LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 20 May 1912, Page 7

LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL

DISCUSSED BY EDUCATION CONFERENCE. "A GILBERT AND SULLIVAN FARCE."

BX TZLEGBA.PH—PRESS ASHOCIA IIOH. WELLINGTON, May :20. A reply was received by the Education Conference that the Minister would "be unable to attend, owing to pressure of Departmental duties. Mr Maginnity (Nelson) moved that the Conference, while refraining from any expression of opinion upon general provisions of the Local Government Bill, respectfully urges that the inclusion of education within the scope of the measure is fraught with serious danger to the education system. The mover said he thought it was the general concensus of opinion that education was so vitally divergent from any other subject coming within the scope of the Local Government Bill that it would be a great mistake to depart from the present system. Major Franklyn (Nelson), in seconding the motion, said a new spirit of innovation had taken possession of New Zealand, and he was surprised to ,see a democratic Government going so *fast. The present Government was not responsible for the Bill, which bore the imprint of Sir Joseph "Ward —one of the greatest Conservatives of the age, despite what he might preach. The speaker added that we were "on the way to Russia," and he objected to the centralisation of authority in Wellington. An Auckland delegate, Mr Garland, said he viewed with alarm the first appearance of the Bill, but it was afterwards looked upon in the light of a, Gilbert and Sullivan farce. "People now knew what they had got, and until something better was provided it would be better to stick to the present system . The discussion is proceeding.