SCHOOL BOOKS CONTRACT

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 19 November 1932, Page 6

SCHOOL BOOKS CONTRACT

QUESTION TO MINISTER DID COMMISSION NEGOTIATE? TERMS IN PINAL REPORT. IBy Ttlegranb —Press Association). WELLINGTON, Nov. IS. The Master Printers’ Federation has supplied some comment in reply to statements made by the Minister of Education (the Hon. R. Masters) when he replied to the school commitees’ recent deputation. “A detailed answer to' the points raised will be issued in due course,” says the federation. “In the meantime the Minister is asked to make a clear, unequivocal statement jrespectilng an important phase of the National Expenditure Commission’s recommendations.

“It will ho recalled that the commission recommended certain terms on wheih the school books contract should he renewed with tfie present publishers. These provided (.1) renewal of the contract for a period of three years; (2) an immediate reduction in the price of not render of the copyright at the end of the term on payment of compensation not exceeding £SOO. “Up to the present the Minister has claimed that these were purely recommendations. This we understand does not disclose the actual position arrived at. The question at issue is: Did the commission . actually negotiate, arrange or arrive at an understanding with the publishers respecting the terms referred to in the final report and quoted above, and was the Minister advised by the commission that these terms j were obtainable from the publishers? Obviously such an arrangement or understanding is not in the same category as evidence which lias to be treated as confidential.”