WOBURN SITS

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 47, 24 August 1920, Page 8

WOBURN SITS

THE MINISTER'S REPLY.

The following reply has been sent by the Minister of Education (Hon. C. J. Parr) to Mr. 1). M'Kerizie, chairman of the Petone Distinct High School Com-, mittee:— "Dear .Sir,—l acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 21st instant. I cannot agree with you that in declining to receive a deputation of protest against the high school being erected at Woburciroad I thereby violated any rights of the people of the district, as you claim to have been the case. In my judgment, there were excellent reasons why I should not go further with' this matter.' "First, the Education Board, Which must largely guide the- Department, had affirmed, and by a majority reaffirmed, its opinion that the Woburn-road site was tho right one. " • ' "Secondly, my oepartmsntal officers, after careful investigation and inspection, had, also reached the conclusion thai thj Woburn-road- site was much the best one. "Thirdly, my predecessor, Sir Francis Bell, who also happens to. be a. citizen of Wellington, with local knowledge, had made a personal visit of inspection and come to'the same conclusion. ''Fourthly, the Woburn-road site; has been actually purchased, and the pur-* chase money (£7325) paid over to the vendors as far back as March, the whole transaction having been fully completed before I took office. ' ' "Lastly, some finality must be reached in these matters of disputed site. If every incoming Minister of Education is to allow, himself to be constituted a Court of Appeal for the purpose of reversing the decisions of the board, the Department, and his predecessor, there would soon be a, condition of chaotic uncertainty in the administration of education in this country."