THE SECOND SCHOOL QUESTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2662, 1 August 1887, Page 2

THE SECOND SCHOOL QUESTION.

(To tbo Editor).' Sitt.—Referring again to the question of ut second school site for Masterton, and'in this connection with Mr Hogg'a leader iu tbo Star of the 26th inst, where ho says that the second school quoslioii has narrowed itself down to this: " Whether the school is to bo erected on a good site, and to bo worthy of the place, and in time a staudard school, or whether it is to be dwarfed, and placed in au out of the way position where it is unlikely to thrive durin? the present generation." So much for Mr Hogg's presont opinion, tbo good site where the school would thrive &c, &c, is of coui-sb in Hall-street, Mr Hogg objects to the site selected by the Scbool Committee and approved by the Committee of the Education Board, calling it the slums" of the town. Now {Sir, allow me to take your readers back one short year and'see' what Mr Hogg then said about the same neighborhood. Speak- i ing of sites fdv a school in Masterton North, he strongly recommonded the selection of a site in the same street as tbo reviled " Simcox" aero, and exactly opposite to it, as,can be proved by the minutes' of the school Committee held May 20, 1886, when Mr Hogg himself proposed a resolution to the effect that the section now in the possession of Mr BulpiH, which was then in the

market; should be purchased by the Education , Board as a Bite . for the second school. Mr Hogg strongly advocated this site, describing it as a piece of land in a good, well populated neighborhood, and the price asked " reasonable." The Committee, concurring, passed a resolution asking the Board to purchase. The Board did not do so, which excited Mr Hogg's wrath, and brought forth most scathing censure from'Ms'pen.' This land passed into other'.hands,'si) osequently the Committee selected the Simcox acre, " a full acre'' exactly opposite, which could either be leased for a long time'with a purchasing clause, or purchased right out for ..£3(j)o, a price which Mr Hogg considered reasonable for the three quarters of an acre opposite. When there was a probability of this site being purchased and the school erected Mr Hogg suddenly discovers that ■ the site is unsuitable, the neighborhood bad, being as he termed it in the back alums p of the town, flow Imk where is the [much vaunted consistency of Mr Hogg in tho discussion of this voxed question?lt varies with the circumstance of the hour'l The Hall atreet three quarters of an acre was solected by Mr Hogg. " Personal and interested motives had not then crept into the discission! " Hands" were probably clean at that time as far as a socond school site was concerned. The children then might have had a chance of tair play iu educational matters I" but a chauge came o'er the scene, the Hall street site rose suddenly to view, aud for some subtle and unexplained reason, possessed irresistible charms for Mr Hogg, aud nothing can we now see but vile surroundings to any site but that in Hall street. Suoh is the consistency of Mr Hogg. ■ I am, ifec, Wm, Lowes.