EDUCATION AND THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11638, 21 May 1912, Page 6

EDUCATION AND THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

(Per Press Association.) Wellington, A reply received by the' Euuc-a-tion ConrVenee that the Minister wcul> be unable to attend owing to trass'iuc of departmental duties. Mr Magimidty (Nelson) moved—"That the Conference, while refraining from any expression of opinion upon the general provisions of the Bill, re; .'sp.ecttu.lly urges that the inclusion oi education with the scope, of the measure is fraught. with serious danger to the education svstem." The mover said he thought there- was-a general consensus of opinion that education was so vitally divergent from any other. subject coming within the scope of the Local Government Bill', that it would be a great mistake to ' depart from the present svstem. . , ■ I * Major Franklvn (Nelson),' in secondin"- the motion, said that a new spirit ot"°innovation had taken possession ot New Zealand, He was surprised to see a democratic Government -going so Hist. The present Government was not responsible for the Bill; it bore the imprint of Sir Joseph Ward, one of the greatest Conservatives of the age, spite what he might preach. Lhe speaker added that we were on the way to Russia," and he objected to centralisation of authority in Wellington. An Auckland delegate, Mr Garland, said he viewed with alarm the first- appearance of the Bill, but it was afterwards looked upon it in the light of a Gilbert and Suliican farce. People now knew what they had got, and until something better was provided it would he better to stick to the present svrtem. 'The Education Board, delegate*' conference adopted resolutions that the increase in the number of bodies charged with the administration of ■: .lucation will lead to increased cost without securing greater efficiency; i .'.t the proposal to cast part of the cost of primary education upon the 1< cal rates is destructive of the national system and entails new burdens upon .taxpayers without providing any compensatory advantage, while exposing schools to the danger of being starved. The Chairman ruled out of order a motion by Air Pirani that education boards be' asked to consider a proposal that any amendment in the system < f educational administration be in the direction of the establishment of a central council of education, with the Minister of Education as president, to whom shall be entrusted the functions at present carried out by the Education. ■Department. v ].-. ■ This concluded the business of the conference.