EDUCATION IN HAWKE'S BAY.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7442, 16 October 1889, Page 5

EDUCATION IN HAWKE'S BAY.

[FRBSS ASSOCIATION TKLEGRAM.] NAPIEB, October 16. - A meeting of the Education Board was held to-day, when a letter announcing thef amount of the building grant was.readi Nothing wae eaid except the remark by thej Chairman (.Vlr Ormotid)- that it would only pay off half theoverdra£t,and the Boaracoula do absolutely nothing towarde meeting the crying needs of the district, or even keep the existing schools in repair., A statement, prepared by the Secretary, ehowed that the population of the school district had nearly doubled since 1882, and in the .same period of seven years the attendance at the schools had more than doubled, having risen from 2907 to 5990. It is this- phenomenal inciease in the attendance which has landed the Board in its present financial straits, notwithstanding that over J62000 saved on general account, and originally intended to form the basis of a scheme of pensions for teachere, has been transferred to building account. The difficulty has been fur* ther aggravated by th 6 persistent under* estimate of the population of Hawke's Bay, which has of course resulted in the Board receiving lees building grant/than it is entitled to under the population basis on which the grant was supposed to be die> tributed. Before,.the last census this under estimate amounted to 26 per cent., and it ia again quite as bad.