EDUCATION BOARDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 121, 24 May 1935, Page 9

EDUCATION BOARDS.

APPRECIATION OF SERVICE. UNIFICATION OF CONTROL. (By Telegraph, —Press Association.) I WELLINGTON, Thursday. An assurance of liia active and sympathetic interest in the work of education boards was given by the Minister: of Education, the Hon. S. 0. Smith, at the opening of the conference of the New Zealand Education Boards' Association. ■ Mr. Smith said ho was not Minister for his own benefit, and lie did not j mind criticism. He wanted to be a cog in the wheel and help in the education HVetein from tlio primary stage to tho | university. He believed in district board! control, and he had no difficulty in ob-j tabling the Cabinet's consent to the Director of Education, Mr. N. T. Lambourne, going to England to investigate the progress there. It wae hoped to secure unanimity on the question of bringing about some measure of unification of control in various districts, continued the Minister, and those present knew lie had taken preliminary steps to bring about consolidation of the Education Act. It was long overdue. The regulations would ■ also bo consolidated. Mr. Smith paid a tribute to tho Departmental officers. He concluded by saying that the decisions he signed as Minister were his own decisions finally, and he took full responsibility for them.