Untitled

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21773, 12 October 1932, Page 6

THE SCHOOL BOOK’CONTRACT. It may be doubted whether the suggestion which was made at a meeting in Wellington on Monday that a Royal Commission should be set up to report upon the school text books contract is one that merits support, i If we disregard entirely the unlikelihood of the Government agreeing to appoint a commission for ibis' purpose, the appropriate tribunal for the consideration of an administrative act by a Minister of the Crown is a parliamentary committee. Mr Wright, member for Wellington Suburbs, who is himself a supporter of the Government, is apparently unfavourable to the reference of the matter to a parliamentary committee because, whatever the finding of the committee, the Government Party would, he says, be required to approve the Minister’s conduct. If the question whether the Minister of Education acted in the interests of the public in the , steps which he has taken is to be dealt with as a party issue, the objection which Mr Wright makes, to the reference of it to a parliamentary committee applies equally to the appointment of a Royal Commission. What is really desirable is that there should be an investigation, as prompt as possible, of the reasons which prompted the Minister to enter into the contract. Upon the face of it, the Minister’s extension for five years of a contract which had not very long to run does not commend itself as a SMnd business transaction, even if it were not also the fact that it disregarded completely the recommendation of the National Expenditure Commission arrived at after a careful consideration of the relevant circumstances. The arguments which the Minister has employed in defence of his action have been far from convincing and have conveyed the impression that he made the contract altogether too hastily and without having given to the representations that were placed before him by the teaching profession, the school committees, and the printing trade anything like the attention they deserved. Unfortunately, moreover, the effect of the contract is that the country is committed for a term of years to the use of books which, in the judgment of the teachers, are not wholly suitable and which, in the considered opinion of 'the printing trade, cost considerably more than they would have done under a competitive system of production.