NEW MINISTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 277, 22 November 1934, Page 9

NEW MINISTER.

SWORN IN TO-DAY. PORTFOLIO OF EDUCATION. MR. S. G. SMITH'S CAREER. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. Mr. Sydney G. Smith, M.P. for New Plymouth, will he sworn in as Minister of Education this afternoon. Although in his previous Ministerial capacity he was responsible for the administration of unemployment relief in its earlier stages, it is not intended to make any change at present in the temporary allocation of that portfolio.

The long and active experience of Mr. Smith in connection with a number of important phases of education administration should enable him to give distinctive service in that capacity. His intimate association with these matters goes back to 1911, when he was a member of the West End School Committee at New Plymouth. In 1913 Mr. Smith was elected a member of the Central School Committee of his town. He held ollice for 10 years, during 14 of which

he was chairman of the central committee. Widening the scope of his work in education administration, Mr. Smith in 191(5 was elected member of the Taranaki Education Board, and for the past ten years has been its chairman.

In the sphere of secondary education, Mr. Smith ha* also had lon<r service. Appointed in 1917 a member oi" tie New Plymouth High School Board, he has held office on that body continuously to the present date and has taken an active part in supporting a progressive policy which has led not only to improvement in school facilities, but also to development in the system of control under which the more academic side of secondary education in New Plymouth has been directly linked up in control and administration with technical education.

Mr. Smith for a number of years was an active member of the New Plymouth Technical College Board, but this body was eventually merged with the High School board of governors for the joint administration of two important phases of secondary and technical education. For one term Mr. Smith has also been a member of the Victoria University College Council. In 1914 the new Minister was elected president of the Taranaki School Committees' Association and he occupied that position for ten years, during which he was Dominion president for one term.

The appointment of Mr. Smith a« Minister of Education ertfites a. vacancy ill the position of Chairman of Committees of the House of Representatives, for which the Government proposes to nominate Mr. J. A. Nash, M.P. for Palmerston North, who has had previous experience in the position, find is one of the Coalition Whips.