TECHNICAL COLLEGE SITE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 309, 18 September 1918, Page 4

TECHNICAL COLLEGE SITE

■ABBA AT MOUNT COOK SET ASIDE. A suitable piece of land is at last available as a site for a technical college. The Minister of Education (tho Hon. J. A. Hanan) said yesterday that Cabinet had agreed to tho setting asideof three acros of land at Mount Cook for the urgently necessary provision of suitable accommodation for technical classes. Several months ago this question wa» referred by Cabinet to a committee ol Ministers (the Hons. Sir Francis Bell, T. M. Wilford, and J. A. Ilanan), which has submitted.its report. Some delay was oause<l by consideration of a proposal for the purchase of private land on the southern side of Mount Cook as part of a site for the Technical School. Valuations were obtained (including an estimate by tho City Valuer), but • as the figures were regarded by the committee as too high the proposal was dropped. .. Cabinet's agreement to a dedication of three acres of Crown, land will require legislative sanction. The site is on the southern side of Mount Cook. Tho understanding is that this allocation must not encroach on the northern area (nearly ten acres) reserved for other public purposes. Mr. Hanan paid that the dedication was conditional on the granting of £11,000 by the 'Wellington City Council towards the cost of the buildings; the council had already promised £10,000 of that sum. The question of providing money for the building had yet to bo; discussed by him with the Minister of Finance.- Mr. Hanan made the point clear that Cabinet so far bad been concerned" with only the question of a site. The Minister mentioned that the site would not have much ground suitable for recreation, but it. was considered that the adjacent Basin Reserve would meet that need. Some levelling would bo required. Help in this work had been promised by the Justice Department in 1916. , . Each member of the Ministerial Committee, concluded Mr. Hanan, had made a separate inspection of the rooms used for Wellington's 'scattered technical classes, and"each had recorded his opinion that better accommodation was needed.