such as small repairs, Station-
ery, Firing, Children's Prizes, &c.

As this alteration has been the subject of
some remarks and misunderstanding, the rea-
sons for making it may be shortly stated:—

The "Education Act" gives to the Cen-
tral Board "the power to erect and maintain
schools, and to provide books, maps, and
other requisites, for the use of such schools,
and to erect and keep in repair dwelling-
houses for teachers, and to pay the teachers
such salaries as the Board shall deem fit."
In other words, it made the Board, composed
of representatives elected by the educational
districts, responsible for the expenditure of
the public money entrusted to it, and left to
the local committees the appointment of the
masters; with the whole moral control of the
management of the schools, subject in certain
cases only to the supervision of the Inspec-
tor of the Board.

But in practice this division of responsi-
bility had been lost sight of. The funds for
salaries and building purposes once voted to
the local committees, were paid in to their
credit, and the control of the Board over
their expenditure was at an end.

In the great majority of cases no practical
inconvenience resulted beyond that which must
always arise in obtaining accounts of expen-
diture, which they are not bound to furnish,
from Committees who have given their gra-
tuitous services, after their term of office
has expired, and when, as happened in some
instances, they had been replaced by a new
Committee, but in some cases the effects were
more serious.

Thus, in one instance, no accounts at all
were furnished for three years, in a second,
the surplus funds were presented to the
teacher, in a third, the master's salary was
left three months in arrear, whilst the
amount was expended for other purposes;
and in a fourth, debts having been incurred,
which were unauthorised by the Board, when
the Committee went out of office, no fresh
one was appointed, and the charge of the
District and its liabilities were thus thrown
upon the Board.

In many cases also expenses had been in-
curred almost unavoidably, by the local com-
mittees, for which no provision had been
made, and the sum of £274 5s. was paid
after a careful scrutiny to balance these ac-
counts, and to clear the newly elected com-
mittees from the liabilities left them by their
predecessors.

Under these circumstances, the Board
unanimously came to the conclusion that it
was bound to carry out strictly the provi-
sions of the "Education Act," whilst, in
order to meet the incidental and casual ex-
penses already spoken of, a sum of £10 for
each school was placed at the disposal of the
local committees.