MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4418, 24 May 1922, Page 2

MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL.

A FURTHER STEP. A special meeting of the School Committee was held last evening, when the following were present: Messrs W. H. Taylor (chairmap), A. G. Garry, W. T. Power, E. E. Gillman, C. H. Pascoe, W. Redfern, N- C. Busby, J. Couper (secretary), and G. H. Taylor, headmaster. In introducing the special business the chairman said it would be remembered that while the Hon. Mr Coates was here a deputation headed by himself, waited upon the Minister with a request for the establishment of a manual training, school. It was felt that as there was a school building at Mackaytown unoccupied, it might be brought into Paeroa and utilised for the manual training school. During the past week the Headmaster, Mr G. H. Taylor, had learnt through Mr Kalaugher, supervisor of; the Manual and Technical branch, that the Department was now in .a position tp review the whoie question. Following upon this a letter had been received from Mr Coates, and also ope from the Board. In order to have something definite, he had. taken upon himself to go to a few of the business, people and. in a very short time had £Bl guaranteed. He was pleased with tlhe generous respoi se. The money, however, was only on loan, and he jiad promised to return it ip a month’s time. During that period he hoped .the committee would collect the amount,. The Board had submitted two propositions, namely, the shifting of the Mackaytown school or a new building. Personally he favoured the latter, and after the ready response to help that he had met with he was sure that, the money required would be forthcoming. The following letters, were then read:

The Hon. Mr Coates, Minister of Publ’e Works, wrote tp Mr H. Poland, M.P., as follows :

“Wirh reference to the representations which were made to me during my recent visit to PaProa in connection with the suggestion .to remove the Mackaytown school building to Paeroa, I have to inform you. that the matter was duly referred to my colleague, the Hon. the Minister of Education, and for your information I append hereto his reply in connectioi-i therewith:

"In reply to your memorandum of the 4th inst„ in relation to the question of removing the Mackaytown school building to Paeroa for the purpose, of a Manual Training Centre, ( have to state that the matter was fully discussed last year, when it was found that the proposal would involve a total expenditure of nearly £l4OO. This was considered prohibitive, and action was deferred until the cost of building and equipment h,ad fallen to a reasonable level. If .the Education Board is in a position to show that the proposal can now be carried ou". at a reasonable cost I shall be pleased to consider a revised application by the Board.” Mr J. P. Kalaugher, Supervisor of the Manual and Techn’cal,branch of the’Education Board, wrote as follows :

“In reply‘to your letter of March 31, I have to say that the Board has every sympathy with your Comniit--tee’s desire to have a manual training school established in Paeroa. Application was made to the Department on July 8, 1921, for a grant of £1387 Ils, as follows: Removal of the Mackaytown school room to Paeroa and of refitting it for use as a cooker s room £593 ; reconditioning a disused wooden room 'of the District High School as a woodwork room £157; equipment for cookery, laundrywork, and woodwork classes : woodwork £295 13s 6d, cookery and ’aumZrywprk £341 17s 6d, making a total of £1387 Ils The Department replied on. August 22 1921, stating that the matter'must be. held over for the present, and that it was not considered that the pupils would be subjected to undue hardship in attending the classes at Thames during the coming summer months

“I would adv’se your Committee to ask permission c,f the Minister to raise the money required by 5% Per cent, bonds, winch are saleable at 97, or possibly a little higher. The cost to your Committee would be?as follows : 14 bonds at 97, £3 per bond, £42 ; commission at per cent, £7 ; total. £49. If the Minister grants per-, mission to raise these bonds your Committee, could, for an expenditure of £5O, get the manual training scheme carried out.”

Mr G. H. Taylor said that every £3 was equivalent to £lOO, He thought that it was possible that the Mackaytown school would fat some future date be required instead of the Central school at Karangahake, as Mackaytown was the residential portion of the place. In reply to a question as to whether going tor the larger scheme was likely to prejudice the whole thing, Mr Taylor said he did not think so, as the Minister tor Education, Mr Parr, had said that the bonds could be sold if the Paeroa people .would raise the necessary funds to discount them. With reference to the.biulding at the school, the headmaster said that thej' could make good use of it.

Mr Pascoe moved,, and Mr Power seconded, that the chairman ’s action in collecting the money on loan to purchase.the debentures be approved. —Carried.

The chairman moved that this Committee urge upon the Board to take immediate, steps to establish a Manual Training S'chool in Paeroa and that in the opinion of the Committee a new building would be preferable. This was seconded by Mr GiUrr.an and carried. It was decided to wire to the Education Board that the money had been' deposited in the bank, and that the draft was being sent to Auckland. The chairman said that he had to thank N(r Steedman, manager to che Bank of N Z-> for :h|is he, P in the miat “ ter. A. hearty vote of .thanks was passed to the headmastei; fpr his help in connection with the matter. The Committee decided to make a

canvass to collect the money required to purchase the bonds, and decided to aim at £lOO. For this purpose the town was divided into sections, each committeeman being allotted his portion- ‘ As a number of the small schools in the vicinity, such as Netherton, Komata. Reefs, Komata, and Tirpbia are interested, it was decided to write and solicit thejr support atd co operation in the matter. It was decided to endeavour to have the canvass completed by June 10.