“CARRYING THE BABY"

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11247, 27 June 1922, Page 8

“CARRYING THE BABY"

TECHNICAL BOARD’S LOAD WILL BE COMPELLED TO STOP BUILDING WORK. « FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE URGENT The monthly meeting of the Technical College Board of Governors was held last night, Councillor W. H. Bennett (chairman) presiding. The other members present were Messrs T. Ballinger, T. Forsyth, W. Pascoe, L. R. Partridge, J. Barras, J. O. Shorland, C. H. Chapman, C. A. Lawrence and Len McKenzie, Mrs J. Hannah and Mr J. H. Howell (Director). The chairman reported that arrangements had been made to gravel the temporary pathway leading to the entrance of the new Technical College buildings at Mt. Cook, and to move a street lamp in Hankey street so as to light the path properly. With reference to ’Hie deputation that waited upon the. Prime Minister to ask for more adequate finance for the new buildings, the chairman reported that no official reply had yet been received.

DAY LABOUR AND CONTRACT. A letter was received from the Building Trades Employees’ Association protesting against the proposal to change .over from day labour to the contract system for work on the new buildings.

The chairman said that the board had no complaints to make with regard to the work done under the day labour system. The change was to be made because the board considered that it would have less difficulty in regard to the financial side of the work under the contract system. He thought that if a rqply to that effect was sent to the federation, that would meet the case. On the motion of the chairman, the Director was instructed to reply accordingly. QUESTION OF GRANTS. “PRIME MINISTER THUMPED TABLE.” The report of the visiting committee was presented by Messrs Ballinger and Forsyth. In doing so Mr Ballinger called attention to the fact that while Wellington had so much difficulty in getting the £21,000 to complete the first portion of the new building, Auckland had been promised £IOO,000 for the extension of its Technical College, which meant a first year’s payment of £15,000. It was all of a piece with only £SOOO being voted and not a penny spent for railways in the Wellington district, while hundreds of thousands were voted and spent in the Auckland province. There was no doubt about it that Auckland was the favoured province. He had been staggered when he saw the comparative figures. Mr Forsyth said that only the very had conditions previously obtaining in Cuba street could have justified holding classes in the new buildings in their present unfinished state. The furniture in use there would he a disgrace to a small country school. THE BOARD’S COMMITMENTS. The chairman said that, put briefly, the positiou now was that the hoard had spent and was committed to £75,000 more than it had in sight. That was to say, the Government advances, the City Council’s £SOOO, and the subscriptions of the general publio amounted to only £32,500, and the board’s expenditure and commitments amounted to £40,000, Unless the Government was going uo come to the assistance of the board, and that immediately, the board had got to close down. He said that emphatically. The board would have to dose the work down and leave it on +he hands of the Government to do the best it could with it. Personally, the responsibility that had rested upon his shoulders as chairman for the past four years' in regard to this work was such that the was sick aud tired of bringing the matter before the Government. The board could not take the responsibility of going on with the building under the present circumstances. He trusted that, as the Minister for Education was returning to Wellington to-day, the Prime Minisler would fulfil his promise and provide tho njoney to enable this work to be carried on. The Prime Minister had thumped the table and been very wroth, when the deputation suggested that th 9 northern city was being favoured. FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. But the facts spoke for themselves; end there was no doubt’that NVeillingcon city hod' suffered aud was suffering from insufficient funds to carry on needed work. Mr Chapman moved, and Mr Partridge seconded, the following resolution: —“That owing to the serious nnancdal position of the board, we regretfully inform the Government that we must cease further building operations unless financial assistance is forthcoming.” Mr Barras moved as an amendment, “That if no satisfactory reply he received from the Government by July 10th, building operations at the new college shall cease.” A GOVERNMENT MATTER, Mr McKenzie said that the new Technical Oodllego was being built for the Government, not for the board, and that tile board wa® merely acting as the agent of the Government in regard to the matter. Tho board,'he suggested, should throw tho onus or completing the work on the Government. Ho did not think that private individuals should be put in the position of having to waste time trying to cadge money from the Government to do tho Government’s own work. If tlio Government did not want to go on with the work why was it not game enough to tell the board so, instead of allowing the board to go on and then practically loaving vhe board to foot the bill. The board was over a million bricks short of what the Government had promised to let them have, and they were to have had prison labour to excavate the site. They had been "disappointed, however, in regard to that, too. He ctkitended that tho onus of the shortage of funds and the trouble rested not on the board, but on the Government itself, because the Government had not infilled the conditions that tho board was led to believe would bo fulfilled when the work was started. Mr Shorland said that the board had carried the baby quite long enough, and should hand it over to the Government. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) The chairman said that, owing to the shortage of briclcs and the disappointment in regard to prison labour, the work on tho first portion of the building was casting one-fourth more than was anticipated. For twenty-five years, to his knowledge, a battle had been

going on in regard to the site for tho new Technical iC’ollege, and that had been made an excuse for Governments’ not providing funds few the work. When the Prime Minister went Home last, Sir Fiancis Bell, the only Minister who could be trusted to turn down the board’s request for more funds, had been left as Acting-Prime Minister, and he had made iu» bones about letting his opposition to technical education be known. The amendment was carried.