A POLICY OF "TAIHOA."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1085, 25 March 1911, Page 4

A POLICY OF "TAIHOA."

9—— EDUCATION DEPARTMENT'S , DELAYS. • : At a meeting of tho Auckland Board of Education 011 Wednesday', tho methods adopted by tlie Department of Education in .connection with applications for building grants were severely criticised-by tho chairman (Mr. Parr), who said that aftcr_ receiving from tho applicants a complicated mass of information, which could only be compiled with great labour, tho Department obtained a report itself. Every application was by continually-re-curring delay, and in' tho procedure of tho Department .there was material for a first-class "taihoa" policy. The Minister had been asked to invest tho boards with moro power, but his reply had been that in somo eases boards had boon guilty of injudicious and wastefplexpenditure, and that tho Department must insist upon some direct check upon tho operations of the'- boards. While admitting tho justico of tho De-' partmcnt's claim for supervision, Mr. Parr said that 110 thought sufficient check might bo exercised without hampering the erection of now schools. The Auckland Board was placed- in a particularly disadvantageous position, as thoro was a continual demand for now schools from the settlers in tho King Country and other districts that were' being rapidly populated. Mr. Edgeeumbo said that tho Departs ment know very littlo of local conditions, yet it considered that it could form the' best estimate of tho board's needs. The chairman said that the board should make' representations to the' Minister regarding tho special needs of new settlements ill the districts, and tho suggestion was adopted.