EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 392, 16 July 1918, Page 2

EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES

The visit to be paid to Pukekohe next Friday by the Minister for Education (the Hon. J. A. Hanan M.P.j will be of momentous concern to the district for, according to the strength of the arguments put before him, the Minister will decide whether or not a Technical High School is to be established in Pukekohe to provide educational facilittes for students from all over the Fnnklin electorate. As to the claims of the district to be given the proposed school there can be no question. Increasing population makes it imperative that the rising generation should be given ptoper training and it is tar preferable that advanced teaching should be available. for them locally than for long and tedious daily railway journeys tn be undeitaken by theiu as now to Auckland. Th a selection of a site for the school, however, constitutes a difficulty. It appears that the usual cou'.se is that local authorities provide the necessary land and the Kducation Department erect the luiikling. Jn most inj stances reserves of land are utilised for this put pose but in Pukekohe, with tin- exception of the Borough Domain, thrre are no reserves in existence and it is natural, having aegard to future days, that there should he a wish to preserve the Domain intact. The School Committee's sugges tiou is that a site should be' purchased, the cost to be shared by the Franklin County Council and Pukekohe Borough Council to the extent of £IOOO and £'soo respectively, supplemented by voluntary contiibutions. Tf necessary this should be capable of arrangement, especially in tV ca c e of the County Council as authority could probably be secured foi the sale to be made of one or other of the various reserves in the County in order to provide the County's contribution of ,£IOOO. The Borough Council's quota of £SOO does not, however, seem so cas\ of arrangement as the Borough funds are already critically short. However, the striking oi a special rate would overcome the difficulty and surely, having regard to the important stake at issue, the Borough ratepayers would approve of that course being pursued. The Auckland Board of Kducation have made the proposal that, if noothe: laud is available, the Technical High School should be built on the site now occupied by the headmaster's hou c e at the rear of th>■ I'tiblic S< In>.>l but in the School Committee's opinion it is essential that the two schools should be quite distinct from and independent of one another and further tlu-y consider that the area of laud there is insufficient for requirements We trust, however, thai the land difficulty will be capable of adjustment so that a Technical Ilieh School may soon be an accomplished fact in Pukekohe.