MINISTER OF EDUCATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 305, 22 November 1934, Page 7

MINISTER OF EDUCATION.

MR S. G. SMITH’S APPOINTMENT. RECORD OF SERVICE. (Bv Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 22. Mr S. G. Smith, member for New Plymouth, will be sworn in as Minister of Education this afternoon. Although in his previous Ministerial capacity he was responsible for the administration of unemployment relief in its earlier stages, it is not intended to make any change at present in the temporary allocation of that portfolio. The long and active experience of Mr Smith in connection with a number of important phases of education administration should enable him to give a distinctive service in that capacity. His intimate association with these matters goes back to 1911, when he was a member of the West End School Committee at New Plymouth. In 1913 Mr Smith was elected a member of the Central School Committee in his town and held office for sixteen years, during fourteen of which he was chairman of the committee.

Widening his scope in education administration, Mr Smith in 1916 was elected a -member of the Taranaki Education Board and for the past ten years has been its chairman. In the sphere of secondary education Mr Smith has also had long service. He was appointed in 1917 a member of the New Plymouth High School Board and has held office on that body continuously to the present date. He has taken an active part in supporting the progressive policy which has not only led to an improvement in the school’s facilities but to a development in the system of control under which the more academic side of secondary education has in New Plymouth been directly linked up in control and administration with technical education. Mr Smith for a number of years was an active member of the New Plymouth Technical College Board. This body was eventually merged with the High School Board of Governors for the joint administration of the two important phases of secondary education.

For one term Mr Smith has also been a member of the Victoria University College Council. In 1914 the new Minister was elected president of the Taranaki School Committees’ Association. He occupied that position for ten years and was Dominion president for one term.

CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES. MR J. A. NASH TO BE NOMINATED. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 22. The appointment of Mr S. G. Smith as Minister of Education creates a vacancy in the position of Chairman of Committees in tiie House of Representatives for which, in the next session, the Government proposes to nominate Mr J. A. Nash, Palmerston North, who has had previous experience in the position and is one of the Coalition Whips.