A DEADLOCK.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 2993, 18 September 1908, Page 3

A DEADLOCK.

The Minister for Education, replying to Mr Hall in the House of Representatives,"' gave the following account of the deadlock between the Government and the Education Board of Hawfce's Bay, in respect to the erection of a schoolhouse at Tamaki, near Dannevirke: —"A grant of £750 was authorised last April for a school at Tamaki, according to a plan submitted by the Board. In July the Board leported that the lowest tender for the building, exclusive of furniture, fittings and preparation of site, was £738, and an increase in the. grant as asked x'or. The Department sent for the plans, and from these found, what the Board had not thought proper to state, that the building for which tenders had been called was considerably larger than the one shown by the original plan. The Board was consequently informed on July 27th that, in the absence of any explanation of the enlargement of the building, the Minister did not see his way to increase the grant. On Tuesday a reply was received that as information hud come to hand that the number of chiluren available was increasing,and was likely to further increase, it was con.-idered advisable to build the rooms larger than was at first proposed. This may bs so, but I have xv>t had time to consider the matter fu'ther. In any case, the Board should have placed the facts beforo the Department, and asked for an extension of the grant, when they decided to enlarge the plans, and I cannot acknowledge any responsibility for the delay that has arisen."