AN UNFAIR STATEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 58, 6 September 1926, Page 8

AN UNFAIR STATEMENT

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —In Friday's issue of your paper a brief account is given Si the debate in the House of Representatives on the Education Amendment Bill. Inter alia, the Postmaster-Qeneral (the Hon. W. Nosworthy) is reported to have stated that he "honestly believed' that the great majority of teachers wanted nothing-more than they had to-day. Much of the trouble was caused by Mr. Parkinson, a gentleman with Bolshevik tendencies, who had to do something to justify his position." If correctly reported, the honourable gentleman's statements are difficult to substantiate or understand, r^id call for some reply. In regard to the first statement that "the great majority of teachers wanted nothing more than they had to-day," the honourable gentleman is evidently ignorant of the fact that the following rcrolution in reference to the right of appeal against non-appointment was unanimously passed at the last annual conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute:— That this annual meeting is of opinion that the scope of v the Teachers' Court ■ of Appeal should be extended. It is scarcely necessary to draw attention to the fact that the annual conference is attended by representatives of all the. branch institutes in the Dominion and of the 5000-teachers who are their members. The remainder of the. statements .which refers to Mr. H. A. Parkinson, the official secretary of the N.Z.E.1., are grossly unfair and untrue. The attempt to destroy the respect in which claims may be held by casting aspersions on the actions of the advocates of such claims, though a common enough form of argument, is' unworthy of a gentleman occupying the important position of the Postmaster-General, and unworthy of the best traditions of British fair play. Among all who receive remuneration for services rendered to any corporate body, private or State, there is no one whose motives are more free from self-interest and whose energies are more devoted to the cause of real national advancement than Mr. H. A. Parkinson. The institute is not only fortunate in having the services, of its present secretary; it is proud to have them, and its individual members, one and all, are pleased to count him as a friend. The Hon. Mr. Nosworthy's reference to Mr. Parkinson as a "gentleman with 80l shevik tendencies" is particularly mean. If this means that Mr. Parkinson displays disloyalty to constitutional procedure and authority, it is not only untrue; it is utterly unfair to a citizen whose son saw service at the front,. and whose every action has been loyalty itsslf.—l am, etc., B. T. BLAKE, M.A., President, N.Z.E.I. j 4th September. j