SEARCH FOR SIXPENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17965, 15 December 1921, Page 6

SEARCH FOR SIXPENCE.

EDUCATJONAL " ECONOMY." INSTRUCTORS' EXPENSES. Queries as to why a manual training instructor had recklessly 6pent the sum of Is 6d for a luncheon at New Lynn, when his home was in Auckland, and why a young lady teacher put in a claim for 2s for a dinner in August and another for 2s 6d for a similar meal in September, were contained in a communication recently received from the Education Department by Mr. J. P. Kalaugher, supervisor of the manual and training branch. The vigilance thus shown in the matter of reducing expenditure is evidently not appreciated by local education authorities, however, and the Education Board was disposed to treat the matter with scornful mirth when Mr. Kalaugher introduced it at the board's meeting yesterday. It appeared that the department had actually refused to recognise the first-mentioned claim, and had asked for an explanation as to the difference of 6d in the charge for the young lady's dinners, these being only two items in a protest against similar requests for expenses. Mr. Kalaugher said that both parties had forwarded a full account of the circumstances, the explanation in the case of the lady being that she had entered the first dinner at 2s by mistake, but willing to bear the loss herself. , The young man, in the course of his reply, had written as follows:—"The department need not consider the question of a paper-bag luncheon being carried round by its agricultural instructors. While facilities exist for securing a small luncheon at a reasonable charge, they will be availed of, and no fair-minded department should question Mich a procedure." "I think the department, in the interest* of economy, must have appointed a small army of clerks to search for items like these," remarked the board's secretary. "The other day an explanation was demanded for a half-day's absence of an official with many years of service, although there was no question of financial loss. They are running £o extremes, and adopting methods that are nothing less than inquisitorial." Mr. Kalaugher said his department was doing everything in its power to aid the authorities in their campaign of economy, but to emphasise such trifles as those mentioned was absurd and an unwarranted reflection upon trusted and responsible officers.