NOTES ON EDUCATION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 529, 9 June 1909, Page 4

NOTES ON EDUCATION.

(By Socsates.)

PETONE HIGH SCHOOL.

Last Thursday tho philosophic calm'which ordinarily, characterises the atmosphere of tho Education Board ■ Room when its members sit in council was ruffled. by an incident which arose out of a somewhat peculiar position 'ivjiich exists with regard to the requirements of secondary education in Petone. A deputation of two mcmbors of tho Petono oCiiool Committer) waited'- upon tho board to urge the. claims of Petone' to a high school, proper, within tho district. Tho deputation did not adduce anything of material importance to the question which was not already within tho knowledge of the board, and following upon a somewhat indiscreet remark by tho chairman oj the sshool committoo, to the offset that the board should give more careful attention to such correspondence as emanated from tho committee (the inference being that tho board regularly accepted the committee's correspondence as "received"), tho latter part of the proceedings,' according to the report which appeared in Tub Dominion next uay, was marked by somo display of feeling. , _ Petone desires a high school proper in Petone, and has v taken cortain stops in the direction, of consummating its desires., Tho Education Board, upon becoming acquainted with PetoneY desire, took legal advice upon the issues ' raised by . the request. The Petono . Committee, .which was supplied with a copy of the legal opinion referred to, dissented from the conclusions 1 arrived at by the board's solicitors, and hazarded the opinion that the board was in a dilemma. So far as 1 can see,: neither of the parties concerned—tho board and the committee —have quito i grasped the position, which, as I apprehend it, is this . The interests' of secondary education in the Hutt Valley aire at present served by two district high schools, one. at the Main Hutt School, " and the other, not three miles iway, at Petone School. District high schools ire! designed, fundamentally speaking, to af:6rd, as far ■ as" possible, tho afoantages of : ree secondary education to children who are inablo, by reason of their geographical situa- j aon, to attend a properly constituted ligh school. Petone is a large . and j jopulous suburb, and the Hutt,, al- , hough less densely populated, has, neverthe- ,

less, a large population distributed over i grdater area. Taking these factors into con sideration,-it will, I think, be genorally ad mitted.. that a properly constituted higl sihool to serve the requirements of these twe districts is a reasonable proposition. As foi a, high. School for Petono itself, that is quit< .ahothsr,matter. . . :: This'brings us to the kernel of the pro blem under review. Under Section 94 of th< Education-'Act, 1908, the Minister may, oi the application of the 'board, "establish i high school in any placo where there are,not kss than 60 pupils who have obtained certificate of proficiency under the regulations ol the public school syllabus, and whose parent! have expressed in writing their intention oi onrolline them at such high school." ' ' But there is a proviso: : "Provided that no such high school shall bo oßtablis'hed in any placo. whoro; there as a district high school or a secondary school giving free places, unless there are At least -30,000 inhabitants within five miles of such district high school or secondary school." ■' Tho Petone Committee secured soma sixtyeight signatures from' parents who had agreed to send their children to the proposed high, school,, and those, were- submitted to tho'board in support of its petition, that such a. school , should bo. established. The board, while satisfied that so far os.Scction 94 of the Act was concorned tho petition of the Petone Committee' was ■in order, was uriablo' to" determine- tho precise' purpose'of proviso to that section. Under the cir-cumstances-the. matter. might! easily, have been referred to' the Minister for his ruling. But. the board preferred to consult its 1 own legal advisers. I find it difficult to understand why the board should liavo taken this step, for even. assuming that the advice of its solicitors went to show that the petition of the Potdne'Cbmmittco could legally bo granted, matters would still bo in statu quo', fir, the Minister .' miist,. under the Statute, - have the last word on the subjeot :, /■: ' ' '_Soction' 04r7 : "Tho Minister may,ion tho a'pplication of -this board.. . :'.V v •*. y Section 101—" :'; , the Minister may, II ie SSO3 fit . .

■ The legal opinion obtained by the board Was to. the. following effect < (1) That it might bo open 1 to the' Minister to establish a.- high 'school in the Petonc district, notwithstanding the existence of a district high school in the Hutt. This in-

terpretation Was open to question -because of tho ambiguous' tiao .of, the' word "place" in two ijistinct references in' the Act ito ''school.' districts."'. ~ ■:. , ■

_. (2) The school property; when once vested in the Education Board for''the purposes'of secondary, cductation must be-permanently appropriated for 'such purposes, and if . such property were first vested for primary education, then for. a district'high school and latterly for a high school proper, it would .ultimately pass from'the control of the board to the countrol of tho High School Gover;nors. It was .doubted whether the hoard had power to expropriate, any , site acquired originally for primary edocation. The Petonc Committee dissented from the .opinion of tho board's legal advisers, stating its opinion in a letter to the board that: " , ... In Section 94, the word 'place' means the 'Petone Soliool District,' and' istherefore in order, and it is open for the Minister to establish a high i school in Petone distriot, notwithstanding the existence of a district high school .at tlie/Hutt. On BUch -.establishment, it will of necessity disestablish tho Petone Distriot High School. Further,' we are o# opinion that the property of' a district high school, belongs to the board and, on disestablishment, remains with the board.'/ Section, 95 •of tie , Education , Act says':—*' That the 'high 'school . established shall bo controlled in accordance with 'a sobeme approved by the Ministerj' etc. Part Of the scheme apprtVed by the Minister is the, holding of property by the board, and therefore we are satisfied tliat the property of. a district high school remains iVitli the board even when tho high school is. under tho Control of tho board of governors." Hie meaning and purport of the provisio to Section 94 : is, obviously,, that when a distriot in whieh a high school has been swells<in population to the number of 30,000 a: second institution 'may safely be organised within five miles without detriment to the interests of the' existing institution That, is tho intention of Section 9-1, and the ambiguity as to the word' ,( place" does not in this particular case affect the principle upon which the section is based. The second part of tho opinion relating to the vestment'of the board's property is- not pertinent to the mam question, which is, "Shall Petone have a hnrh school proper- or not?" That answered, side issues may bo easily disposed of later on. ' *

_lo .sum. up. Petono already has a district high school, .but on the strength of Sub-section (a) of Section -101/ which empowers tho Minister, if lie sees fit, to disc&bahhsh a district high eohool with a view to establishing a high school under Section 94 and also on the faofc that it can fulfil the requirements as to the minimum enrolment considers that nothing actually stands in tho way of its objective—a high school for Petone.

. Petone is wrong there. Something—tho Hutt Distnct High School, not throe miles away—stands in the Way. Granted that the District High' School at Potone is "disestablished, there is"still, within the meaning'of the Act, a district high school within five nnios, tho population of tho combined -boroughs is not 30,000. Only by the disestablishment of both the Hutt and Petono District High Schools can I'etono get its liiqh school proper, and any negotiations toward-. tbat_end may be interrupted by a query from ?t TH Ijcopie— Where do wo come in?" If tho educational interests of the Hutt Valley as a whole are to be adequately served, Petone. and tho Hutt must avoid a parochial attitude, and approach those interests as matters concerning tho Hutt Valley as a wbolo. .-