SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 802, 27 April 1910, Page 4

SECONDARY EDUCATION.

POSITION IN THE HUTT VALLEY. DEPUTATION TO HON. G. FOWLDS. A matter relating to a somewhat vexed educational question in this district was .brought; under the-notice of the Hon. G.' Vowlds (Minister for Education) by a deputation from the Wellington Education Board yesterday. ' Mr. lee (chairman) stated that.' the first matter which the deputation wished to draw attention to was the need for,a high school for,the Hutt.Valley. -Most ol the members of the board were agreeable to the conversion' of the Petone District High School into a high school, bat , only on: condition that the district, high school at Hutfc remained untouched. The .board, ivished to know what. was (he bes£j;courso to adopt regarding secondary educationTiri , the Hutt;Valley.;'They, thought.that money.:was..being wasted in, retaining Price's building for jthe Dis--trict High School at Petone,' when 'the classes could be. accommodated -in-the new; Teohnical School, :: ' ■•' .:•'. v ..;■,., The Minister, in reply, etated -.that ,it would be impossible for. the. Department to establish a high school'at'Petone without interfering with the District High School at Hutt. The legal advisers to the Department had given it as their opinion that no new high school be established in any place where there was : already: a; district high school, or where thero' was a district high school giving free places, or unless thero were 30,091) inhabitants within a live miles radius. Apart .from this,• there .arose the question of the advisability or otherwise of having two establishments, in the Hutt, each giving secondary education. There would'only be one opinion on this point,' viz., that all secondary' education in the; Hutt' Valley should be conducted in one establishment, wherever situated. Even if there were a possibility of evading the true interpretation of the 1 clause to which he had alluded, the Department would not be willing to assist. The Department had no feeling on the question as to where the proposed high school should be established; if the ! people and the board were agreed, the Department would be satisfied. He would like to point out, however, that the Department would insist that the locality would have to provide ■ the. site, , which would require to be ample in size. The I site proposed at Petone was, in the' judgment of the Department, far 'too small.. ■He:could only, therefore, repeat that the 'position was this: the Department could not if it would, and it would not if it could, provide for the establishment'of a high school at Petone and leave the District High School at Hutt alone. In' the meantime, until an agreement was I arrived at as to site, the District High School should be allowed to' continue. Personally, ho thought that the District Iligh School classes at Petone might be taken in the Technical School building in the meantime. When a high, school, for the Hutt Valley came to be decided upon it should be one school to serve the whole i of the Valley, and care should bo taken so that the possibility of a demand for a second high school at an early date might not be created. ■....-