CANTERBURY COLLEGE.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9361, 10 March 1896, Page 6

CANTERBURY COLLEGE.

REPORT BY PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL ASSOCIATION. The following has been handed to us for publication as the substance of a reporb prepared by a Sub-Committee of the Progressive Liberal Association on the annual statement of accounts furnished by the Board of Governors to Parliament in 1895 :— " The agitation of a year and a-half ago has nob yet borne fruit. The Governors elected by a few graduates still have full control of a reserve of over £20,000 a year derived from the public estate, and the people to whom the estate belongs have no voice whatever as to the manner in which that large sum shall be expended. The Governors are required by law to submit to his Excellency the Governor of the colony once in every year • a full account of the income and expenditure. . Is thin requirement complied with ? An account is transmitted, bub the following facts indicate that it is. not a full account. In the account for the year 1894 the following sums are included as-, incidentals— School of Agriculture, £92 16s 61; School of Art, £169 14s 2d; Boys' High School, £630 7s 6d ; Girls' High School, £219 Is lid ; College, £529 13s Id ; College Laboratory, £356 3s 2d ; School of Engineering, £109 3s 9.1; Public Library, £162 3s; Museum, £235 19s 2d ; total, £2505 2s 3d. It ia scarcely to be believed that over £2500 can have been expended on item? which aro usually classed as incidentals, whioh is ordinarily understood' to include such trifles as pens, ink, pencils, &a.

"In requiring a full account to be transmitted to the Governor of the colony (who is to lay it before both Houses of the Assembly), it was doubtless intended to thus make the accounts of the Board public, in order that the people,- through their representatives, might ascertain the manner in which the funds of the College are administered ; but when so large an amount as £2500 is included as incidentals, it can scarcely be deemed to be a compliance with the law. Such an amount might cover a considerable expenditure on objects to which reasonable objections could be taken. A popularly elected Board would scarcely venture to publish such an account of their stewardship. It is a further strong reason for continuing the agitation in the mode of •electing the Governors of the College. " The item salaries (Boys' High Sahool) still looms up large, being £3564 19a 4:1, or nearly £14 10a per pupil (247) the number for the last term), for salaries only be it remembered. With a much smaller number of pupils (138) the salaries in the Girls' High School were about £11 per pupil. In the High Schools there are a considerable number whose attainments are below the Sixth Standard (eomo nob above the Third Standard) who are costing the State several times the amount for which they could be educated iv the primary schools. Thus a grave injustice is being done, for which a remedy is demanded ; and it is quite certain that the people of the mass who are thu3 suffering will not be satisfied until the High Schools are conducted as Secondary schools only, and the revenue derived from the Public Estates is so administered that the children of the poor will have an equal opportunity with the children of the well-to-do in the advantages to bs derived from the expenditure of that revenue.

"The demand made prior to the last session offParliamsnt for reform in the mode of electing the Governors of the College received strong support from all parts of the provincial district, and it i< much to be regretted that the late Minister of Education did not push forward che Bill which he promised to introduce, and actually set down for the first reading, bub which did not reach that stage. Under the circumstances, it appears to be necessary that the pressure for reform should be continued."