DIMINISHED POWERS OF EDUCATION BOARDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12929, 27 July 1905, Page 6

DIMINISHED POWERS OF EDUCATION BOARDS.

• CENTRALISING TENDENCIES [BY TELEGRAPH.— PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Ciirktchurch, Wednesday. , Replying to the Board of Education's resolution regarding the centralising policy of the Government in education matters, Mr. G. Hogben, Inspector-General, writes, under direction of the Minister, that Parliament-, by passing the Public School Teachers' Salaries Act, diminished the powers of boards. The Parliamentary Committee has also done so by its recommendations for the expenditure of. building votes for public schools, but these the Department has carried out in a form that allows the boards a somewhat greater degree of liberty than the committee recommended.' The Minister is unaware in what other way the Department has manifested centralising tendencies, unless it be in carefully watching the expenditure of money. • v Mr. Buddo said before the end of the year the question of building grants would be on a better foundation, the Parliamentary Committee having arrived at a decision on wrong premises. \ - The Chairman said no member who had eat on the Board' could but come to the conclusion that the Board was being continually interfered with by the Department, and all the boards of the colony felt this, and found their work restricted by the necessity of applying to the Department for leave to spend a few pounds. There was no doubt in his mind that the Inspector-Gene-ral had always been hankering to get the inspectors under his control.