LYTTELTON BOROUGH SCHOOL.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15931, 19 June 1917, Page 4

LYTTELTON BOROUGH SCHOOL.

PROPOSED ABOLITION OF SECONDARY DEPARTMENT.

A PROTEST

At the special meeting of the Lytteiton Borough Council last, night, a letter iva.s received from the committee of the Lyttelton Borough School requesting the Council to pass a resolution protecting against the proposed disestablishment of the secondary department of the school. . . Cr. F. <•'. Norton said that as the Board of Education intended to close the secondary department of the school he wished the Council to endorse, tho following resolution: —"That this- Council emphatically protests against the proposal to close the .secondary department- of tho Lyttelton District High School. That tlie attention of the Minister of Educsition bo drawn to the isolated position in which- Lyttelton is placed, and to the fact 'thai t.hft

majorify of it s population belongs to the working clai-s; also thai thorn arc many difficulties in tin; way of sending chi'dren through to Christchurch. Tho average nll ill her of children ;i tending the High School has always been doublf* | the minimum fixed by tho Education Act, and there appears to ho'llo valid reason tor tho proposal to disestablish tho school. This Council has a full

! knowledge of the position, and is -noil aware. of tho fact that, a very great, number of Lyticlton children who have . profited by tho secondary education would 1101 liavc dono' .so bad it been nccessary for them to travel to Christchurch to attend secondary elapses." Cr. Collins said that Lyttelton children getting a secondary education in Cbristchurch would have to pay train fares in addition to the cost of thcii education. Cr. Webb said that the education of Lyttelton children was just as important as that of the children of othor cent res. °f thr opinion that if Lyttciton children were deprived of a secondary education in tho local school, many parents would not b e in a position to send their children to Cbristchurch. The Mayor said he wag glad that the Council were tokmg up the matter in a whole-hearted manner. He considerthe resolution- was not etronu enough. It was a notorious fw «ud that Lytteltoa waited something then- town was so bS cant that no one seemed awarTtfite sjxp* tie *»» t