The Chairman of the Education Board Replies.

Otago Witness, Issue 2293, 10 February 1898, Page 31

The Chairman of the Education Board Replies.

TO THE ISDITOJK.

Sir, — In your issue of the 3rd inst. there appears a letter over the name of J. J. Ramsay, iv which he states what he purjjo^es to be a whole string of faeta very detrimental to mvfltlf.

lie makes no disguise of his reasons for writing this letter, which is to try and influence the result of the present elections to the Education Board, and if possible prevent my reelecHou. ' Now I iuteud to deal with his socalled facts seriatim, and show tbat he has drawn entirely on his imagination f<<r his facts.

Fact No 1. — Time after time the secietary and hi-, friends have been moving in the Direction of having a desk of works appointed, and certain memhris of the boird, including myself, oppoied this, believing that it was ouly a move for the purpose of securing the appointment of a. certain official favourite.

The board's records will show that it was Mr Tnoniits Mackenzie who first brought the matter of proper supervision of the boara'd building contracts up, and complained bitterly of the way in which some of the buildings in bis district were fteamped by the contractors. The secretary had nothing whatever to do with the matter.

Fact No. 2.— The resolution having been carried in spite of us-, we determined to secure for the public the service* of a thoroughly competent man. Out of a large number of applicants the final vote lay between the "favourite" and Mr Nichol, and the result depended upon the casting vote of the then chairman (Mr Cuhen). Mr Niobol was personally unknown to Mr Cohen, and he cousulted the architect, Mr Somerville, as to the relative qualifications of the men. Mr Somerville unhesit-UiDgly declared for Mr Nichol and asainst the favomite, * hereby rendering ;i service of no small value to the Education .Board and incurring the enmity of tbe official party. This was the first check ths oftici.U puty had received in the matter of muking appointments. They had been used to having it all their own way, and as the sequel « ill show they wore fully determined to have their way in this instance also. The present leader of Ihe official party i.s Mr J. F. Jvl. Fiaser, who was elected four years ago by tbe committees on the fatteugth of a manifesto he i&sueil, breathing out threateniugs against the very party with which he is no;v allied. lie was one of the niotst bitter in Iris opposition to Mr Nichol's appointment ; although he was unable to give auy otht r reason than "that Mr JVicbol was a fiiend of the Hon. J. MaoG-rpgor. Acting as the mouthpiece of his party, Mr Fraser immediately moved for Mr Nichol's dismissal. He failed, but he has never ceased vowing vengeance.

I would just point out that when the applications for the assistant to the architect were received the board appointed a committee of three to go through the testimonials and to reduce the number to (I think) six. This the committee, consisting of Messrs M'Kerrow, M&cGregor, and myself, did, and whan we came to Mr Niohol'd application h» had neither testimonial of character nor ability, and as he was quite unknown to both Mr M'Kerrow and myself we were for passing him over, aud on Mr MacGregor slating that he knew him ; that he was a neighbour of his, and lived at Ander-

