HON. J. MACGREGOR'S MOTION.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 2321, 25 August 1898, Page 30

HON. J. MACGREGOR'S MOTION.

L TO THE J'JHTOK. Sir, — Your report of tho Education Board ' meeting has the following: — "Mr P. B. 1 Frasor said: The motion [ordering Mr Ken to advance the pupils] was moved by Mr ; Snow, but it was not his motion ; it was All • MacGres?or'K, and ho (Mr MacGrcsor) givve it to Mr Snow. When they came out of committee Mi eGregor dissented from the motion. "Mr MacGregor : He is repeating misstatements. If ho continues it I shall have to call them lies. " Mr Frasor: Mr Snow will be able to bear me out whether this was his own motion or whether he received it from Mr MaeGregor. "Mr AlacOregor : It is untrue." Now, Mr MacGregor was drawing on his recollection and I was drawing on mine. I hoard Air MacGregor in committee, and his moiion in committee, and I heard Mr Snow's, and as a result I said at the board's table and I repeat again what is reported above. I know that words are the counters of wise men and tho money of fools, and that fools fight about woids and men about things; and if Mr MacGregor can show that tho thing in his motion is not the thing in Mr Snow's, "only more so," I shall offer him an amplo apology. ' Agreeably to my request, Mr Snow has sent me from his home the very motion handed to him by Mr MacGregor, and from this motion Air Snow framed the one Mr MacGregor repudiates. Mr Snow says: — "When Mr MacGregor handed me the enclosed I was fully under the impression thflt he agreed wivh Hie contents. Little did 1 think when we went into open board that he would vote against it as he did." I now place in parallel columns the two motions : — , Hon. J. MacGregor's Motion. Mr Snow's Motion. that Mr "That Mr Ken- be Kcr be infoiined that ordered to advance the the resolution of the pupils he vas rs. juested board pass- dat the May io advance at the May meeting and connuum- meeting, and be incated to him is rega ded formeu that a refusal by <he board as an order, to do so will be tivatecl and thai lvuisal to com- as an act of disjbedii ply with the board's re- nice." quest shall f c treated as wilful disobedience and gro s mis'r ehavio'H\" I need only add that the intention of the niction firt>fc and last was, and the understanding of tot >o board firsb and lasu was, that failure to coiiiyly would be met with " summary dismissal": for the act was consulted, and the words of section 47 are quoted in the motion. On one other point was 1 contradicted. I said the motion was "passed unanimously." It is but the incontrovertiole fact that this motion implying "summary dismissal" stands in the board's record without one single note of dissent. Everybody knows that if a division is taken on an important motion in any public body the division and names are recorded. This is the universal practice I of the Education Board, and all the divisions and names stand recorded in this Waipori business except on this motion — the most important of aI I for the simple reason that no division was taken. The standing orders of the boaid declare that one member may call for a division, ' wlicn the voting shall be recorded in the minutes." In all my experience on the board this has never been omitted. The record then here too stands with me. Moreover, I have my recollection, which recalls' to me this fact — that I actually expressed my satisfaction to the board before we came out of committee that, although the board had been divided at every stage, il was unanimous at last in upholding its dignity. I was not contradicted then. That was surely a challenge for a division *, but rone was called and none is recorded. "We wero unanimous at the time," says Mr Snow; aye, and Mr Sim too. We en me into open board, and not a word was said beyond Mr Snow formally moving and Mr Sim seconding the motion. Mr MacGregor then paid, to my amazement, that as he dissented from the board's first action, as he certainly did, he must dissent from thi3. The chairman asked if he wanted a division, and he said no. I sit by the ear of the chairman, and have good reason to believe that mv memory is correct. Now, Sir, whatever explanation Mr MacGreaor can give, consistent with his honour, will be heartily received. At all events, in . -view of his motion now produced, in view of , the testimony of at least three members of the ; board and of the records, v is not competent ! for him to characterise tho simple facts related by me in your report as either "tmirtitlis " or " lies." Bringing this matter nr> with much reluctance and regret, and thanking your for space. — 1 am, etc., i ; Lovell's Flat, August 22. P. B. Fbaseb. i.. . " I