THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4534, 2 March 1923, Page 2

THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

MINISTER’S REPLY. A PROPOSAL WANTED. We have to-day received the following letter from the Minister of Edu- , cation (Hon. C. J. Parr) : — “I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant with . enclosed cuttings from your newspaper of a leading article on 'Technical Education’ and a letter from the , Paeroa District High School Commit-, tee to the Auckland Education Board. “In conectoin with the proposal to establish a manual training centre at Paeroa, I need not say that the Departmen; is fully alive to the inconvenience of the present arrangement, whereby pupils from the Paeroa District High School attend at the Thames Manual Training Centre, and that, the provision of facilities for such instruction at Paeroa should be made as soon as finances permit and more urgent claims have been' met. No grant has been made in the lasi two years for any new manual training centre with the single exception of a grant of £BOO for a woodwork room at Motueka, where some 250 boys would otherwise be entirely without the possibility of receiving manual training. Even in cases where a manual training building had been provided during the period of prosperity, it has been found necessary to refuse grants for equipment on the grp and that the available finances would only allow of more urgent cases being met. “In the case of Paeroa the arrangement for the attendance of children at the Thames Manual Training Centre involves little more inconvenience in travelling than is regularly incurred in similar conditions in other districts in the Dominion. The arrangement is economical, as it enables the Thames centre to be run practically full-time, whereas if a centre were established ait Paeroa both centres would be run only about half-time, necessitating practically double expenditure for overhead charges, besides charges for instructors’ expenses. The cost of transport of the children is not actually high, since the ,trains must run in any case and the extra haulage involved is trifling. , “The proposals that have been made to meet the needs of Paeroa uy transporting buildings not at present in use from other places to serve for woodwork and cookery rooms .at Paeroa hav- rj not been found, on investigation, to be very economical, besides which these buildings may easily be required again pn their present sites for primary school purposes. “In view of the probability that a technical high school will be established before long on the site purchased some three years ago for the purpose, it would appear that if manual training rooms are to be erected at an early date they should be regarded as the first part of the Technical High School buildings, and should therefore be erec/ted on the new site and as part of a general scheme, which should be prepared before any buildings are put up. The Department must consider in any such general scheme the place which the new -school will occupy in the educational system of the district, especially whether it will incorporate a sedtion dealing with pupils of junior high school ages. “Any proposal on these lines could only be considered in the light of the ' present financial conditions, with a view to action being taken as soon as funds become available for new man- ’ ual training centres. In the meantime it 'is very doubtful whether the children at the Paeroa District High School will miss much by studying ' ordinary subjects for one day a forbnight during the winter months instead of taking wpodword or cookery.” 1