REDUCED VOTE

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 126, 24 November 1932, Page 15

REDUCED VOTE

FOR SCHOOL BUILDINGS

LABOUR CRITICISM

i Complaints against the reduction of tjhe vote for school buildings for the current year were made in the House of last night during the discussion on the Public Works Estimates.' The vote last year was £300,000, ana of this amount £259,149 was expended. This year the allocation is £100,000. Mr ; -D. G-'. Sullivan (Labour, Avon) said that the reduction in the vote for school buildings from £350,000 to £100,000, was too drastic, and would not .■ provide . the absolutely necessary buildings. Many of tho children were being housed in poor buildings, and both children and teachers were" being severely handicapped. He had been told when he had asked for reasonable buildings for the children that there was no money. ,

The Prime Minister (the Eight Hon. G. W. Forbes): That is a good reply. Mr. Sullivan: If somebody is to starve it should not be the children. He added tb#t many of. !the-children were being taught in shacks which were utterly unfitted for school buildings. With the amount allotted to him the Minister of Education could not possibly do his job;' and there would be heart-burnings throughout the country as the result of the cut in the vote _ The Minister of Public Works (the Right Eon: J. G. Coates) said that he would be glad to inquire into any case where there was an urgent need for the rebuilding of a school. It was not the intention of the (Government to borrow money for building purposes, and naturally; the, .yote had been cut down. Btowsyer, 'the amount allotted' for '; sch'.iJol buildings, £100,000, would be" distributed as rfairly as possible. In /past years a tremendous amount of money had been spen-t on school buildings, but the Treasury was "not as generous as it used to be, and they had to live within the reduced vote. -'■ -.

Mr. E.- J. Howard (Labour, Christchurch South) said that there was a vote of £10,000 for the reconstruction of the Blue Bath at Rotorua, and he thought that the people would not view this expenditure with favour in view of the curtailment of the allocation for school "buildings. ■ :