NEW GIRLS’ COLLEGE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 176, 21 April 1921, Page 5

NEW GIRLS’ COLLEGE

THE SITE QUESTION

MR. T. FORSYTH’S VIEWS

Interviewed in connection with the unexpected developments over the site

of the new girls’ college, Ml-. T. Forsyth who is a member of the Board of Col-

lege Governors, stated yesterday that ho was amazed at the eleventh-hour op

position which hod been raised to tho

erection of the college in the College Reserve. Thp position was that after three years’ deliberation and inquiry it was decided that the site selected within tho College Reserve was the beat. The selected site was submitted to the Department and approved; plans and layout were prepared and were approved by tho board and the Department; a grant of .£5OOO for preliminary work was made, and a contract actually signed, sealed, and commenced before the opposition from the Old Boys’ Association and its representatives on the Board of Governors arose.

The Wellington College and Girls’ High School Act of 1837, under which

statute the big area of land concerned was held as an education reserve, mentioned girls specifically, and therefore he maintained that on statutory grounds the girls had at least an equal right with the boys to a share of the reserve. The site of the new girls’ college and its playing areas did not infringe one yard upon the boys’ grounds. With the exception of the occasional use of the Observatory, the ground site of the now college and its playgrounds had for thirty years past been billside pasture for a few cows. The point raised about the boys’ bath was altogether too farfetched to be discussed, The solicitude of the Old Boys’ Association for the girls was ‘‘too touching; for words,” especially its reference to the present site of the college at Thomdon being “admirably situated.” Few who knew the locality, the school arid the grounds could seriously and sincerely say such a thing, least of all • Wellington College old boys, with their memories of a really situated school. The present girls’ college which was fur removed from the real centre of Wellington (the population of which was moving southward and enst-

ward), was scandalously congested, -wretchedly off for playgrounds, and devoid of outlook. Who could contradict this? When such tactics, wore resorted to to block the progress of one of tho finest school schemes yet propounded in Wellington, it was high time that the Old Girls’ as well as the Old Boys’ Association had representation on the Board of College Governors. . Mr. Forsyth said also that the imputation that the girls would want to annex the boys’ playing areas was a figment of the imagination, hatched in a futile endeavour to block tho major scheme. Mr. C. Lawrence, the board’s architect, had assured .him that in the levelled-off gully at the head of Paterson Street, there would, in addition to the entrance drives, be space for six tennis courts. Then there were nearly three acres of almost flat ground immediately behind the observatory knob (and not detectable from below), and on thg top of the ridge was a site for a fine hockey ground. With such fine areas of playground and a whole hillside to romp over, the girls would not want any of the boys’ grounds. If any were in doubt as to these points, let them go over the ground and see for themselves. There was, he declared, only one reason for this attempted check —a desire to keep the girls’ college out of the big reserve, which the Legislature gave them equally with the boys as a heritage for all time. He hoped that the objectors would not deter'the college governors from going forward with the scheme, which already bore the stamp of Ministerial and Departmental approval. COMMENTS BY PROGRESS LEAGUE. “It is by now a matter of general knowledge that the accommodation at the Girls’ College is most inadequate; and it is satisfactory to learn that the Department and the Government have at long last awakened to a fairly reasonable sense of their responsibility in this connection (states the Progress League in its annual report). Even so, howeveY, the proposed arrangements do not, on their face value, appear to be at all satisfactory. A new site has been selected near . the Boys’ College, and a grant of .£40,000 made for a new Girls’ College. This will provide for about 350 pupils; that leaves about 400 pupils to be accommodated, but in five years’ time it is estimated there will bo some 900 pupils at the school. What is going to become of the balance? What chance, with the divided attention that must necessarily ensue, will there be of fostering those traditions that make for the high ideals which can only be evolved from a close and intimate connection with a principal whoso influence would under better conditions be tolt throughout, the whole school. The records of such Old Country schools as Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Blue Coot Boys’, Girton, and Newnham (and many others) go to show how deplorably deficient Wellington is in connection witn the development of what is a prime necessity if education is to aim merely at the passing of examinations, buprema a situ' is Wellington’s municipal motto. Whv not in these days of development, expend a considerable portion of OUT energies and capital on providing a Girls College to which those who have been „ared under its kindly and helpful shelter will carry into the world of action, motherhood, and citizenship something of tho sentiment that is begotten lone and intimate association with tne great teaching establishments of the; older them ?”