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VICTORIA COLLEGE

AND W.E.A. TUTORS MR. PARR REPLIES TO COUNCIL The Minister of Education (Hon. C. J. Parr) has replied to the Victoria College Council, which asked to be relieved of the control and administration of the funds granted 1 by the Government for the Workers* Educational Association, that the council might reasonably be considered to have indicted its own administration. “Is it really necessary,” he asks, “that the Victoria College Council should be the one exception to the general method of control?” The resolution in which the council expressed its request was as follows: “That in view of the controversies arising from the opinions on political and social questions expressed ly or attributed to W.E.A. tutors, of the impossibility of adequately testing these opinions in advance, and of the injury resulting to the interests of the college by the association of the council with these appointments, it is highly desirable that this association should cease, and the council, therefore. 1 respectfully requests the Minister of Education _ to relieve it from the control and administration of the funds voted by the Government in connection with the W.E.A. ’ The text of the reply forwarded by the Minister is reproduced' below:— “I have to acknowledge the receipt of vour letter of the 21st instant on the above matter. T take it that your communication is intended as a renly to my recent letters in which I questioned the propriety of vnnr council’s appointment of the two W.E.A. tutors. T note tent your council stresses the impossibility of adeouateiv testing in advance the political and social opinions of W.E.A. tutors. I would point out that none of ‘ho other colleges seem to have found difficulty in ascertaining whether or not the tutors appointed would be men of balanced' judgment, who would _ not _ obtrude extreme and peculiar doctrines into ‘he work of a college which should be strictly non-political. “With respect to Mr. Winter in particular. it would nnnear that the council could scarcely bo in any doubt ns t 0 the views this genlloman would hold, seeing that he was known to he at the time of his appointment a leading member of the Communistic Party. Further. I understand from Mr. Seymour. who was the W.E.A. organiser, that he warned a member of your Professorial Board' and W.E.A. committee shortly after Mr. Marsh Roberts’s appointment that ho was a man of extreme communistic views, vel apparently no action was. taken. -Indeed Mr. Marsh Roberts went so far as to s, ublicly express extreme and ol'ioefioualjle view® in the name of the W.E.A. section of Victoria College, and it was only after T pressed the matter upon the attention of the council that any steps were taken to censure this gentleman or to terminate his engagement.

"Again it would «eem that the council is condemning itself when It states that injury has resulted io the interests of the college by the association of the council with these appointments. This is an admission that the. council has made appointments of a character which brought the college into d'srepute. The consequent request made by the council that the Minister of Education should relieve it from the control of the the W.E.A. does not. I hope, mean that there are not to be found in this community two or three tutors capable of lecturing on such subjects ns economics nnd Maori lore without using the college platform for the dissemination of views such as are hold nnd expressed by Messrs. Winter and Marsh Roberts.

“AU over the world the workers’ adult education movement has been placed under the acais' and' control of the universities. which everywhere seem tn have taken up this important activity with enthusiasm and success. Winsho'nd we fail at Wellington? Ts it really neerararv fh.nf the Victoria College Council should be the one .excenfion tn the "eneral Tnefbod of control? T cannot help but think that if due inquiry bo moAe and teasonnble care talran. there will ho little room for ob-jpr-Unn tn (ray future appointments. “Tak'n" the revolution of the connc'l ns a. whole it might Teav-nnnhlr be held f-hnt fh-> council has indicf"d' its own nrlin ! "i«frnl’nn in a more (serious .manner Hian il’st involved in any recent nnblic criticisms.”

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19211130.2.86

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 56, 30 November 1921, Page 8

Word count
Tapeke kupu
708

VICTORIA COLLEGE Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 56, 30 November 1921, Page 8

VICTORIA COLLEGE Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 56, 30 November 1921, Page 8

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