SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3183, 6 September 1917, Page 7

SCHOOL BUILDINGS

ADMINISTRATION OF THE FUNDS MINISTER'S REPORT The annual report on education was presented to tho Legislative Council yesterday. Dealing with the board's accounts relative to maintenance- and rebuilding of schools tho report says:— "Tho administration of tho funds granted for the above-mentioned' purpose to Education Boards since the present syslom of providing grants for school buildings was inaugurated in .1903, lias not worked satisfactorily. Out of tho annunl grants the boards wore expected not only to maintain the school buildings in good repair, but also to set asidp reserve funds sufficient to meet the cost of rebuilding euch schools as becoinoworn out. Tho present neglected and dilapidated condition of many school buildings shows that some of tho boards hnvo not carried out thoir duties with respect to maintenance, with the result thjvt buildings are regarded as -worn out which had a reasonablo sum beon spent upon their u.pkoop would have an extended pernd of utility. Again, most of tho boards haxo fiiilod to jnake the required provision, by way of reserve fund for Iho rebuilding of worn-out , schools, and, indeed, a largo proportion of tho money appropriated for this purpose has been exponded in other directions, and is liot available to meet robnildin<r liabilities, present or prospective; So far as can bo ascertained from the annual returns submitted to tlie Department tho total, funds in hand for rebuilding alone should bo approximately whereas at the end of tho f year IHI6 tho boards' total credit balances for both maintenance and rebuilding were only jei+3,ooo. Ev;n' if tho whole of this sum—viz.,- XH3.UOO —bo regarded as available for rebuilding there- is <i. doticit of .£77.000 in the rebuilding fund, tho money having- bee.i expended on purposes other than that for 1 which it was appropriated. As. a matter of fact,- however, the sura of jn-0.000 ehown to the oredit of the boards' building.funds is not represented by money lying to tho credit of the .boards. In many cases the credit balances are-, merely jmpev ones, the expenditure producing doficits on otwr accouuts having been mot by drawing upon the maintenance nad rebuilding fund. One board, for example, has used ■practioally the whole of its nominal bnlanco of iCIC.OOO of maintenance and rebuilding money for other purposes; another board has similarly used .£soou, and yet another .£4OOO. Again, in the case of two boards recently incorporated in another district, ,£10,600 should have been in hand for rebuilding purposes, yet when their accounts wcro closed one i)6ard, Oh all accounts, had a oredit balance of only .£250, and tho other a debit balance of £500. The total sum of money provided originally for jebiuldinß not no.w available is therefore well over .£IOO,OOO. ' , , "The position, therefore, is somewhat 6erit>us, and in consequence the uovernment may be asked to provide twice over some of the money for rebuilding schools. It should bo pointed out. however, that this result is not altogether due to the administration of ' education boards, but that it is in eome measure due to inherent defects in- the system itself, which has not. worked so well as anticipated. Indeed, there are so many inherent and administrative defects in -the system that it should not be permitted to continue, nnd matters be allowed to .drift on as they have. been, doing. From observations made there is abundant evidence that school bnildmgß eyfe not being maintained in a proper state of repair, and the Department has been under the necessity of condemning schools which, with/proper attention, could have been made use of for an extended period. The whole question of the maintenance and rebuilding ot schools has received close investigation, and the information compiled leads to the conclusion that tho present system must bo condemned as unsatisfactory, nnd unworkable, not only from the point of view of local administration, but in its departmental aspect also.. A better Bysteiii" is clearly•■ essential, and the proposals in this direction havo been submitted to the Government for consideration." .