TECHNICAL COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 73, 28 March 1933, Page 5

TECHNICAL COLLEGE

QUESTION OP ACCESS

COLLEGE BOARD'S POSITION

' CPMMITTEE TO ACT

A special committee representing the Wellington Technical College Board o£ Governors has been appointed to meet the , trustees of the National War Memorial Art Gallery and Museum with a view to making: provision for a means of access to the college from Buckle Street while the contractors are engaged on the Mount Cook site. After a committee comprising the director of the college, Mr. R. G. Ridling, the chairman 'of the board (Mr. W. H. Bennett), and ■Messrs. T. Forsyth, G. L. Stewart, J. P. Luke, J. N. Wallace, W. Mill, and H. C. Morton had been elected at last night's meeting of the Board of Governors, Mr. Bennett* and other speakers expressed the hope that an agreement satisfactory to both bodies would be arrived at.

After reading a letter from the contractor for the War Memorial stating that the present access to the college from Buckle Street would have to be closed, as it would have to.be used in connection with the construction of the buildings; Mr. Bennett said that the ' matter had given both himself and the director considerable concern. The site on which the college stood was originally controlled by the Prisons Department, the Defence Department, and the Justice Department; When the plans ; for the ; college were formulated it was/understood that when the time arrived for the apportionment'of the rest of the Mount 'Cook site the rights of the college would be preserved. It was a distinct shock to find that when this block was handed over to the Board of Trustees for the National : Art Gallery and Museum, the rights of the college had not been preserved, and that the approaches to the college had been cut off. "Mr. Bennett said he had communicated with the Minister, of Justice, who had asked for the.whole position to be set out in writing so that he could be in. a position to judge and deal with the- matter. This letter had been sent. The Minister had visited the College to'see for himself the means of access available. So far the board had not received any official notification from him. At present, however, he did not appear to be inclined to interfere between the department which had the rights over a piece of land on the eastern side of- the carillon that.might be used as an access to the building site by the contractor, und^the Board of Trustees. The Minister had snggested, v however, that a. committee should be set up to discuss the question with the Board of Trustees. Referring to. the trouble that has been experienced- owing to children playing about the steps of the carillon, Mr. Bennett said that this could not in any way • ' be attributed to.pupils of the college. The college pupils were all in uniform and were under admirable control. The Minister of Education, said Mr. Bennett, had. given an assurance that any agreement that was come to by the College Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees in connection with this matter would' be given effect to "by legislation. - . ,'■-