Govt. Offer To Banks On School Hostels

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31118, 22 July 1966, Page 3

Govt. Offer To Banks On School Hostels

(7V.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 21. The Government was ready to guarantee the security of any money which banks were willing

to lend to the boards of state secondary schools for hostel improvements, the Minister of Education (Mr Kinsella) said in Auckland.

Speaking at a presentation of Auckland Savings Bank bursary awards to 103 pupils of Auckland schools, he said the Government was doing “everything in its power to raise the standard of hostels.”

Many boards had been prevented in the past from building or renovating hostels because they could offer no security against a loan. To qualify for full Government aid for a new hostel or extensions or repairs to an existing hostel, a board has to establish that it can fill the hostel with 70 to 80 boarders, 75 per cent of whom qualify for a boarding bursary. For hostels with less than this proportion of boarders eligible for a bursary the Government contributes in proportion to the number of bursary holders. It was for these hostels that the Government was willing to guarantee security against a bank loan, said Mr Kinsella.