son's B^y ; and only being assured that he ws-.s a. very capable retired carpenter that we allowed h : s name; to remain as one of the t-ix. I state this to sbow that Me ltam=ay's statement that "Mr J, F. M. Frar-er, acting R3 the mouthpiece of his party, was un~ Me to give any o'her reason for Mr N'col'a dismissal th-.n that he was a friend of the H>n J M&cGitgor'a " did not apply either to Mr M Kerrow or myself. Mr lUmtay refers to a " favourite " who ran a close second with Mr Nichol for the appointment. This " favunriie " w»s a former clerk of wcrks in the board's service for many years, and the bourd dispensed with his services solely because, aa at present, they had no use for su?h <vi ofiie-r — the same r&ason as they had for dispensing with Mr Niehol's service". When the board dispensed with Mr " Favourite's " services ib ezpre ,',ed its deep regret that »f er so m«4ny ycara' faithful suj vices they were uL.der the ntCtfßsity of severing his connection with the board, bub informed him that it at any future time the servic< s of an assistant to the architect were required he would have the fir-t off'T of the situation. This wa? agreed to unanimously, Mr Ramsay then being a member of the board, I believe. I never made any secret of how I voted in the recent appointment) of cleik of wosks, as I fe'.fi myself bound by the board's! prom'se to the " favourite " on his services being dispensed with, bub ou a majority or the board agreeing to the appointment of another ms,u I heartily concurred fchere>vith. Fact No 3 — The next move was made by Mr Bonie. "Without any apparent reason, and obviously acting under the inspiration of the secrefaiy, he one day intimated to the board that in his opinion the services of the inspector of works were no longer require!. '1 he temarkable thing is that Mr Borne should have chosen a tune just before 'the commencement of the ptincipal work uf the season. A lecmn wds oidered showing thewoiks in conteuiplation. The return when prepared so com pie el v exposed the absurdity of the chairman's (Mr Borric's) s-ugges-tion to dismiss the inspector that it was smuggled through without being lead — as inconvenient documents often are. If it had been tuch as to serve the pmpose of the offici.il party it would have been carefully read out. When it was asked foi some time afterwards botU the secretary and the thaiiiiKui bail they had forgotten all about it. Needless to & ty. nothing more was then heard of Mr Borrie'a suggi'tioi*— even Mr J. F. M. Fraser was dumb. The following extract from the board's minute book will show whether fact No. 3 is fact or ficbion — thn lfhh May, be it noted is the ending of the building season, nob the beginning, as as-serted by Me Katnsay. Extract from minuted of inpetiug of the Education Boaul of Ota?o ou 10th May, 1897. The chairman drew attention to the fact that tbe building operations are practically finished, and that theie would be little new work for some months. It was derided that a return of work done by the inspector of works since his appointment—works on hand and works in contemplation — be furnished at the next meeting of the board by the architect. Extract from minutes of meeting of the TCducation B-iard of Otago on 22nci July, 1807. The oichitect's report, thowirig the work done by the clerk of works since hio appointment, was received. Now for the report itself, which made even Mr John Fraser dumb : The works in hand are : Schools at Manuka Island »and Komareka, teacher's residence at Kaitangita, addition to lesidenca at Blacks outbuildings and tank at Anderson's Bay, repairs and additions at Kuvensbourne, a groiu to protect Leith Valley hite, new outbuildings at StrathT;veii, new tank at Hyde, and several small lepairs at Walton, <fee. '/'he building* in contemplation are : New school at Western, alterations to present building and erection of new infant rooms at North School vOauiaru), new residence at Green Island, agymr.asium at North-East V.illey and another at George s>tieet, aad a water tank at Fort Chalmers. (Signed) John Somerville. 15/6/97. I would just add to the above report : None of the works referred to in ths second paragraph were to be gone on with till the following summer, excepb the water tanks at Port Chalmers, which, ttrange to say, has nob been started to this day. Tbe alterations &t the North Oama.ru School were not to be done til the following Christmas holidays, and are now ou the eve of completion. The residence at Green lal&ud is now under construction. The same reaoarki apply to the school at We=ton. Aud the North-Bast Valley gymnasium is not yet commenced, aud 1 think not likely fco be this season. T>e same remarks appl/ to George street; gymnasium. This is the report which struck Mr Fraser dumb with the magnitude of the works it contained. As a matter of facb I never ab all referred fco tbe dispensing with the services of Mr Niehol then. I merely found ib my du^y a* chairman i to in form the b^ard that there would ba little or no work doing for some months to come, and that I leit it to the board to do what it thought fit. I think the architect's report, with the explanation I have given, bears out what I then stated to th«s board to the very letter. Fact No. 4.— Mr J. F. M. Fraser : A third time he lpfurnedto (he charge, and on this occasion he w»s fully armed with a document prepared in the office fur the piup .->e of showing that the work to be carried out during the rent of the se<*t,on amounted to no more than £1377. Mr Snow, who seconded ihe motion, declared that he proceeded solely upon this document ; and I am iv a position to prove that it was eutirelv misleading, because, instead of giving the amount of all works authorised, it inertly stated the amount of unfinished contracts then in hand, the works authoribed amounting to over iiJOOO. If the board had fully inquhed into tbe matter before acting it would have been found that worka authorised at the time of Mr Niehol's dismiss '1 amounted to ' much more than those authoi U>ed at the time of his appointment. But th»s> misleading document served its purpose by seeming Mr Snow's vote aud Mr Niehol's dismissal. As to the motives of Messrs J. F. M. Fraser and Borrie, I have given enough information to allow the committees to form their own ocinioti, and I cannot say that I am sui prised at Mr (JUik'r, action. He ban always be*n the secretary.! fetaiuichi-&t supporrer, and it has ofteu been said thit Mr Clark has secured rnoie appointments under the board than any other member, with one exception. It is well known that a son-in-law of Mr Clark's was a candidate for the position of clerk of works when Mr Niehol was appointed. Whether this fact had any connection with Mr Niehol's di- missal events will show. This I tlo know, that both Mr Borrie and the secretary -.tmi? time ago asked the architect to appoint Mr Clark's bon-in-law foreman carpenter of the naw offices. With reference lo the return showing the works iv hand to be £1377, which Mr Ramsay aaya is misleading, and which mislead some members on this matter, I may say that I knew nothiDg about the return, and never saw it till atter Mr Ramsay's lett»r appeared in the Times ; and I did nob require to sea it, for I was quits well aware what works were in ha^d, and also knew tbat the board wa* not in a position to go on with new works of any magnitude till next BUtnmet, for I knew that all our next building grant waa sp^nt, and the grant the board expects to get about the end of this year (after the next session of Parliament votes it) is considerably intrenched on. The following are the contracts in hand oa the 19th of January last and the amount then due on thorn, also the date of their completion s —

