SCHOOL BUILDINGS EXPENDITURE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 183, 5 May 1925, Page 11

SCHOOL BUILDINGS EXPENDITURE

IS DEMAND FOR INCREASE JUSTIFIED?

Tlic'proposnl of the Wellington School Committees’ .Assoeiation that the Government should be asked to iuc’-e.ise the annual expenditure On school buildings from £300,000 to £iiOO,OOO led to some diversity of opinion .it the annual meeting of householders at the Clyde Quay School last night. Mr. R. Scott, who presided, moved that the resolution submitted by the association be supported. Mr. T. Forsyth, chairman of tiie Education Board,'who is a member of the Clvdc Quay School Committee, said the proposal of tiie School Committees’ Association had been before, tiie board, but had been turned down on account of insufficient details of the proposed scheme being forthcoming. It was ell very well to ask that the grant for school buildings should be doubled, but it was quite another matter to explain how the money was to be spent, and, more important still, haw it was to i<e raised. The association had suggested that money could be saved by erecting two-storeved school buildings, but where these had been tried in Wcllington thev had not been satisfactory, owing to the noise from the overhead rooms interfering with the classes undcrneatli. It was little use n deputation going to the Minister ol Education unless they could give complete details of their proposed scheme, and explain how the extra money was to be raised. Mr. W. H. Phillips agreed that the proposal to double the grant for school buildings wag. unjustified. He considered tiie Government was doing everything possible in this direction. There was too much of this cry to "borrow, borrow, borrow,” without a thought of where the moiiev was to come from. Mr. T. Mitchell agreed that the Government was making generous provision for school buildings. An amendment moved by Mr. Forsyth, and seconded by Mr. Phillips, that the resolution from the School Committees’ Association be received, with a view to fuller details being supplied, was carried. It was decided to support the School Committees’ Association in >t request to the Government that the capitation paid to smaller schools be increased to eiisute thorough cleaning of the buddings.