W.E.A. CONFERENCE

Evening Star, Issue 21036, 25 February 1932, Page 11

W.E.A. CONFERENCE

BIG INCREASE IN CUSSES AND STUDENTS

[Per United Press Association.]

WELLINGTON, February 25. The conference of the Workers’ Educational Association was opened to-day by the mayor of Wellington (Mr Hislop), who stressed the value of the work that was being carried out by the association.

Mr Acland (president) pointed_ out the necessity of the movement receiving the support of the community. The report of the Dominion Council expressed gratification at the spirit of service which had enabled more work to be accomplished than in any previous year. The total number of classes was 254, with 7,031 enrolled students, an increase of thirty classes, and a great increase in the number of students. An Auckland remit urging the adoption of a uniform class fee in the four centres was lost. NO CHANCE OF GRANT,

Regretfully, the Minister of Education (Mr Masters) informed a deputation from the W.E.A. that he was unable to accede to its request that the decision not to make a grant to the association this year should be reversed. All questions of Government activity at present were bound up with finance, in which respect the Government was working, as it were, on shifting sand. “It appears to me,” he remarked, “that those who arc_ so keenly interested in adult education could bo_ reasonably asked at a time like this to spend a greater amount than 2s 6d per annum on acquiring the education the W.E.A. is providing for them.”