SCHOOL ACCOMMODATION IN HAWKER'S BAY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1956, 15 October 1889, Page 1

SCHOOL ACCOMMODATION IN HAWKER'S BAY.

Napier, Oct. 12. Information has been received here that the school buildings grant will be distributed on the population basis as hitherto. The Hawke’s Bay hoard’s share will be just half the overdraft, yet several new schools are required and many old ones need enlargement. At Mohaka there are over fifty European children, and the nearest school is twenty miles away. There are other instances nearly as had. At Makuri, Poverty Bay, the schoolmaster built the schoolhouse with his own money on a promise from the board to refund it when in funds. The promise has not yet been redeemed. At Matanui thirty children are taught in an old tumbledown whare, sixteen feet by fourteen. On the last trip of the inspector he / could not find standing room on the floor and had to stand on a desk. At seven or eight other schools the attendance is double the accommodation provided. At the Napier school in fact there are only 220 children provided for and 420 attend, the other town schools also hieing overcrowded. Parents complain loudly that the health ot their children is being ruined, but as the compulsory clauses of the Act are in force, they are obliged to send their children.