Cabinet Direction On Expedition Condemned

Press, Volume C, Issue 29501, 1 May 1961, Page 15

Cabinet Direction On Expedition Condemned

“The Press" Special Service

WELLINGTON, April 30. A direction from the Cabinet regarding the cost of the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic expedition was in direct opposition, to the recommendation of the Parry Committee report on the same subject, a member of the Victoria University council (Mr D. J. Hooton) told the council recently. The council had befqw it a letter from the Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research: (Dr. W. M. Hamilton) adi vising that the Cabinet had approved a grant of £760 in aid of the university’s ABtaretic expedition. The letter brought to the notice of the council the following direction from the Cabinet:— “That the cost of any future expeditions to the Antarctic by the staff of the Victoria University of Wellington should be met from either the university’s general purposes grant, or the grant to the University of New Zealand for research purposes.

This direction was directly opposed to one of the major recommendations of the Parry Committee's report, said Mr Hooton, who is staff representative on the council. The university was not

the only body to suffer from this reversal of the recommendations regarding research. Agricultural colleges were hard hit, he said. The Parry Committee had envisaged increased expenditare in this fashion for the benefit of universities, ■ to vm cweTwt some * the ; subject, the that he had be#h considering xr..?ra“V , u« powdered before the .appropriate aetWn was taken.