NON-PAYING HOSTELS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 247, 18 October 1926, Page 6

NON-PAYING HOSTELS.

In receiving a deputation which asked for a grant for a hostel at the Auckland Grammar School—an extension that is urgently needed—the Minister of Education made the surprising statement that hostels erected by the Government did not pay their way. "Easily £1,000,000 has been found for school hostels in the Dominion but never a penny in the way of interest has been provided." Why, he asked, did these hostels not pay j interest on their capital when private hostels returned a profit The obvious answer is that keepers of private hostels are not in the business for their health or for philanthropy. They must make a profit or do something else. The State is pressed by no such necessity. According to the Minister, the idea of conducting State hostels on business lines do«S not seem to have been considered. May we suggest that it is time it was? We do not suggest that such necessary institutions should be looked upon primarily as revenue-producers; the cost of board and lodging is a serious matter to most parents. At the same time it is rather disturbing to find that none of the £50,000 of annual interest due on the capital expenditure upon hostels is provided from their operations. Are the charges too low, -or is the capital outlay too heavy, or is the management at fault? The result of the present system is that boarding pupils as a class, which includes many whose parents are comfortably off, are kept at the expense of the whole body of taxpayers.