EDUCATION CONTROVERSY.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1921, Page 4

EDUCATION CONTROVERSY.

QUESTION OF MOVABLE BUILDINGS. MINISTER OUTLINES POSITION. (Special to Daily News.) Hawera, Last Night. The controversy between the Taranaki Education Board and the Education Department regarding the board’s application for a grant to cover the cost of two movable buildings just constructed, was the subject of a statement by the Hon. C. J. Parr (Minister o-f Education) in the course of an interview with a Daily News reporter here tonight.

“It is quite clear,” the Minister stated, “that the board did wrongly in not making the usual application to the department to cover the cost before starting the work. The board know perfectly well that the department must have the proper application, and that this is necessary before undertaking any building. There should be a plan and estimates submitted to the department, otherwise the department would never know what liabilities it was being landed in to. “It is quite true that I asked the board when I was in New Plymouth to consider the question of erecting movable residences as a general new ‘policy, but obviously this should not bo considered as allowing the board to go ahead without plans and estimates being submitted to the department and the usual vote being made by the Government. My letter to the board was written during the absence of Mr. Spencer (officer in charge of buildings) ■and under the impression that the board had got definite authority and a special vote. In saying this, 1 do not wish to reprimand the board in any way. On the contrary I appreciate its enterprise in the matter, and think it entirely praiseworthy. The trouble seems to have been that they acted prema* turely and without the usual authority. I shall be very pleased to meet the board and endeavor to arrange matter* ,to the satisfaction of both the board and the department.”