SEDDON MEMORIAL COLLEGE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 15 September 1926, Page 5

SEDDON MEMORIAL COLLEGE

AN INQUIRY OPENED

I.HT TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION .) A UCEiLiAuND, Sept. 14. An. inquiry into matters connected with the bed,don Memorial Lechniciai College was, commenced this morning before the commissioner appointed for this purposeMr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., the commissioner, said the inquiry was the result of a petition presented to Parliament, and by order of reference he had been appointed to inquire into the following cliarges: -

.(a) That, owing to the .present state of affairs at the Auckland Technical College many students are not receiving proper instruction, as is evidenced by the unusually large .percentage of failures at the recent Public Service Entrance land intermediate" examinations.

■(b) That in consequence numbers of deserving students are deprived of further free education.

(c) That this is -largely due to the efforts of the director to- place his friends in positions already filled by higher graded teachers of undoubted efficiency and superior qualifications. (d) That persistent attempts- have been made to victimise certain instructors by the director laying charges against them, -in spite of the fact that he has failed utterly to prove- these charges. The instructors so charged have not received ‘ordinary justice, inasmuch -as they have not been given an opportunity of rebutting charges and have not- been exonerated ia:s they have a ,right to- expect. (e) That by attempting (and in at least one case succeeding) by a campaign of petty tyranny to compel teachers to resign their positions in spite of their unquestioned efficiency, and that in one instance the- director even triedto compel a woman teacher to write -a -letter to him-self, at his own dictation, and threatened her When she refused.

The commissioner, .after argument regarding procedure, adjourned the inquiry until September 28. i