INQUISITORIAL METHODS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 905, 26 August 1910, Page 5

INQUISITORIAL METHODS.

"OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH!" \ By all accounts, the relations which' have hitherto existed between tho.Education Boards and the central authority have been of the cat and the mouse description. Henceforward 'they 1 will be as turtle dovss. Yesterday, at the Education Board's Conference, when a protest was made "against,the inquisitorial method of the Education Department in regard to grants for now schools or additions, and that it especially objects_ to the small amount of -faith placed in representations made by tho boards, who arc. in the best position to judge tho 1 merits of an application.'" Subsequently, the Minister, also complained, and said cordial relations between tho'two, were as earnestly desired by tho Department as by the boards—tho Department was not-'out looking for trouble, said the Hon. Mr. Fowlds. It had been said, in protest, that there was "a great, want of confidence displayed towards the boards, by the Department. If.they only knew, if they only saw, they wo'uld realise whenco this sprang from. An application would bo sent in for a grant For a now school, say. The board concerned had presumably inquired into the merits of the case, but when the Department mado some investigation on its own account, the site of the proposed school was found to be 21 miles from tho nearest existing school, not six miles, as had been represented. Statements had been made concerning the number of children in a district that had exceeded tho number by 50 per cent! And these statements were made of places .within half a dozen miles of tho board's office. Could they wonder then that tho Depart, ment had to safeguard itself by' independent inquiry?.