NORTH KOWAI SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2281, 25 July 1881, Page 4

NORTH KOWAI SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

The following letter has been handed to us for publication : Ohristohurch, 19th July, 1881. Alexander Greig, Esq., Amberley. Sir, —In reply to the resolutions forwarded in your letter of the 29th ult., respecting the •ale of (he old school buildings near Amberley, X have the honor, by direction of the Board, to address to you the following statement of the facts of the case, aa to which it appears, from the wording of the resolutions, that the meeting was not thoroughly informed. When the building of the new side school in the Amberley district (or, as it was then called, Kowai North) was determined on, it was understood, as part of the arrangement, that on the opening of the new school, the old site and buildings would be disposed of. The Board received several private applications, but preferred to follow the usual course by offering the property for sale by public auction, and the sale was advertised accordingly. Bo far no difficulty had arisen, but on the appearance of the advertisement the sale was objected to by the donor of the land on the gronnd that it had been given for a site for a school, and that the Board had no power to alienate it or to put it to any other purpose. The question was submitted to the Minister of Education, without whose sanction the sale could not take place ; and the Minister, being advised that it was doubtful whether the Act under which the sale of school Bites is made lawful applied in this instance, decided on withholding his consent. The intended sale was thus rendered impossible, and the advertisement had to be withdrawn. Subsequently the Board received a proposal referred to it by the school committee, who declined to take any part in the matter themselves, for leasing the property ; but it was found that the same objection which applied to the sale applied to leasing also. The Board being thus debarred from any dealing with the site, the whole affair was reduced to the simple question of what should be done with the buildings. The maintenance of them would have been an idle expense, as they could be turned to no useful acoonnt. The Board, therefore, resolved to sell them for removal, and on receiving an offer in excess of the architect's valuation, decided on accepting it. The Board trusts the above explanation will sufficiently show that the abandonment of the proposed auction sale waa the result of circumstances, which left no other course open to it, and cannot be attributed to any want of consideration for the interests of tho district. I have, &3., (Signed) J. V. Colbobne- Vebi, Secretary.