SUBSIDIES TO SCHOOLS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 27 November 1913, Page 4

SUBSIDIES TO SCHOOLS.

For some years past it has been the ■practise of Education Boards to subsidise any voluntary contributions made tcVards primary education. A clause has been introduced in the Education Amendment Bill, providing that these subsidies shall only be granted on.contributions made towards the secondary departments of District High Schools. It will thus be seen that while the grants of the Masterton Trust Lands Trust to the Lansdowne and Fernridge schools will 'carry subsidies, those to the Masterton District High School will only bear subsidies where they are applied to the secondary classes. The same thing will happen in respect to the Greytown or other District High Schools. Wo agree with Mr A. \V. Hogg, who raised Lis voice in protest at the meeting of the Education Board on Tuesday, that there is no justification whatever for the discrimination that is sought to be made lietween District High Schools and ordinary primary schools. The large Wellington schools may, for instance, benefit under the will of the late Mr T. G. McCarthy, and any financial assistance received from this or similar sources would cany a subsidy, because the schools are not District High Schools. Masterton, on the other hand, which has received a legacy from the founders of the town, it is to have its subsidy cut off, so far as the primary division is concerned. This, we contend, is absolutely unjust, and we join Mr Hogg in'insisting upon the clause being modified or eliminated from the Bill.