EDUCATION BOARDS AND OBJECTORS

Southland Times, Issue 24524, 27 August 1941, Page 6

EDUCATION BOARDS AND OBJECTORS

WIDER POWERS SOUGHT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 26.. A deputation to inquire into the position of education boards when asked to deal with complaints about teachers who were conscientious objectors, waited on the Minister of Education (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) from the Wellington Education Board. The deputation was not open to the Press, but the Minister stated subsequently that the board had made representations to him about the difficult problems which arose when teachers appealed on the grounds of conscientious objection and the feeling which arose in the community, as the result often created an intolerable position with which the boards had no power to deal. The board asked that boards should be enabled in such circumstances to terminate the engagement of the teachers promptly. Mr Mason said he told the deputation that the Minister of National Service had authority under the existing regulations to deal with the situation and he would confer with the Minister with a view to securing the prompt application of those remedies, which would be applied through the special tribunals now being set up to deal with such objectors to service He believed these tribunals would be functioning immediately, but if this proved unsatisfactory he would consider the question of increasing the powers of education boards.