THE HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 10, 6 October 1917, Page 8

THE HOUSE

A DAY ON ESTIMATES

THE EDUCATION VOTE

DEMAND FOR MORE MONEY. The House of .Representatives met at 2.30 p.m. The House went into Committee ou the Estimates at 3.15 p.m. The first class taken was Education, a total of .£1,433,051. Mr. G. Witty moved to reduce the first item by j£l as an indication to the Minister that in the opinion of the House echool committees were not being fairly treated. He eaid that he would nold up the Estimates as long as ho could unless he could get an assurance that a sum would be put on the Supplementary Estimates to provide committees with reasonable finance. Mr. A. S. Hindmarsh urged the Minister to provide for more room in schools for children. There was much overcrowding in some of tho schools in Wellington, he said, and he made special reference to the Uerhamporo echool—a most elaborate building, recently erected, but not large enough far requirements. There were cases of 90 children being taught by a single teacher. He contended that education was of primary importance.' and that all unnecssary expenditure should, be stopped in order to provide money for education. Mr. G. J. Anderson said that he would support no amendments to increase public expenditure at this time. We could not afford it now. He would vote tor the immediate closing down of the .Tourist Department, because he did not consider tho Department was necessary. Mr T M. Wilford advocated the free supply of uniform school books in New Zealand. He referred with indignation to "a steal" by the Postal Department of a piece of land at Heretaunga which ought to be retained for a school site. Mr L M. leitt said that he believed there was a great deal of waste in the education expenditure. He did not suggest that there should be any reduction in the vote, but the money could be better used than it wr.s at present. Jit supported Mr. Wilford's demand lor uniform school books. The Hon. J. A. Hunan replied to the noint raised in the amendment. He had fo admit, he said, that the al owanc*« to Xr districts ■» which the allowances Tr Wc*m.» said that he would vote to stop work on the. new Parlra- &&&&& U Thf Amendment «** rejected by 39 rotes to 1".

Severe Criticism. Air K. M'Callum wished to know ff h7 certain of the best officers had i elv left the Department. Why had Mr? & Ileft: the department? AVhy wcro he inspectors moved roundr In older hen he Marlborough district, but had Xlly done his best to injure the 1 striel He would directly charge the Minister "nth maladministration of his E5 rtment. Even he had showed spleen in his actions regarding cases in MarlXfnoflA. Hanan. said he TTOiild deal with this malicious attack e Minister and the Department. mil was. homtubte schoo? r There wasTa dispute between the Mawyitae and the Jl'Callumites in conneS with that school, and because ho would not play the part of a party politician as Minister and support tho M'Callumites the honourable member for Wairau showed resentment. Ho mn.de application to the Cabinet xrith no| eflccL Then when the Supplementary Estimates wore under consideration, and there was revision made for house allowances for honorary Ministers, the honourable member seiii him a note tow that il e (the Minister) did not yield on this point, he (Mr. M'Callum) would block iho House allowance. He showed this nole to the Prime Minister. The Chairman had already warned Mr. Hanan that this was out of order, but Mr. Hanan persisted up (ill this point, when Mr. Malcolm insisted upon observe ance of his ruling. Mr. Hanan referred to the retirement of Mr. Gill. That officer was Inspector o Secondary Schools, and he as Minister was not satisfied with the jnspec ion of thwe schools. Mr. Gill whs instructed to go to a district in tho bouth Island to take a position as inspector of primary schools. Mr. Gill then applied to U .allowed to retire on tho ground cf 1health, and ho was allowed to do so. He retired on superannuation. Referring to tho new methods of administering tho inspectorate, he pointed put the great advantage of the nev; policy in AucWan. Previously they had all resided in Auckland travelling from Auckland to tin distant parts of the district. Now they were located in parts of the district in touch continuously with the teachers. Mr R P. Hudson, m the course of'general, not unfriendly, criticism of the Department, said that he did not believe in trying to squeeio in fancy instruction" in pen-sketching and sr.cli nonsense, into the primary school syllabus In the ordinary subjects i.f the primary course tho instruction was not Kmte. Especially was the teaching of English grammar weak. . Dr .\ K Newman said that what had 'impressed him about our schools v as the miserable dullness of the interiors. There was too little light, and too l'ttle paint. The same dullness and dreariness were applicable to tho grounds of the schools.

