"DISHEARTENING"

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1929, Page 16

"DISHEARTENING"

MASTER BUILDER'S VIEWS SALE OF OLD TECHNICAL COLLEGE Mr. W. I. Clark, president of the Wellington Master Builders' and Contractors' Association, stated to-day that the uncertainty and delay in completing the sale of the Technical College Buildings in Mercer street was giving rise to much dissatisfaction amongst the members of his association. "The Wellington Master Builders' Association," said Mr. Clark, "has always taken, a keen interest, in the work of the Technical College and it is disheartening to enthusiasts in the matter of technical training to find the latter delayed and hampered by a quibble between the Education Department and the Wellington City Council over matters that should have been definitely settled before completion of the sale. It is a remarkable thing that the purchase of Scots College by the Education Department should have been completed with such definiteness simultaneously. with a sale by the same Department, the essential terms of which appear to be full of uncertainty. If the Government's policy is that of 'moro business in Government' surely the Minister of Education is courageous enough to step in and terminate the quibble that is now taking place. .Tho work of the college is being hampered; the training of apprentices is being adversely affected. Why? ' Apparently because those who negotiated tho sale did not take caro to definitely settle the essential terms of such at the proper time."

The matter had been discussed, said Mr. Clark, by his association, and strong representations were being made to the Government to 'get on with the job.' .The association had passed the following resolution at its annual meeting this week:-^ That tho Wellington Master Builders' Association deprecates the delay in the sale of. the Education Board property in. Mereer-Wakefield streets to the Wellington City Council, thereby greatly hampering the work of the Wellington Technical College authorities, and urges that the-sale. of. tho .pro.perty.be. finalised without delay in order to permit of ' ' the" erection- of- the- west' wing and Arts School. This resolution, together with the association's views, would be conveyed to the Minister of Education immediately.

Mr. Clark said in conclusion that the members of the Technical College Board of Governors were public-spirit-ed men whose work ths country had good reason to be grateful for. In the negotiations now in progress, the Board of Governors appeared to be merely "a pawn in the game." This should not bo. It was not difficult to imagine what would happen to private enterprise if it were to conduct its affairs in the manner in which these particular negotiations were being conducted.