SCHOOL FOR MELROSE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2953, 16 December 1916, Page 15

SCHOOL FOR MELROSE

Atf APPLICATION REJECTED. ! At last month's meeting of the Education Board an application was made for tho erection of a school in the j Melrose district (between Island Bay and Newtown Park), -where a good deal of settlement is now going on. In accordance with an instruction from the board, tho secretary (Mr. G. 'L. Stewart) reported as follows:— "In accordance with tho instruction of the board that tho secretary report as to the population that would reasonably be served by a school in'the Melrose district, I beg to say that, first, tho Truant Officer Has twice visitod and has undertaken a careful inspection of the district; that, second, wo have had the advantage of exact statisticsfrom >tlie Statistical Department,' the officers of which have always been very obliging in relation to the needs of tho board. The numbers are exact, as the census is just recently completed. I have excluded from consideration tlie areas which are quite obviously well served by existing schools—(a) Maranui, (b) South' Wellington and Newtown, (c) Island Bay. I "Tlie numbers furnished by the Department show that the population in the'areas cn the heights is 130 persons, and assuming one in five of school age, this gives 26 children. The number is not very large, nor does it appear that for many years, if over, owing to its broken nature, will the district be closely settled ; nor are the distances unreasonably great. Taking Section 315 in Subdivision 66 as being fairly central, the clerk of works finds the maximum distances to adjoining schools to be as follow: —To Maranui, via Hunger, ford Road and Queen's Drive, is only miles; to Maranui, direct distance, 1 mile; to Island Bay, 1 mile 20 chains; to Island Bay, direct distance, 44 chains; from Sutherland Crescent to South Wellington, 47 chains. "Of the 130 mentioned above, 91 live west of Clonmel' Streot and are within easy distance of ■Mai'amii. Tho balance of 49 live oast of tho section mentioned,- and the children oan attend tho Island Bay School without hardship. Of those outsido the area mentioned above, tlio Truant Officer points out that residents living on Sutherland Road cast of Sutherland Crescent aro. within easy reach of Maranui School, and children whose parents live at Sutherland Crescent are within easy reach of South Wellington School., After careful consideration of tho information furnished, arid of the distances as taken out by the clerk of works, I am satisfied that there is no need to acquire a site with a view to tho future establishment of a school."

Before tho report was adopted Mr. R.. A. "Wright said that, whilst not taking exception to tho reportplie -would like to point out something 1 would have to bo done in the way of providing a school in that part of the educational 'district. It was a district -where a'lot of settlement was going on, ■ and as Wellington grew it was one of tho few directions it «nild grow in. Though it was decided that nothing ■ was now to be done, he hoped that it would not be', forgotten, and 1 -he a site should bo secured before the land became too dear.