More Hard Words. Hi- n M'Callum replied to the Minister. Ho denied that his leeling against the Minister had any ie»iv«on to ». trouble that had occurred years before It was not a conflict between Massey.ites and M'Callumites. That was nuito untrue. . The Chairman ordered the withdrawal of this word "untrue," Mr. M Galium substituted "incorrect." Mr. Hanan: Well, yon told me so, ycur6e,\l'r. M'Calliinv. I deny that absolutely. I can only characterise tho Minister with n word of four letters which I am not allowed to use in this Rouse, i did not toll him so. If 1 had done sn 1 should hnve been whnt he is. .. Mr. Malcolm warned Mr. M Cnllnm not to indulge in personalities. <-nd Mr. M'Callum took tho advice. He did say. however, that the contending parties in tho'dispiito to which he had referred were Masseyites on both sides, and r.hat the man in whose interests ho hnd been fightiiu; in that matter was Mr. Arthur Avery, a bitter political opponent of his own. A general demand for better grants for school committees was made by several members.

Secondary Education. Mr. A. n. Hindmarsh entertained the House for some minutes with s. very amusing dissertation 04 secondary educa-

tio'n. His idea was ttiat. far too many subjects were taught in high schools, and pupils learned no more than a smattering about, any of them. Tlio aim of nil education was to train children to reason, and not to cram them with n lot of ill-assorted, unrelated facia. It would bo wiser policy to leach a, few subjects thoroughly. Mr. li. M'Ciillum accused the Minister of neglecting secondary cducat.iou, and »160 of showing favouritism in the administration of primary education. His own district had been neglected sadly, while other districts had been favoured. Tho Minister said (hat it was tine that he gave pride of placo to primary education because this was the only education that the majority of the children reecived. But he maintained that improvements had been made in tho secondary school system until now we had a more efficient system than \ve had ever hnd before. Dr. Newman eiid that many of our schools were so badly ventilated that the, ai'r of the class-rooms was offensive after the class had been sitting for an hour. This was not; necessary, because.liiere were modern methods of ventilation which were quito inexpensive. Ho did not think that the more recent echool plans, with windows high up in the wall were good. It would be better to bring the windows down, and lot the sunlight,, and fresh air on to the children. The education vote was passed at 9.5 The vote of .£248,731 for the Department of Lands and Survey was passed without discussion. Labour Department. On the vote of -£33,585 for the Department of Labour, Mr. Veitch (Wangamu) asked for improvement of the Scaffolding ict. Ho said that unnecessary accidents "were taking place. It wa» not enough to provide compensation for injured workers; the accidents ought to be avoided. A lew simple regulations would improve the position very much. Inspectors should have power to destroy faulty scaftolding in the yaTds. The Prime Minister said that if the regulations needed stiffening he would introduce legislation next session. Mr. A. H. Hindmarsh Wellington South) said there was reason for dissatisfaction with the construction of some houses under the Workers' Dwellings Act. He hoped the methods would be improved and that the Government would set aside a large sum of money for the erection of workers' houses. Mr. Massey said that he would like to erect a great many more workers homes. But the Department had not been inactive. The Department erected 155 last year, in spite of the war, and had 11 under construction now. home mistakes had been made, but in most cases the tenants were thoroughly satisfied. Ho hoped that when the war was over and building materials had fallen to normal prices, tho Government would be able to build very many homes for workers. . Eeplying to further discussion, 31r. Massey aaid that he was taking quite "a. large sum for -workers' homes this year. But it was not desirable to undertake a big scheme of building, owing to the high price of materials. It houses were built at present prices, the tenants would have to pay high rentfl for very many years to come. During the last five years, workers' homes had been built at the rate oE about 1)0 a year.

Planting Trees. ' The next class taken was the State Forests Account. Mr. Hindmarsh spoke of the need for more expert knowledge in the .forestry Department of New Zealand. He suggested that the University of New Zealand might.help the Government in this matter. The Prime Minister said that more was being done in renil'orestation than most people imagined. The Government had planted some thirty million forest trees. Mr. Hindmareh: Are they suitaole trees? Mr. Massey: "I think fo." He went on to eay that the Government had engaged one of the world's experts to report on afforestation, and his report would be presented to the House thia session. This gentleman had reported that the West Coast was the roost suitable area for replanting, and this because of its climate. In the North Island there was danger of fire in the very dry seasons. The Government would ask for authority to spend a considerable sum of money in afforestation, and he hoped that many returned soldiers would be employed in this work. The intention of the Government was to establish a special Department of Forestry. This would perhaps be done in a few weeks, certainly within tho next few months. On the votes for the State insurance offices Mr. Hornsby (Wairarapa) urged that the State Five Office and the State Accident Offi.ce should be amalgamated. Mr. Wilford (Hutt) pointed to the extraordinary progress made by the Stato offices. Tho Scenery Preservation Account gave Mr. H. G. Ell an opportunity to plead for tho preservation of a. bit of forest between Cnrlorton and Masterlon. Mr. AV. H. Field urged that, a piece of forest near Waiknnae should be preserved. , , , , Mr. Massey paid he had already taken action in that case. The last class of the Estimates was passed at 12.10 a.m., and the- House adjourned until Monday evening,