A STUDY IN TACTICS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 612, 15 September 1909, Page 6

A STUDY IN TACTICS.

It is. with Bome reltictance that wo again direct attention: to a' very unfortunate lapse on,the ■ part of the Minister for Education. Ms. Footds, likei his colleague, the Attorney-General, appears to be. singularly indiscreet'-in >his pnblic statements, and particularly so in] the matter of suiting his opinions to the needs'of the moment, without a • proper regard for the inevitable day of reckoning. Tho current dieputo over the respective" rights of School Committees and Education Boards in the matter of appointing school teachers has revealed this latest lapse on the Minister's part. It

"will be remembered that Mn. C. Skebreit stated last week that under the amending Education Act of last year an Education Board has tho power to submil; only one teachor's name, if it chooses, ;for the approvalof the School Committee. Commenting upon this opinion, the Rev. A. Thomson, of tho Petono School Committee, said that,"if the opinion given us, by Mb. Skehhett.. is correct, then it is very clear that the Minister for Education duped the House , when the Bill was before Parliament." MiC Thomson went on to say that,the House would not have passed the Bill: if. it had not thought that the committees' rights of selection had boon safeguarded. In an interview which we printed , on Monday Jilb. PowLDa denied tho unpaitation mado

against him by Mr. Thomson, and he made tho following statement:—

I made it perfectly clear in my speeches when the Bill was going through the House that tho intention was to puttiho power to transfer 'definitely into tho hands of the Boards. I omphasised that point. When a Board calls for applications, it is not, to my mind, a easo of transfer, but it may load to a transfer. However, even whero applications aro called for and tho Board has to' send a list to the Committee, the Board has —and has had since, 1905—tlie right to solid one- name only. ■ If MR; Fowlds made it perfectly clear to tho House that the Boards may send forward only one name, how docs he account for the following passage 4t the very end of his Bpeech just before tho Bill was taken into Committee ?—

I had no objection to lcavo to the committees the selection of teachers, as long as the Board's power of transfer was mado effective. . . .. Tho proposals in thisclanso secure that end, and at tho same time-/ in all other cases, give tho power of selection to tho committees out of a mst of foot names to bo submitted by the Board.

Mr. Fowlds, that is to say, most clearly l informed the House that the rather complicated clause . meant the very thing which he now denies that it means. The quotation just given could only leave one impression on the House. Further proof that Me. Fowlds, by his attitude, misled Parliament is supplied by the fact that Dr. Findlat, in introducing the Bill to thff Upper House,, spent only four

ines in explaining tho clause concerned,

"1 think," ho said, "that tjio svstero outlined in this Bill, under which die Board will send to' the committee a small list of applicants for consideration, will work as well as any system we can devise." Mb. Fowlds appears to bo rather subject to theso lapses. The public will remember the storm of indignation that' was created after the close of the session last year by the discovery that , Mr; Fowlds intended, to defer the full benefits of the salary increments, which everyono, including Sir Joseph Ward and every member of the H6use who gave an opinion, had been led to believe''we.ro: to come into operation forthwith. ' Possibly the Minister's . attitude' ' in ■ the ■: cases quoted is explained by tho rule which ! he laid down in a speech at Hastings, reported in the Poverty Bay Herald of i May 11, 1908, as follows:— .■ '■ J '■■; ■'.'.'

In politics it was not always wise to let one's opponents know what road onb wished to follow,' because the usual result was that obstacles would be thrown in the way. Thus it was soniotimos expedient to make a feint of going in one direction while the real aim was to go in another. ' : ■' ■.-. We must congratulate Mn. FothiDs' on his'skill in carrying out, this policy. Possibly his colleagues, the Acting-Prime Minister and the Minister for Railways,, were taking a leaf out of this subtle politician's book when they attended the opening of Tattersalls Club recently and advocated the cause 6f> the : bookmakers. ■■It may. have been merely, a "blind" on

their part to deceive their oppohents-

they may have seized this opportunity to cover the fact that they aro preparing a Bill for. the abolition of : gambling. But it occurs, to; us that the same- line of reasoning might be used '.to', show that,' Mr. Fowlds, by absenting himself from the bookmakers' gathering, did; so to dis-' g-nise'his sympathy 'with' the layers of the odds. Really Ministers are very .puzzling. ; -.. ::\ .'..' Aα » '-~;■ A'i'y' ,