THAT £21,000

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11248, 28 June 1922, Page 3

THAT £21,000

FOR TECHNICAL COLLEGE MINISTER FOR EDUCATION REPLIES TO CRITICISM. "WILL DO HIS BEST." The Hon. C. J. Parr (Minister for Education) returned to Wellington from the north yesterday. When asked by a "Times" representative last evening whether anything had yet been done with regard to the application of the Wellington Technical College Boa?d of Governors for a grant of £21,000 to complete the first portion of the new technical college buiiuing, Air Parr said: — “I have not yet seen Air Massey about the matter, but I will do so at an early date. In the meantime I may say that 1 have read with surprise the criticisms levelled by the Technical College Board of Governors against the Government. The board is neither fair nor candid. Late last year it found itself in difficulties owing to its unbusinesslike methods, inasmuch as it had expended the Government grant of £15,000 and had undertaken commitments amounting to another £7OOO without providing any finance to meet them. The board then came to Air Alassey and Sir Francis Bell. What was its request? Through the Alayor and other spokesmen it asked Air Alassey for £15,000, at the rate of £2OOO month, wherewith, to build the western wing, so as to give the board six classrooms, and thus enable it to vacate the temporary Cuba street premises. What did the Prime Alinister do? Though hard put to it at the time, he agreed to provide the £15,000, it being distinctly understood that this was all the board was going to press for. The newspaper reports show this to have been the case. The Government has carried out every promise made, and has expended nearly £27,000 all told upon the new building, besides giving the site free. "UNAUTHORISED COMMITMENTS.’' "Now the board comes along and asks for another £21,000, having again gone in for unauthorised commitments to the extent of over £7OOO. Whether the Treasury can stand another £21,000 at the present time is the question which I have got to discuss with the Prime Minister. "I make these observations with regret, but the hostile criticism of the Government compels the retort. Nor do Air Howell and his board advance their claim by comparing the Government expenditure on Auckland University College with that on the Wellington Technical College. Such a comparison is obviously unfair. The fair comparison is to ask what the Government has done for the. four universities. I have here figures’ 'of university expenditure which will, perhaps, convince even the Wellington board that Auckland has been easily the Cinderella of the lot as regards university buildings. As a matter of fact Auckland has no university bhilding,* the Auckland University being conducted in the disused, wornout nigh school building, which was abandoned seven years ago as unfit for secondary education, while every other centre has got its excellent college actually in being. The figures of the Government grants for university buildings for the four centres since *1903 are as follow:—Victoria College, £87,000; Canterbury, £23,000; Otago, £98,000; Auckland, £II,OOO. "THE SO-CALLED PROAIISE." "The,, so-called promise of £IOO,OOO for the Auckland Technical College is quite without foundation; no such promise has been made. • The promise referred to is evidently that for the Auckland University College; and so far as the new university college at Auckland is concerned, the Government is pledged to give £15,000 only during the next twelve months, as a start. It will take many 1 years to erect the building, which is estimated to cost £130,000, and towards this the Auckland people have agreed to find £30,000, "Notwithstanding the smallness of the University expenditure at Auckland, the Auckland University has the largest attendance of students in arts and science, law and commerce. I do not include in this comparison, of course, the special schools in medicine and engineering. In the courses common to all the university colleges those at Auckland number 836, those at Otago 601, at Canterbury 592, and at "THEIR BEST FRIEND ” "I hope and believe," said the Alinister in conclusion, "that I am the best friend that the Wellington Technical College has got in forwarding its claims. I don't think that Mr Howell and the board would deny this; and I shall still do my best for them. But Ido strongly resent attacks of this description made upon the impartiality of the Government in expending public money. Last year similar criticism was indulge! in with regard to primary and other school buildings, and I then’ gave the Press a table which showed that the Government, during my term of office, had made grAiits totalling £213,000 to the Wellington district, and that no other centre had done better."