RURAL EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19050, 22 June 1925, Page 10

RUR AL EDUC ATIO N.

THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL. SIR JAMES PARR CONFIDENT. MAIN DIFFICULTY TRANSPORT. [by telegraph.—press association. ] CHRISTCHURCH. Sunday. The Minister for Education, Sir James Parr, had a very busy day yesterday when, in addition to receiving several deputations, he opened a new consolidated school at Oxford which hq described as the most interesting experiment ever tried in Canterbury. In the course of his address Sir James Parr said he took an educational and sentimental interest in Oxford, for his parents had done their courting and had been married there. He believed the consolidated school was the true solution of the problem of rural education. The real community spirit was fostered at such schools, and their intellectual influence upon the whole district was great. The main difficulty ;in connection with the consolidated school was that of transport, which was costly. In the present instance it was £750 a year. When the sdiool grew a little—the existing roll is 280—instruction in handicrafts would be provided, said the Minister, and he was sure that after the school had been going for a year requests would come for similar institutions from all over Canterbury. Mrs. A- E. Cooper presented Sir James Parr with a key of the school, which was formally declared open.