GRAMMAR SCHOOL SITE BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 203, 26 August 1911, Page 10

GRAMMAR SCHOOL SITE BILL.

PASSED SECOND HEADING. JIEXEEN ACRES OF GAOL RESERVE. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The Auckland Grammar School Site Bill passed its second reading this afternoon, the Hon. ("1. Fowlds explaining its purpose to the House. He pointed out' that the Grammar School at Auckland was at present being carried on upon a very -small section, where- there-was-'Jio room for expansion. The site proposed to be set aside was "a portion of about."!/* acres of thC'gaol reserve on the slopes qf Alt. Eden. A .sood part of the site was a worked-out scoria pit, which, althoughpretty rough at present, could be. turned into a splendid school property. The school was in very urgent need of a new site, and. so far as he knew, the position could only be met in the way suggested. Mr. Poole warmly welcomed the bill,, but expressed doubt whether the site was not too far out from the centre" for the convenience of pupils, especially country pupils. Mr. Herries, on the other hand, thought that had they pone still further it would have been, if anything, an advantage. It was a mistake (o put a school of this sort too near the centre of population, or what in the future was likely to be the centre. He would like to know what it was intended to do with the. old site. Mr. Myers said he had not heard a voice against granting the site, and congratulated the Minister on having brought about a solution of a very great problem in Auckland. The site was accessible from all sides, while a further adVantage was its healthy neighbourhood. Mr. Reed, in adding his approval, asked what likelihood there was of a boardinghouse being associated with the school for the benefit of country pupils. Mr. Fowlds explained that no provision bad been made in the bill regarding the eld site, because, if it should be vacated, the Board had power tinder the existing legislation to lease the land on which the school now stood. -He-anticipated, however, that, it would be two or three years before the school was erected on the new site, and by then there might be a sufficient number of pupils to fill the new school and nUo for_±be_ retention of the old one. "I do not believe in retaining the old school permanently on the present site, but it would give the Board time to look round for another suitable site for a subsidiary school, say. at North Shore, where in a few years there will be a sufficient number of children to warran a secondary school in that locality," said the Minister. He hoped the Board would not attempt to concentrate the school at Mt. Eden, but would rather build new schools in different parts as the occasion warranted. The new site, it was also pointed out. took up most of the old rifle range, about nine or ten acres nf the reserve being leased for a lengthy term by the City Council for scoria purpokes'. As to the suggestion respecting boarding pupils, Mr. Fowlds explained that this question would be taken in hand almost simultaneously with the erection of the school. The new sitej he considered, would be as ideal and healthy a site for a boardinghouse in connection with the school as any in New Zealand. _Tlje second reading ji-aa carried on the _ voices. 7. "