TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 855, 29 June 1910, Page 6

TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

g DEPUTATION TO COUNCIL, A DISSENTIENT MEMBER. A deputation from the Technical School Hoard waited ou the .Finance Committee of the City Council yesterday in regard to the utilisation of tho .Mercer Street site iu the event of new school buildings being erected in .lohu Street. .Messrs. D. Hohorlson (member of the board) and La Trnba (director) formed (he deputation, and Mr. T. C'armichael, a member of tho board, attended to express dissent from the course of action taken. Mr. T. Ballingor, chairman of tho board, who is also a member of tho Finance Committee of the council, iutraduced the deputation Ho stated that when the arrangement was previously discussed by which the board was to receive a new site iu John Street, the board nsked the council to give them the Mercei Street property as n perpetual endowment. There wore iound to be difficulties in the way of this request, and the deputation now asked merely that the board should bo allowed to lease tho Mercer Street property to other persons til Mho termination of tho present lease in fifty-eight years' time, the proceeds to bo u.-.ed lor technical education purposes. .It was proposed that tho property should be let un a Glasgow lease, and that at tho end of fifty-eight years tho City Council should receive the rents instead of the board, it was hoped that the board would be able to capitalise tho rents so that with tho Government subsidy of .Ul for £1 it would lie able to start buildings on the new site in John Street. He suggested that a Bill should be introduced before Parliament at once dealing only with the question of the new eite. The Mayor was disiioscd to think that this would l>e a private Bill, and that under the Standing Orders it was too late to introduce it. Mr. Ballinger thought the measure could just lie "squeezed through" as a local Bill. The Mayor thought it was a fino point. Extension of Work. Mr. D. Robertson said that at every meeting of the board thero was an application for a. new class. A wool class was demanded, and a class for veterinary surgery. It was quite impossible for the board to carry on efficiently with tho present buildings. They understood plainly irom the Government that it would give a subsidy of .01 for £\ on public contributions. Mr. La Trobe said that the need for further accommodation had been l>efore his eyes ever since he had come to Wellington. The absolute inadequacy of the present situation was Incoming more, acute as time went on. There was no question but that tho school would lie throttled ultimately for want of space if it did not go into other premises. A Note of Dissent.. Mr. T. Carmichiiel said he regretted that he had to oppose tho request. If the chairman and other members of the board considered such an application necessary, .they should have brought tho matter forward before, and let. the rest of the members know what they intended to do. The first they had heard iu regard to this application was at tlio last meeting of the hoard. As a board they bail never met to decide the question. He could not be mixed up with the deputation and appear there as understanding everything that was intended to be done when the matter had never been discussed by the board at all. "When the matter comes further forward," said Mr. Curmicheal, "and I think it wise, 1 shall .have a good deal more to say, and there, uro some facts of the care that are- not altogether creditable to tho board." The Mayor in Reply, Tho Mayor said that the first thing to consider was whether the council had power to act in the way proposed. In the original deed of lease of the Mercer Street site from the City Council (o the board, it was clearly stated that the land must not be used for any other purpose than as a site for technical instruction. A proviso had since been written in with the object of allowing the land to bo used temporarily for any other purpose. It scorned to him that either tho lease must be cancelled and a new lease prepared, or legislation must be provided to authorise the alteration which it was designed ljy this, proviso to effect. Personally he recognised that the school was congested, but they had to walk between the lines of tho contract laid down between tho board and the council, and the only way to alter that contract was by proper legal means consistent with the terms of the contract. He thought that the matter should be referred in the first place to tljo City Solicitor, to see how this could best bo done. Tho deputation then withdrew.