You will see that the dale of completion of all except three vary i'rom tho 31st December la&l to the Ist or thi'; month, and the fbree exceptions have to bo finished before tbe 31i"tof March, so that wh^t i* lo <io at'l"&r tb:i\ tsalvitill next summer is moiv th :z\ \ c-\u Bfc'j. In addition tj tho svhuva thevs ws.s on the 19th January a saw of £287 10s that was authorised en sm^li royairs, &c, viryii.g from £3 uuwards. A >~.ui._ibec or thee 1 know have si.-.ct; been cirdad ou 4 , ; tiivl rbo Po<t Gkalmecs water tanks, which the architect reported he had iusf-rocfclonr. «.fcoat on tbe 15fch of June last, is still atnoug this list. Tho only other moneys the board hus voted are come £1190 lo various schools &s subsidies of pc-uud for pound locally raised for the erection of gymnasiums principally in and around Dunfdin. This money is altogether on a different footing from ether werk3, as the vaa'-us school committees call for tenders themselves when they h*ve locally raised their share of the cost", aceepb tenders, and only on the amount of work having been done to the architect's satisfaction does the bo&rd pay to the committeea half the cost of the work done up to the amount of the gr*nb for to pay the committees' contractor!*. I nt le&st ">vell kiv>w that very few of the gxants j will be claimed this teason, as the comooktees j have to raise locally their &hace of tbe cost ] of the buildings before they can let a contract ; and quite a number of them h*ve not yet made the necessary arrangement*. Mr Ramsay fcays that I some time ago asked the architect to appoint Mr Clark'a son-in-law forrmau over the carpenters al,a 1 , the new offices. , This ia on a par evibh his other sta^erac-i;-?:, r,ml j is the tff spring of his ferule imagin«+uoa, as I I never did aoy such thiug ; bus if I did I j would not be ashamed of having dona so, ss ! he has been in the board'»i service for many years, and is a firsh-class workman ; and surely it should be no bar to employment being a relation of Mr Clark's, ol- even of Mr Ramsay's. ! Now what is (he reason of such a howl bfeing j raised because the board h>*s fceen fit to dis- j pense with one of its employees, the reason of j doing so being that there are very few works j in hand and not likely to be before next j bummer, and also no works are urgently required, and the board has no funds to go on j with works of any magnitude at present, j To use Mr Ramsay's own language, I sup- j pose it is •' because he is a friend of the Hon. j John MacGregor's," because he is a friend of | the hon. gentleman's Mr Ramsay would move heaven and earth to keep him in the board's service whether he is required or not. | I think, Sir, I have trespassed on your j space far enough, and I venture to say i that any unprejudiced .person who carefully reads this letter will coma to the conclusion that I have vindicated my actions in this matter, and have proved thit Mr Ramsay's facts are only fiction, and that he either knew thab they were | so when he wrote them or he shows culpable j ignorance of the business of the board of which j he has been a burning if not a shining light for nearly five years. — I am, &c, j Papakaio, February 5. Donald Boeeie. j