FREE KINDERGARTEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 252, 23 October 1936, Page 11

FREE KINDERGARTEN.

NORTHCOTE TO AFFILIATE. When the five-year-olds were excluded from the primary schools, the Xortheote Kindergarten came into existence, and was wholly financed by local residents, there being no source of Government assistance, the grant to the Auckland Association also being cancelled. Now that a reversal of policy has been brought about by a change of Government, which has restored the £0000 free kindergarten grant, the character of the Xortheote institution is to undergo a change, becoming a free kindergarten, and linking up with the Auckland Free Kindergarten Association. This body will receive a Government subsidy up to £4 per child annually, based upon £1 for every £1 5/ raised by the association, though it is anticipated this basis will be increased to £1 for £1. The constitution was outlined last night in a talk to those interested at the home of Mrs. Archie Campbell at Xortheote, by Miss Madge Slingsby Newman, the acting-principal of the Auckland Free Kindergarten Association. The people of Northcote, she said, had been decidedly adventurous in the enterprise, without assistance from the Government or the council. Northcote had a capacity for a kindergarten of 50 children, from three to five years of age. She was very pleased with the work of Miss F. I. Gilfillan at Northcote, which was so well organised, and the kindergarten was accommodated in a fine hall and environs. Many people did not realise what kindergarten work was like. A display of the children's work was to lie made at Auckland on November 14. and would be visited by State school teachers. Tlie Northcote kindergarten teacher, Miss F. I. Gilfillan, the secretary, Mrs. H. N. Leefe, and members of the management committee were present. The president, Mr. A. E. Harding, who presided, conveyed thanks to Miss Newman for the interesting and informative talk, and to Mrs. Archie Campbell for her hospitality.