COLLEGE GROUNDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 248, 19 October 1928, Page 10

COLLEGE GROUNDS.

QUESTION OF EXTENSION.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY.

REQUEST TO THE DEPARTMENT

The possibility of further extending [the Seddon Memorial Technical College on the existing site and property adjoining it is exercising the attention of (the governing body of the institution.

At yesterday's meeting of the Board of Management, the principal (Mr. G. J. Park) said the matter of extending the school ground was one that required the attention of the board, and there was a possibility of getting assistance in this connection from the Education Department. The only reasonable method of effecting extensions would be to absorb the Wellesley Street Primary School in one of the other city schools, and hand over to the college the buildings and grounds at present used by that school. It would, however, first be necessary to get the Government to include a technical school in the definition of a public school, as the Auckland Improvement Act of 1879 set aside the grounds attached to the Wellesley Street School so long as it was used as a playground for a public school. The attendance at the college during the past six years has increased from 1391 to 2433, and at present the old Grammar School was being utilised. The board he thought, should make provision for future growth, and also against the contingency of the Grammar School being lost.

Mr. H. S. W. King (chairman) was not in favour of the Wellesley Street ground being encroached upon until the children attending the institution could be accommodated elsewhere without hardship.

Mr. J. McPhail said it would be aa insult to the Education Department to approach the Minister of Education and try and filch the playground from the primary school.

Mr. Park thought the board should take strenuous steps, to extend the college ground. There was no need to antagonise the, Education Board by any efforts in this direction. The Department was the only body that could got together the conflicting interests.

It was suggested that the pupils of the Normal School might be accommodated at the old Grammar School, butj [another member said he could not flee

how the Wellesley Street institution could be done without for many years to come.

Ultimately it was decided to ask tlie Minister to alter the definition of a public school as soon as possible so as to include a technical college, and to point out to the Director of Education the necessity for extensions, and the whole question of the necessities of the college being considered by the educational authorities concerned.