EDUCATION ACT

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 116, 9 February 1929, Page 8

EDUCATION ACT

CONSOLIDATION AND SIMPLIFICATION

Dominion Special Service. Auckland, February 8.

“It would take a Philadelphia lawyer to understand them, and if you try to carry one into effect you are bound to fracture another," said the chairman of the Auckland Education Board, Mr. A. Burns, this morning in referring to the regulations of the Education Department. The board asked the Minister to effect a simplification and consolidation of the regulations and possibly of the Education Act. Mr. Burns reminded the Minister that the Education Act of New Zealand contained a clause which gave authority for the framing of regulations which could override the provisions of the Act itself. “I doubt whether there is such a provision in any Act in any other part of the British Empire,” he added. “A 1 consolidation of the Education Act has been long deferred,” said Mr. Atmore. “It is a huge task, and I cannot promise that it will be completed in time for presentation during the session of Parliament this year. I can assure you that it is already under way, and will certainly be ready for the 1930 session. “The Education Act requires consolidating and amending more than any other Act. The provision in the Act which gives power to make overriding regulations is wrong in principle,” continued the Minister. “Members of all parties have protested against it. My own policy will be one of allowing Parliament to decide, and to invoke the aid of regulations only in cases where it is impossible to do otherwise.”