MORE SCHOOLS!

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1141, 31 May 1911, Page 4

MORE SCHOOLS!

.VARIOUS AGITATIONS, EKETAIIUNA, VOGELTOWN, AND KEIKOEANGI. A strong and persistent agitation for a new £«hool has been going on in Ekotahuua for some time past. At the meeting of tho Wellington Education Board yes■terday, a petition containing M 7 signa-. tures, and forwarded under the combined auspices of, .the. Eketahuna County Coun-i cil, Chamber of Commerce, and School Committee,-was-'received; The petitioners' who dissented*from the board's proposal to remove the old school building from its present site and re-erect it on the new site adjoining the railway station,, stated that tho educational progress of the town had been greatly restricted owing to tho lack of a district high school, the nearest institution of that kind being at Masterton or Pahiatua, out of tho reach of thoso who had not tho means to meet the expenses' involved in Sending their children to .these-centres. , •

"This state of affairs in a democratic community is distinctly wrong," asserted tho petitioners, who urged that a district of 15 miles radius, comprising a large population and 12 primary schools was entitled to the benefits of higher education. The School Committee had been assured of an attendance of at the proposed secondary: classes, and an increase was anticipated. It was, therefore, submitted that the most practical' method of dealing -with the question was to erect on the new site a modern building adapted to tho-requirements-of both primary and secondary education. A brief discussion followed tho reading of the,petition. Members' were generally agreed upon the merits of the application for a district high school, and that the' whole question was one of finance. The chairman (llr. . R'obert Lee) was opposed to any course which would place, tho board in serious debt, and tho only feasible method of proceeding would bo to apply to the Government for a grant in aid.

Mr. "W. C. Buchanan, M.P., understood that a member of tho Government to whom tho question had been referred on a recent occasion had given a sympathetic reply to the representations which, had been submitted.

It was decided that the Government bo approached for a grant of ,£2OOO for the erection of a new school building on tho new site, providing accommodation for both primary and secondary education. The board's alternative will be , to remove the old school building to the new- site,- and provide additional .classrooms tho proposed secondary classes. VOGELTOWN SCHOOL. INSPECTORS' REPORT. Reporting to the board upon the merits of tho agitation for a new school at Vogeltown,.the inspectors stated their , view of the case as follows::— "In 1909 the board accepted tho offer of a site for a school in the Mornington Estate, and agreed that when a new school was erected, it would be placed on the site then offered. The following shows the situation of the Vogeltown and Mornington sites: — "Brooklyn to Vogeltown, GO chains; Vogqltown to Mornington, 32 chains (including,a distance along side road); Brooklyn to Mornington,' 72 chains; Mornington to Scuith Wellington, 1 mile 1G chains; Morning.to Newtown, 1 mile 52 chains. ■ "Of the names of children in tho petition, between 30 and JO are now attending the Brooklyn School, and a few have left school. Of thoso now attending Brooklyn, 10 are just as- near to that school as to tho Vogeltown site. Of the' other children of school ago about 40 are nearer to Vogeltown, but of these 40, some arq attending South Wellington, some Neivtbwn, and some the Marist Bros.' School, and many of them will be better served by a school on the ington site than by one on the old Vogeltown site. There arc a few families who imjlgrpd. by-.tjie removal -of "the school from Vogeltown to Brooklyn, .but even these are only a short distance from the Mornington site. South Wellington- School- is overcrowded, but most of the children now attending there from this district would bo better served by the'Mornington site than bv the old Vogeltown site. "Under the above circumstances wo cannot." see our way to recommend the bonrd to rescind its former resolution." The report was adopted without discussion. YET ANOTHER CRY,, "FROM REIKOR ANGI. . An old agitation, for better school accommodation of Beikornngi, was , "revived by Mr. W. H. Field, M.1 , ., who moved: "That application be again made to the Education Department for the erection of a second room of Reikorangi School, and that in making such application, it be .urged: that.the . Reikoraugi people themselves defrayed the large portion of 1 the cost of building tho present school: that the present school is ill-shaped and obsolete; and that, inconvenience and discomfort, pointed out in the committee's letter of July 18, WlO, be brought forcibly under the notice of tho . Department." . ■ .' "A fire would be the best thing, that could hannen to that- old remarked the mover, disparagingly. Tho motion was seconded and carried.