CORONATION MEDAL PROTEST

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14629, 15 March 1911, Page 8

CORONATION MEDAL PROTEST

NO SYMPATHY FROM MINISTER. [BY TELEGRAPH. r-RESS association-.] Wellington, Tnesdav. The Minister for Education (the Hon. Geo. Fowlds) is not very sympathetic with the Christchurch. Trades and Labour Council's protest against an English firm being awarded the contract for supplying the Coronation medals for the school children of New Zealand. Asked for his opinion by a reporter, he stated that on previous occasions New Zealand manufacturers had been given the contract, "with the result that we had to pay a great deal more for the medals, and they were nothing apDroaching the standard of these we have had submitted to us from Home. It stands to reason that where the medals are being issued in large numbers, and with the conveniences they have in England, it is not possible to get anything approaching the same standard for anything like the same money in New Zealand. Personally, I was in favour of getting them made" locally if it was possible to get anything liko the same standard, but on previous occasions we have had to pay several hundreds ' more for the local medals than we are paying this time, and, although they cost more than the imported article, they were so unattractive that children would not wear them."