A JUST DEMAND

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2924, 9 November 1916, Page 4

A JUST DEMAND

Denied the relief it has a right to expect, our out-at-elbows Technical is falling into rnoro desperate plight than ever. The report of the Visiting committee of the Technical School Board, which we published yesterday, describes in detail a state of affairs which can only be called deplorable. As a present alleviation of the difficulunder which the school is labouring owing to its cramped and unsatisfactory accommodation, the "board is considering the erection of a temporary building in Morcer Street. Something of the kind seems to be absolutely necessary in order that instruction may proceed, but the erection of a temporary building will, of course, do nothing at all towards solving the main problem. Admitting as it must the crying need that exists for a suitable site and building, the Government apparently feels entitled to wash its hands of the matter for the tin™ being on the p'ca that no fernis aro available. This is 'an attitude which the Technical Education Board and the people of Wellington should resolutely decline to iolcrate. If the comparatively modc«t sum required is not immediately in hand, it should not strain the resources of the State to raise it by such means as may be available. Up to the present the Minister of Education has offered nothing but sympathy, and as the representative of the Government in this matter he should bo called sharply to account. The plea that the Government is unable to do what Is necessary simply will not hold water. Maintaining its present attitude it will stand convicted, not of poverty but of culpable indifference, to the eminently just demand that the bare necessities of technical education in Wellington should be satisfied.