SECONDARY SCHOOL INSURANCES

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 46, 18 November 1926, Page 11

SECONDARY SCHOOL INSURANCES

GOVERNMENT TO CARRY” RISK Dominion Special. Auckland, November 17. The lire risk on secondary schools will in future, be carried by the Education Department. The /Auckland Education Board was to-day advised ’of this decision, the Department instructing the board to allow existing policies to lapse. Consideration was deferred. until- the next meeting of the board. Notification of the Department’s new policy was also received' at a meeting of the Auckland Grammar School Board yesterday. ' “I sometimes wonder what good the board is,” said Dr. E. Robertson when the letter was received Dr. Robertson said the board did not seem to have any power at all, as it was constantly ■ being overridden from Wellington. “Oh, well,”-.said a member hopefully, “we serve a purpose as a local advisory committee.”' ' - ■ • : In the past it had been the custom of the Grammar School Board to insure its schools,, and hostels with local companies, stated the chairman (Professor A. P. W. Thomas) in an interview subsequently. A new system, as lie-' understood it, was that tlie Department would carry its own risk.' There_ would be .no policy covering a particular building, nor would any amount of cover be specified. In the case of loss by fire the Department would fall back on the Consolidated Fund. If a school were destroyed by fire the question of re-erecting it would arise. The Government, which would have to find the money, could then insist on the adoption of its own plan. . It might elect to replace the old building with a cheaper one, or otherwise, according to the financial circumstances of the moment. Under the old system the Gramtiiar School Board, insured its schools and hostels, andin case of fire would either' collect the amount of the policy' against rebuilding the destroyed building or have it replaced.