PREBBLETON SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 410, 5 October 1875, Page 4

PREBBLETON SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

A meeting of this committee was held in the schoolroom, on Thursday evening last, the chairman in the chair. The minutes of the previous meeting having been confirmed, the following letter was read : “ Education Office, Christchurch, “ September 27th, 1875. “ John Maskrey, Esq, District Committee Prebbleton School.

ii Si r _I have the honor, by direction, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd instant, as also a copy of the schoolmaster’s letter to you, and in reply to inform you that the Minister cannot help expressing his astonishment that whilst the committee complain of want of space in the schoolroom, and express themselves as feeling anxious about the health of the children, the schoolmaster reports that the library is closed by the committee against the children. The committee should recollect that the late Board allowed libraries to be attached to schoolrooms, conditionally on their being under the management of the school committee, clearly meaning that in case the library was wanted for a classroom, or for school purposes, the managing committee, being the school committee, would be in a position to give the necessary permission ; although the committee complain of the want of ventilation in the school, and actually go so far as to say ‘the children had a dull stupified look, and the air was foul and unwholesome to the last degree,’ they have never yet applied for permission to expend any sum in improving the same, the Minister has, therefore, been obliged to request the Provincial Architect to visit the school, and report on the ventilation, &c. Tenders will be invited at once for carrying out his recommendations. The action of the committee would lead one to suppose that they are anxious to injure the health of the

school children, they may, however, perhaps be pleased to hear that the architect reports— ‘ Ido not anticipate any difficulty * whatever in ventilating the whole building, and rendering it as healthy as could be desired. It appears to me that the rooms combined would make a very good school, which would accommodate 102 children,’ The Minister has to request you at once, as chairman of the library committee, to hand over to yourself, as chairman of the school committee, the room attached to the school, and hitherto used as a library, this will obviate the necessity of closing the school until the alterations are made, when the school will require to be closed for a fortnight. He wishes further to remind you, as chairman of the library committee, that £l5O is at your disposal, on application, for the purpose of building a detached room for a library, the particular position of the same to be first sanctioned by the Minister, if erected on the school grounds.—l have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, “F. Main waring, “ Secretary for Education.” Some surprise having been expressed at the secretary’s letter, the chairman submitted the following reply, which was unanimously agreed to. “ Prebbleton, September 30th, 1875. << The Minister for Education, Christchurch. “ Sir, —I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the secretary’s letter of the 27th instant, and in reply to express my regret that an official document couched in somewhat uncourteous language, should have been written by direction, and issued from the department over which you preside. “ Owing to the somewhat involved lan-

gnage of the letter, it is not easy to understand whether the word ‘ one ’ in the sentence ‘ The action of the committee, would lead one to suppose that they are anxious to injure the health of the schoolchildren,’ is intended as an expression of the secretary’s or of your own opinion. As the letter is written ‘by direction,’ the latter is probably the case, and I therefore trust you will, upon reflection, acknowledge not only that the school committee, as a public body, is entitled to somewhat more courteous consideration from the

head of the education department, but also that such a grave and gratuitous charge as that of being ‘ anxious to injure the health of the school children ’ should find no place in your official correspondence. “ With regard to the closing of the public library by the library committee, I have the honor to point out that, although I happen to fill the office of chairman of the library committee as well as that of chairman of the school committee, and although the library is in accordance with the resolution of the late Board of Education, * under the management and control of the school committee,’ yet the two offices are entirely and totally distinct ; any other member of the school committee might, in fact, be chairman of the library committee, and as such is the case, and as it is sometimes desirable to submit matters of importance to the library subscribers, whose subscriptions helped to build it, and whose property it undoubtedly is, I have the honor to submit that it would facilitate the despatch !of business if the Secretary, in his communications, would abstain as much as possible from mixing up school and library matters. “ I have the honor to express my surprise at the assertion contained in the Secretary’s letter,that ‘although the committee complain of the want of ventilation in the school, and actually go so far as to say, “ the children had a dull stupified look, and the air was foul and unwholesome to the last degree,” they have never yet applied for permission to expend any sum in improving the same.’

“ I have the honor to state that I have hitherto been under the impression that the action taken by }the committee and the representations made by it to the late Board of Education, and to yourself, have been nothing else than one long-continued effort to obtain adequate ventilation and air space for the unfortunate children attending the school. As far back as August, 1874, inconsequence of my representations, the late Board of Education authorised me to procure plana for additions. By those plans which the Board afterwards approved of the present school was to be converted, partly into a classroom and partly into a corridor, and as we have since been in monthly expectation of the erection of the additions, the com mittee naturally considered it inadvisable to incur any unnecessary expenditure in altering the present building. “ In reference to the architect’s report report I have the honor to state it appears to me to be altogether wide of the main questions at issue between yourself and the committee. I may mention however that from my knowledge of the building and of the working of the school, I dissent from it, as do all those, Dr Durham included, who have inspected the rooms, not as the architect did by a hurried visit in the early morning before I School hours but when crowded with children

