THE ECONOMY MOVE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 82, 3 October 1931, Page 14

THE ECONOMY MOVE

TEACHERS AT VARIANCE

A Press Association telegram from Oamaru published last night stated that Mr. F. Milner, headmaster of Waitaki High School, president of the Secondary Schools' Association, and vice-presi-dent of the Federation of Teachers, had telegraphed to the Wellington executive strongly disapproving of militant tactics over the proposed changes in tho education system and expressing the opinion that premature protests and anticipatory hysterics pending Ministerial announcements of the financial position were futile and derogatory. Commenting on Mr. Milner's attitude, Mr. F. Martyn Reuner, secretary of the New Zealand Secondary Schools' Association, said that be tiad received Mr. Milner's telegram about two days ago. It was not addressed to him in his capacity as secretary o( the association, but merely as a member of tho Standing Committoe of the Federation of Teachers. "That is th 3 way I interpreted the telegram," Mr. Renner said, "because the appeal we lodged on behalf of the children did not come from the association, but came from the paramount body—the federation —and therefore, seeing that the federation had decided that we should, try as far as possible to avert what we considered a calamity to the children of New Zealand, we decided to appeal to the parents before any definite decision was come to by Cabinet. "Mr. Milnei's idea was that we should wait until we were definitely assured upon what economies were really to be made. With that the federation could not agree, for tho simple reason that ye thought it would be much more difficult to persuade the Coalition. Government to, make any modification if tho proposals had once been brought before the House. For that reason we decided to go ahead, and I personally merely accepted Mr. Milner's telegram as his own personal expression of opinion as to the federation's attitude."