The Domonion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1916. A CASE FOR ACTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2913, 27 October 1916, Page 4

The Domonion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1916. A CASE FOR ACTION

The scattered departments of the Wellington Technical School arc in some danger of being thrown into the street. This scarcely exaggerates the story told by the representative deputation which interviewed the Minister of Education on Wednesday, and it is a queer ' story to be told at a time when so much talk centres on the need of promoting industrial and commercial efficiency, in order that wo may do ourselves justice in the critical and stressful conditions which will arise after the war. At present the Technical School is working under difficulties, conducting 'its. classes as best it may in rooms placed at its disposal by the Education Board and the City Council, or rented from other landlords. Both the Education Board and the City Council, though anxious to do all they can to assist the Technical School, are under the necessity of recovering the rooms they have temporarily allotted to its use. The requirements of their own administration leave them no_ option in the matter. Doubt exists also as to the possibility of a continued tenure ■ of some of the other class-rooms- now occupied, notably a flat in the Y.M.C.A. building. To read the statements of Wednesday's deputationists is to see uncomfortable visions of Me. La Trobe and his staff, with their numerous pupils and all the paraphernalia of technical- instruction, wandering disconsolately about the City, seeking an abiding place and not finding it. Matters, of course, are not really quite as bad as that, but there has been far too much drifting delay in the matter of providing suitable accommodation in Wellington for this highly and increasingly important branch of education. As one deputationist pointed out, technical school buildings have been erected in provincial towns which would almost fill requirements in Wellington, but here, in the capital City of the Dominion, the school is scattered abroad in a fashion that must, be very injuri-. ous to itts working efficiency. The case calls for prompt and positive action, and though the Minister was unable to promise Government aid in the immediate future, it should not be impossible to forthwith mako an end of delays. The things first needed are a site, and the price of a building, some £20,000, of which amount the City Council will provide half. As to the site, there is a, proposal to allot to the Technical School four acres of the space of about fourteen acres available at Mount Cook. Probably no better site could be found. It is central to the City as a' whole, and more conveniently accessible from the thickly-populated areas of Newtown and the southern suburbs than any other site that is likely to be. selected. The erection of a Technical School on portion of the Mount 'Cook reserve need not clash in any way with the larger project of utilising portion of this ample space as a site for - the National Museum, Library, and Art Gallery. Though its purse-strings at present are drawn tight, the Government cannot in common justico refuse to make the area mentioned at Mount Cook immediately available. Any hesitation on this point should certainly be made the subject of a most energetic and determined protest. As to the money required, there does not seem to be any hope of an immediate Government grant to complete* the sum of £20,000, with which it would bo possible to. put in hand the first ina.in _ instalment of the necessary building operations, and, as the Hon. J. G. W. Aitken remarked the other day, erect a building which would satisfy the needs of Wellington for some time. The Minister frankly admitted the justico of the demand, but advanced the not easily answered plea that no money is in band with which to satisfy it. This, however, should not raise an insuperable obstacle to immediate action. At least the possibility should be considered of raising the required sum in anticipation of a 'Government grant. It is reasonable and just that'the Government should be asked to sanction this courso, and if it undertook not only to, ultimately make the grant, but to meet interest charges on the sum raised in anticipation, there need bo no objection to the date of the grant being set down within a. reasonable period after the end of the war. The National Government has

discountenanced some proposals to raise money locally in anticipation of State grants, for the prosecution of certain country works, on the ground that where Government expenditure on public works is for the time being inadvisable, other expenditure is equally inadvisable. In most cases this argument is sound. Tho financing of the war must, of course, take precedence over any local expenditure that can reasonably be deferred. But, every rule has its exceptions, and the urgency of the claim made on behalf of the Wellington Technical School calls' for special treatment. • In comparison with the crying need which' exists, the financial outlay involved is trifling. , Whether the procedure hero outlined or some alternative plan is deemed most advisable, the bodies represented at Wednesday's deputation should by all means press their agitation in the spirit manifested on that occasion. The Government Made to understand that Wellington is determined to no longer tolerate the injustice and neglect it has suffered in the matter of accommodation for technical in? struction, in comparison with other parts of the Dominion. The inadequate and utterly unsuitable character of the accommodation at present available in . itself gives tho demand for a good site and building unanswerable force. ' But in addition to this it l is necessary to look ahead a little. Wo took occasion somo timo -ago to commend tho sensible views expressed by the present Minister of Education in regard to imparting more practical value to the range of public instruction beyond the primary stage, "notably by largely substituting utilitarian technical education for the existing Secondary curriculum, with its numerous blind alleys and futiliBut what is the use of enunciating sound principles and at the same time tolerating material circumstances jwhich not only prevent these principles, being carried into practical effect, but tend to ensure their positive negation 1 That, in a nutshell, is the position in Wellington at the present moment, and it should be remedied and amended without any further delay.