EDUCATION BOARD TROUBLES

Evening Star, Issue 10402, 25 August 1897, Page 2

EDUCATION BOARD TROUBLES

; At the inquiry by concerning the unauthorised alteration' of the' plans for the BoaM's" following additional evidence was given Yesterday afternoon:— ■■;.'. .-?.>.■ /,--ht, i:,a:.-'

Mr Pryde said when' the Crawfbrd-st/reel;' plan was discussed by; thie;!B6ard "therfejwaß [ ; a general expression of lirpinibn/amtoifgft.ne '. members of the Board,that thereTatrknCe' ought.to be fromVCrawfprd,Btfee't/"an4 ithe T whole building in keeping with the Agricul- " turalHalL

• The Chairman :•: The Board expressed aa - opinion to that effect. • ..:..■ Mr Pryde Baid all the members he talked to were of that opinion, and that was the ' plan he agreed;, to with■ Mr ' Sbmerville. There was not much talked abpnt the matter. Mr Somerville had a strong objection to the strong room. .. He put it under the atair and in two or three places. The ■first he (Mr Pryde) knew of the alteration was.=, when. Mr, Park came into his room one morning and said Mr Somervilehadaltered.-■ the entrance of the offices from "Crawford street to Jetty streetj and that he (Mr' Pryde) should have a look at the alteration. - They talked the matter over, and he Baid : : " Well, it is a pity he did that.'* ;,-He Also J expressed the opinion that Mr, Sbihemlleshould not make the alteration without the authority of the Board, :: or something, to that effect. Mr Park wanted him to go and see the alteration, but he would not accept any responsibility in regard to the matter} and did not go and see it. Mr Park came to him a second time about the alteration, and' he then went to see the plan, and .saicU "X don't like that." He pointed wanted, and finally approved of . the plan as it was drawn now, saying: ''That,will meet my views." He was never consulted about the alteration of the door from Crawford street to Jetty street, but he was.consulted about the necessary arrangements that would follow upon that change. That was on die 10th or 12th of July. 7 1 The Board was to meet the next week, and he quite understood that Mr Somerville was going to ask the sanction of the Board to the alterations. He looked upon it as a matter of form that the alterations would be sanctioned; but he took the blame upon himself for forgetting to remind Mr Somerville to bring the matter up. All he had to do with it were the internal arrangements. As a matter of fact he never discussed the upstairs arrangements. Therewere four alterations which he did not approve of and which Mr Somerville carried out in face of his (Mr Pryde'a) disapproval. That, being go, why was it that Mr Corner--ville wanted to put the responsibility of the big alteration upon him at all ? He did not want to shirk a single bit of responsibility. What he had suggested in regard to the internal arrangements was quite proper, for no one would deny that he had aright to have some say in that matter. He did not think now that the plan they had was quite the best. He had nothing more to say. > He had put the matter just as it was, and he objected to the responsibility being thrown upon him. If this building had gone up and there had been no word about it he knew who would have taken the credit'of it, but now that there was a row oyer it the whole blame was put on to the secretary. " MrS. M. Park, being called, said, that Mr Somerville spoke to him twice about the alteration of the entrance in Jetty street. That was after the plans were approved, -by the Board and signed by the chairman. - Mr Somerville showed him a pencil sketch plan of the ground floor showing a Jetty street entrance. He asked him twice to bring Mr Pryde in to see the new plan. On the ;second occasion he brought Mr Pryde. Mr Pryde expressed surprise at the alterations. Mr Pryde doubted whether it would be wise to make any change,. and questioned the advisability of it as a general thing. Oh the question of Mr Pryde's demeanor to the officers of the Board, Mr Park said he could point to nothing in this respeot that showed that Mr Pryde was dictatorial or over-bear-ing in his manner. S3 far us he knew Mr Pryde was not in the habit of giving Mr Somerville instructions to carry out work in opposition to his (Mr Somerville's) ideas. All instructions were entered in the instruction book, and the letters bearing on them forwarded to the architect. He was quite sure that when he took Mr Pryde in to Bee the proposed alteration that was the first he had seen of it. It was decided to call upon the chairman to give evidence in reference to the matter, and ha vacated the chair in favor of Mr Clark. Mr BoKRiE then said : In 4he first plaoe, I think Mr Somerville will remember in connection with the plana that I instructed him on behalf of the Finance Committee to prepare two or three plans for this building. A resolution was passed by the Board leaving the matter of the plans in the hands of the Finance Committee, and I, as chairman of the Committee, saw Mr Somerville and asked him to prepare two or three sketches of plans that the Finance Committee wanted to lay before the Board. I left him a free band. I never instructed him where the entrance was to be, or as to whether there was to be any entrance at all. I simply asked him to prepare two or thre different setß of plans for the Finance Committee to lay before the Board. Mr J. F. M. Fraser : Did he make any suggestions ? Mr Borrie : No.

Did he Buggest any entrance ?—He never mentioned any entrance in any Bhape or form. We did not discuss that matter at u -P eioTe I went ""me I simply told him the Board wanted two or three sets of plans to make a choice from. " Had you any conversation with the architect betore the plans were laid before the Board?—l don't think so.

Mr Boreie continued : With reference to ; the alteration of the plana he happened to be : passing the building, and he looked in and ! saw the alteration. He thought it was verv remarkable, and came up to the office, and had a conversation with Mr Somerville and asked him how it occurred. Mr Somerville said Mr Fraser came in and suggested an alteration; then Mr Melville suggested an alteration; then Mr Park suggested something else. Then Mr Pryde suggested an alteration. On that occasion Mr Somerville said he sent Mr Park to ask Mr Pryde to come m and see what he thought about the proposed alterations. He understood him to say that the Crawford street plan had some alterations in penoil sketched out on it, Mr Somerville explained how the matter occurred. He (Mr Borrie) had not seen or heard anything about the alterations until he saw them during that interview. Jtte might state the circumstances that had led to his being at the sew premiß3B when he was there. He had been down at the Btation, and on oomin* back Mr Pryde, who was with him, suaRested that they should go and see the new building. They had a look through Ihe place, and when inspecting the internal arrangements he found that they were not m accordance even with the Jetty "street plan. He then went to see Mr Somerville again. Mr Somerville explained that the case of the door shown on the plan, which was not in the building, was a pure omission. Ihe door was shown in the plan, but therewas no door in the building at' all. Mr fc»omerviHe said the fact of the matter was he had taken the advice of too many people on the thing. r Mr Somerville pointed out that the omission of the doorway was not the fault of the clerk of works. The clerk had not the plan, he only had a rough pencilling to guide mm m the laying down of the concrete foundations. He (Mr Somerville) had not had time to prepare a proper plan for him. Mr Borsie said that at the first interview in the office Mr Pryde was there, and they had the plans. In reference to the removal of the chimney, Mr Pryde asked Mr Somerville why he did not.remove thechimnev fAI M aßked Mm. Mr Somervilfe replied that the concrete foundations were in when Mr Pryde spoke about it. He «wT d qulte olearl y Mr Pf yda raying Why did you not put the chimney there when I asked you." Mr A. G. Melville was also,called, bufc he was unable to give any evidence bearing on the matters ander inquiry. - This conoluded the evidence, and the iSoard adjourned at six o'clock. On resuming again at half-past seven they went J?™ and continued in committee till 10.30 p.m. without coming to a decision. At that hour it was resolved to adiourn till Wednesday week at 2 p,m;