SCHOOL CAPITATION GRANT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 863, 9 July 1910, Page 2

SCHOOL CAPITATION GRANT.

A statkmknt was made to the House by the Minister of Education in Parliament on Thursday in answer to Mr G. Witty, on the subject of the uiuepence per head capitation grant to school committees. The Government, he said, proposes to provide again this year the. capitation of yd per head for the benefit of the school committee funds, and would be quite willing to reinstate it in the form in which it was previously paid it such reinstatement would solve satisfactorily the question of allowances to school committees. It hardly appears, however, that that would be the case. A short glance at the history of the grant and of the variations of allowances to school committees, independently of the grant, will serve to explain the nature of the difficulties that present themselves. The grant was first given in 1904, and was given for the last time in 1908. Between 1903 and 1908 four boards slightly increased the allowances made in addition to the gd ; nine boards decreased their average rates by varying amounts —six of them by more than the amount of the special capitation of 9d. Further, the average rate of allowances per head varied in 1909 from 6s gj/jd in North Canterbury to 3s 5d in Grey. In Nelson in 1908, the rate fell as low as 2s 3d. It is quite clear that the reinstatement of the special capitation in its old form would not remove these glaring inequalities in the rates of allowances paid by boards to the school committees. It would probably, therefore, be better to increase the rate of capitation to the Education Boards from ns 3d to las per head, and to name by Statute the minimum average rate ot allowance to be paid by the boards to the committees. This solution is not quite perfect; but, owing to the special circumstances of our education system in the Dominion, is is probably as good a solution as can be found.