and with the full heat of the son striking down upon the windows and the long low roof. “ Improvements in the ventilation may (supposing the library to be used) effect somewhat, but they cannot alter the low roof, or the fatal and extreme narrowness. They cannot increase the cubical contents of the room, which as shown by the comparative table I have already had the honor to place before you is not much more than half that of neighbouring schools in proportion to the attendance, moreover by the architect’s own showing when the ventilation is improved the rooms will only accommodate 102 children. At the present time, in spite of the drawbacks caused by your refusal to grant the additions, there are ninety-nine children on the roll, and several are, to my own knowledge, kept at home on account of their crowded condition. The school, with library, will therefore be far behind the requirements of the district at no distant date, even should the architect succeed in rendering it healthy, but, as already stated, the main questions to be decided are of a somewhat different character.

“ As I have already had the honor to point out, the library is, beyond doubt, the property of the library subscribers. It was erected with the full knowledge and approval of the Government of the day and of the late Board of Education, partly out of a grant from the public library vote, and partly by voluntary contributions. No conditions whatever were imposed Upon the subscribers that it should be used as a class room when required. The permission to erect it was given by the late Board of Education, unshackled by any conditions whatever, except that it should, in order to avoid confusion, be under the management and control of the school committee. It has always been recognised as a public library by successive Governments, and has obtained its due proportion of the public library grants. So little part or lot did the late Board of Education consider the school committee to have in the building, that the permission to build it was given in the following words :‘I have the honor by direction, to inform you that the Board approves of the plans of the library. The library committee to pay for builder’s risk on the school while the said library is being erected, and the insurance on the library.’ It was from the first a distinct and separate property, erected out of a totally different fund, but for purposes of convenience, attached to the school building. The subscribers have very kindly allowed it to be used for the last six or eight months as a classroom, but it has always been so used by permission, and they have now, seeing no immediate prospect of the erection of the school additions, requested the library committee to devote it to its legitimate use, namely, that of a public library and reading room, under the management of the school committee. It has never in any way impeded the proper working of the school, and there is ample space at the other end for the proposed additions. “ As I have already had the honor to state on two previous occasions, the matter at issue between the Government and this committee is mainly one of contract and agreement. The late Board of Education authorised me to procure plans for additions to the school. It approved of the plans and authorised me to call for tenders. It recommended one of the tenders for acceptance to the Government, It placed the sum necessary for the work upon the estimates handed to the Government, and those estimates were printed and passed by the Council without any alteration, and finally it informed me that unless the one-sixth of the cost was paid a rate would be struck. All this amounted to a contract or agreement, and the Government accepted the obligations of the late Board, and took them upon itself by levying the rate by Gazette notice in June last. I therefore respectfully submit that the Government is bound as a matter of justice and moral obligation to carry out the agreement, particularly as it has partly collected the rate.

“ I observe it is notified that a rate of 9d in the pound, instead of Is, will now be levied, and have the honor respectfully to protest in the most emphatic manner against this action, more especially as a portion of the Is rate, duly collected, is now lying in the Provincial Treasury.

“ I have also the honor to state that I have obtained a professional opinion to the effect that the 9d rate now about to be levied is illegal, and cannot be enforced. “In conclusion, I have the honor to remind you that the whole matter at issue between yourself and this committee does not involve the extra expenditure of more than £250, and I venture respectfully to ask if it is desirable that the whole population of an important educational district should be allowed any longer to entertain the idea that the Government has decided not to recognise their claims or to carry out its engagements,

“ 1 have the honor to be, sir, “Your obedient servant, “James Maskrey, “ Chairman, “ Prebbleton School Committee.” The committee then adjourned. A meeting of the library committee was held the same evening, at which the following letter was read : “ Education Office, Christchurch, “ September 23rd, 1875. “ James Maskrey, Esq, Chairman District Library Committee, Prebbleton. “ Sir, —I have the honor, by direction, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, and in reply to inform you that the furniture will be ready in a few days, and the Government will then require the building. “ I have the honor to be, sir, “ Your obedient servant, “F. Mainwaeing, “ Secretary for Education.” The chairman read the following reply, which was agreed to : “ Prebbleton, September 30th, 1875, “ The Minister for Education, Christchurch. “ Sir, —I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Secretary’s letter of the 23rd instant, and in reply to inform you that the library committee, acting in accordance with the wishes of the library subscribers, is compelled respectfully to decline to devote the library building to other than its legitimate uses. “ I have therefore the honor to request you to make other arrangements for the reception of the school furniture. “ I have the honor to be, sir, “Your obedient servant, “ James Maskrey, “ Chairman of the Prebbleton Library Committee,”