WASTE OF TIME ALLEGED

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23747, 19 September 1942, Page 5

WASTE OF TIME ALLEGED

Education Board’s Business PROPOSED CHANGE NOT ACCEPTED “A waste of members’ time and a waste of public money,” was Mr J ■ Turley’s condemnation of the metnoa of conducting the Canterbury Education Boards business when he moved at yesterday’s meeting of the board that a change be made in the procedure of committee and board meetings. There was no seconder to Mr Turieys motion, which lapsed. He said that at present the boaids various committees met on the third Wednesday in each month, other committees met on the Thursday, and finally the board held its meeting.on the Friday. The time spent in committee meetings on the Wednesday was an hour and a half or two hours, and for the rest of the day board members had no board duties. Again on the Thursday an hour generally sufficed for the committee work. The finance coni" mittee met on Thursday afternoon, but Mr Turley contended it would be a simple matter for the work of the buildings and finance committees to be combined in the meetings of the board. The present arrangement meant that board members coming from a long distance had to remain in the city for three days, although they had to do very little work. He had yet to see a meeting of the board on Friday go beyond 12 o’clock, and he considered all the necessary committee work could be done on Friday mornings and the board meetings held on Friday afternoons. If absolutely necessary Thursday could be used for some committee meetings. He said that attendance at committee and board meetings each month took up, with travelling time from the West Coast, five days of his time. He could not see that so long a time was necessary and declared his time was too valuable to spend on unnecessarily prolonged business. Mileage Allowance Criticised Mr Turley moved another resolution, notice of which had been given, to rescind the fixing of mileage allowance to board members at fid. He contended that fid a mile was an inadequate allowance to men who used their cars on board business. He asked that it be put on a more equitable basis. ‘‘None of us should use our cars on board business in these days when petrol and tyres are so scarce,” said Mr C. S. Tr.ompson. Members wishing to visit schools should go by train or make their visits coincide with the visits of the board’s foreman, he said. Mr G. W. Armitage explained that the mileage allowance was fixed by regulation at 8d less 10 per cent. The board had agreed to accept fid because for some time it had inadvertently accepted 8d a mile. The department had advised that most of the other boards fixed the mileage allowance at fid. Mr Tqrley replied that members would have to waste a great deal of time if they were going to accompany the board’s foreman of works, who often would have to stay a matter of days when attending to work at a school. “If ever there was a need for a bit of petroL being spent on visits to schools it is on the West Coast," he declared. Those who did the Government’s business were paid little enough, and he considered that fid a mile car allowance and lOd an hour for travelling expenses were both inadequate, “If you are on the £IOOO a year racket you will have no difficulty getting £2 a day expenses from the Government, but if you are on the bread-line racket you will be kept on the bread-line," hn concluded. An amendment by Mr W. T. Langley that the board ascertain the practice of other education boards was lost, and Mr Turley’s motion was defeated by fivjo votes to four. ■ A third resolution, notice of which stood in Mr Turley’s name, was also rejected. This was the rescission of a resolution passed on September 1.1920. providing that the board appoint the chairmen of the respective standing committees.