Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1920. MR. PIRANI AND EDUCATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2141, 17 June 1920, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1920. MR. PIRANI AND EDUCATION.

SPEAKING- at the opening ceremony of the local State school on Tuesday, Mr Fred Pirani, Chairman of the Wanganui Education Board, said that that would be the last occasion which he would address them in a public capacity. There is no denying that Mr Pirani has worked strenuously in the cause of education for many years, and his one ambition was that: the Wanganui Board should lead the way in educational reform. For years Mr Pirani, as Chairman of the Board was a law unto himself. We will not labour this point, but his utterances and actions brought him into continual conflict with the heads of the Department. Mr Pirani has very. little time for those who. differ with him, and so the battle has gone on. In the meantime, however, the Educational Institute came into being, school committees linked up into associations, Parliamentarians were roused, and the public, from one end of the Dominion to the other, became insistent that educational reform was vital to the welfare of the Slate. The Government was compelled to act, and great changes are being wrought. The present Minister is evolving a new national policy of administration and control, based on democratic ideals, which will do away with individual faddists and political Avire-pulling. Mr Pirani may have been justified in (he means he used to keep up his end of the stick under the old order of things, but under the altered conditions Ids method of Avarfare has become obsolete —a Avaste of time and a Aveariness of the llesh. e desire to place on record our appreciation of Mr Pirani’s services.in the cause of education in this district on (he eve of his retirement, although at the same time we cannot but regret some of the means he has used to gain his ends.