LETTER RESENTED

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 168, 17 July 1937, Page 2

LETTER RESENTED

Education Board “Receives” Complaint INACCURATE STATEMENT From Our Own Correspondent. NAPIER. July 16.

“The letter is abusive, and I’m not going to be abused by anyone who wants to kick a football at me/ said the chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Edu cation Board, Mr. G. A. Maddison, at the board meeting this morning in reference to a complaint from the Port Ahuriri Srhool Committee regarding additiona accommodation at the school. Members agreed that several statements in the letter were inaccurate, and a resolution was passed that the letter shoald be “received.” The letter stated that no reply hod been received to a request to the board in February for an additional room, and that the question of the attendance of Port Ahuriri pupils at the In termediate School had been introduced instead. The committee objected tc such an evasion of the facts by the board. “Evasive and Misleading.'* The letter classed as “evasive and misleading” a statement by tho board that there was adequate accommodation at Port Ahuriri. It was stated that it was the Minister’s intention to house all the pupils in the new build ing, and the fact that a considerable number were still taught in the old condemned building two years after tin erection of a new school was a reflection on the hoard’s “administrative inventions,” and the board cannot i escape responsibility. I In the committee’s opinion indications were that not one more room but two would ultimately be required, and the obvious procedure for the board to adopt was to seek departmental sanction to carry out the original plan to complete the building, and not continue to victimise the Port because the committee did not concur with the Intermediate School proposals as they affecttd its district. “I don’t feel inclined to consider this,” said Mr. Maddison. “I don’t think their comments are accurate, and until a body such as the Port Ahuriri School Committee can address the noard in the way it should we should not deal with the letter.” Mr. W. Cuthbertson: It is ridiculous the way the committee has adopted this attitude. Wo do flatter ourselves that we have some knowledge of what is necessary for the welfare of the children. f Groundwork Undermined. Mr. G. H Cooke: Your groundwork has been undermined in some way, Mr. Chairman. The committee holds a letter from the Minister of Education saving that it is not compelled to send its pupils to the Intermediate School and it is taking advantage of that. The committee seems to think we are holding a big stick over it. “If tho Minister has given them to understand that they can still serve themselves in the upper standards it is very wrong,’* he continued. “I understand that a copy of this letter has gone to the Minister—perhaps I should not say that,” Mr. Cooke ?aid. Mr. T. Rowe: I think any school committee should speak to the board m respectful terms. To a certain extent that committee is kicking against th‘e pricks. Mr, Maddison said that the Minister pleaded with the committee, in the interests of th e children, to send them to the intermediate School, and had said that accommodation for standards five aud six could not be provided in the new school, “This letter is perfectly unjustified, ” ho added. “1 think that person ully, and with members of the board, I have done a great deal for the school, auu I hold special letters, addressed to mo in person, thanking mo for my assistance in the matter of ground improvements. We have granted thenspecial privileges. 4 ‘The letter is abusive, and I’m not going to be abused by anyone who likes to kick a football at me. I move that the letter be received, and that we riiorm the committee that the file i* optn for its perusal if it wishes.” The motion was carried-