The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-03-29
COUNTY GOVERNMENT ACT
SCHOOL LAWS.
Sections That overlap and Others That
Contradict Each Other-Tuition Fees
In Public Schools.

tenn provided for in the Makekau coun-
ty government act bears evidence of
having been clipped from various
sources, without correction of many
overlapping provisions, repetitions and
laws made for eastern communities
Instead of being a digested law or a
thought-out system, it appears to be
collection of extracts from other laws,
hung together without even enough
editing to harmonize them with one an
other or with conditions in Hawaii.
There are two directly contrary sec
lions regarding the salary of the county
superintendent of Public instruction.
Chapter n, section l, says that the
county superintendent shall receive ST.
900 per annum. Chapter 10, section',
says that mo county superintendent
shall receive to exceed $1,000 per an
num-" and gives a schedule of salaries,
rated according to population of the
counties, from $400 year up. Both
sections were evidently clipped from
some law book by different Legislators
who were helping in making the bill,
or by one man who forgot one when ne
approved the other.
Such phrases as summer and winter
terms" further betray hasty clipping
from an Eastern law and one section
has a provision for securing fuel for
schoolhouses. The man whose scissors
cut that section from some other Citys
law can scarcely have even read it and
it will be hard for the authors of the
bill in the face of such slips as these
to argue that they have given the sys-
TEN much study.
The office OF county superintendent of
public instruction is also created twice,
once in section s of chapter and again
in section / of chapter 10. me latter
section says he shall be elected when
other county officers are CHOSEN.
A school district system is provided
for in chapter Il and those foil OWING
with many regulations. There is much
confusion apparently due t. failure to
harmonize different bits OF law that
We're clipped by the author of The bill
After providing for elections in the
school districts and giving man. rules
for their management and for elections,
etc, the Act begins chapter 20 by Dc
claring that each city of the first class
shall constitute a district and proceeds
to make new rules that are somewhat
different in principle from the others.
In the first set of rul"s women ave al
lowed to vote at school board elections,
but they are given no such right i'll the
rules governing the districts which
cities are to constitute Section % of
chapter Il provides that no sectarian
doctrines shall be taught in the public
schools of the Territory. Section 20
of chapter % adds that such doctrines
shall not be taught in the schools of the
cities. making two enactments of one
rule. There is a constantly varying
style in the different sections of the
chapters. Some are declaratory in
direct language, others are clauses
which in some law or other once hung
upon some previous enacting clause.
The district system as outlined
in the chapters preceding that in
which cities are made districts,
there is one in which the officers
are to be a district board consist
ing of clerk, treasurer and one other
director, the three to constitute the
board. They are to be elected annually
and though women may vote when it
comes to issuing bonds for erecting
schoolhouses etc, there is no provision
to allow them to vote for school direc-
tors. The county superintendent has
the power to create districts. No dis
trict shall have less than pupils. The
directors have power to vote tax not
exceeding one per cent on property in
the district and to control all school
property therein.
Chapter % declares for the teaching
of photography, reading, writing,
English grammar, geography and
arithmetic and such other branches as
may be determined by the district
board" 1t is added that teaching must
the county," This leaves chance for
every county to have a different course
of study and pupils moving from one
county to another might have great
difficulty in taking up school work
I where they left off at their last school.
Tuition fees in the public schools are
provided for in one section, in cases
where funds run short. AS a sort of
premium upon absence from school it
! is declared that the assessment of tut
ton fees shall be proportional to the
! number of days each pupil has been in
| attendance during the term" The
charging of tuition fees in public
schools is a new thing 20 the American
school systems and was not in prac-
! tice even under the Hawaiian Monar-
| chy or Republic.
Boards of county examiners are pro-
vided for in chapter %, to issue teach
ers' certificates to those who pass the
required examinations The different
counties may have different standards
for teachers certificates, as section
declares that mo certificate shall be OF
force except in the county in which il
is issued" 1t is provided, however
that the county superintendent may en-
dorse uneXpired first grade certificates
on payment of fee of 81, making then
valid in the county in which the en-
dorsement is given.
Trn ~ II A WA T.