ECONOMY CUTS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3445, 19 March 1932, Page 5

ECONOMY CUTS

CONTROL OF EDUCATION. O'TAGO BOARD'S HOSTILITY. "No other report drawn up makes class distinctions such as this one. 1 say that deliberately, and after a good deal of consideration. The whole trend of it is that the poor man has to. pay, while the rich man, for whom it does not matter so much, is let off. Another way in which the report is a class one is that the country child is badly hit in comparison with the town child."

These were the criticisms of the chairman of the Otago Education Board, Mr. J. W. Wallace, when the recommendations of the Economy Commission were being discussed. "I do not wish to speak disparagingly of the personnel of the Economy Committee," said Mr. Wallace, "because I have no right to do that, but I do say that in approaching a Department like that of Education, the committee as set was a gigantic mistake, because the men who compose it are stern business men who probably know nothing whatever about the difficulties of education, and who are, I take it all, all wealthy men." The Hon. D. T. Fleming said that if the Government of this country thought that the people of Otago were going to be controlled by people in Wellington it was making a great mistake. Another member remarked that the Government showed a lack of sound judgment when it had to go outside for opinions. The Chairman: "I meant to say something like that."