SCHOOLBOYS' HOSTEL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19050, 22 June 1925, Page 8

SCHOOLBOYS' HOSTEL.

GRAMMAR BOARD'S PROJECT. ACCOMMODATION LONG NEEDED SITE IN MOUNTAIN ROAD. A scheme for establishing a hostel in connection with the Auckland Boys Grammar School, Mountain Road, has now reached a fairly definite stage. It is proposed to erect the boarding establishment on the south-eastern corner of the present school site, with accommodation for 60 boys. Speaking of the project, the chairman of the School Board, Professor A. P. W. Thomas, stated that plans had not yet been finalised. As soon as financial arrangements were made, instructions would bo given to the architect to prepare plans. These would have to be approved by the Education Department. The Minister for Education, Sir James Parr, recently indicated his approval and his attitude has determined the board to proceed with the scheme. None of the four Grammar Schools governed by the board at present possesses a hostel The need for hostel accommodation for country pupils has long been felt, as satisfactory arrangements cannot always be made privately. That fact has deterred some parents from sending their children to the Grammar Schools. The demand, in the caso of the boys, should shortly be fairly well met, and it is considered that parents will welcome the chance to send their boys to hostels where they will be under proper supervision. The Mount Albert Boys' Grammar School will next year have hostel accommodation for 40 boys, the old receiving homo on the New North Road being now in process of preparation for the purpose. No plans have yet been made to provide similarly for the two girls schools. The hostel project has been postponed from time to time. A few years ago plans were prepared and everything was ready to go ahead with a boys' hostel when the war intervened. The Auckland secondary schools are therefore opening very tardily a department that has proved very valuable in the corporate life of many Southern schools, and has conferred the privilege of education at a first-class school on many country boys' and girls who would otherwise not have received such benefits. The announcement of the extension at Mountain Road was received very cordially at the old boys' reunion at Scots Hall on Saturday evening. "It is a peculiar thing that a school like ours, which can compare with any secondary school in the Dominion, lias never had a boarding school attached to it, said the headmaster, Mr. J. Drnmmond. They were now promised a boarding school (applause), and it would be erected on ground adjacent to the school. He felt that the many boys who boarded in the city did not receive proper supervision.