FOR DAY BOYS ONLY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21909, 9 October 1936, Page 6

FOR DAY BOYS ONLY

CATHEDRAL GRAMMAR SCHOOL

NEW GOVERNING BODY TO BE APPOINTED

The Cathedral Grammar School will be carried on in future as a daily preparatory school, and instruction will be given in the brick buildings only. The headmaster’s residence will be leased, and the boarding department will be given up. The governing body of the school will be changed, and a separate fund established to guard the Chapter against any loss in running the school. There will be no change in the present staff, taut the headmaster will take up the new position he has accepted in Wellington next year. These decisions were made at a meeting of the Cathedral Chapter on Wednesday evening, and the Church Property Trustees last evening. The school will continue to provide educational instruction for choir boys principally, but it is hoped that there will be other paying pupils entering and passing through the school. The boys will be trained on preparatory school lines, until they are ready to enter secondary schools. A new board of governors, similar to that controlling St, Margaret’s College, will be set up, and will report once a year to the Cathedral Chapter, Nominaticns will be taken from the Parents’ and Old Boys’ Associations, which are now practically merged into one association, and the Chapter will choose the members of the board from these. The Chapter also will be represented on the board by its own nominees. The school at present is governed directly by the Chapter. Mr Foster Brown, now a master at the school, will take over the headmastership as the Rev. G. M. McKenzie has accepted an appointment at Wellington. There will be no staff changes because of the change of status of the school.

The parents and old boys have provided a sum of money as a reserve fund to guarantee the Chapter against any loss in the running of the school.

Boys who are in the school at present, and who have passed through the preparatory stages, will, if the parents so desire, be able to continue their studies until they are ready to leave. The Christ's College authorities have provided a year’s scholarship, tenable at Christ’s College, for all choristers as they pass from the choir, subject to the recommendation of the Chapter. Financial Difficulties The Cathedral Grammar School was started at the beginning of the settlement when the choir was formed, but the tuition of choir boys was later absorbed into Christ’s College. Owing to difficulties arising out of the training of the boys interfering with the school curriculum, the Chapter started its own school again, as a preparatory and secondary school with facilities for boarders. This resulted in an annual loss but the Chapter was able to meet that out of the income of the Dean and Chapter estate. Owing largely to the depression, the income of the estate diminished, and at the beginning of this school financial year, on February 1, it was found that a loss of £IOOO had been incurred, and that this could not be met from the income from the estate

It was impossible to close the school immediately without injustice to the parents, scholars, and staff. The Chapter decided to continue the school until the end of the year, hoping in the meantime to find some other scheme whereby the school could be continued. Some tew months ago it became certain that the school, as at present stituted, could not be continued, and the Chapter had come to the conclusion that the school could not be saved. Then the Parents’ Association and the Old Boys’ Association tried to raise £IOOO for a guarantee tund to cover the Chapter for five years against loss. The loss of £2OOO has been provided for by a loan from the capital of the Dean and Chapter estate, the loan to be repayable over a period of years. The Chapter was then, however, told by the Church Property Trustees that no further deficit on the working of the school could he countenanced. The parents and the old boys were able to raise only about a half of the promised sum, and the present arrangement has been made possible through a generous offer by Mr Foster Brown and other members of his staff, and a number of the guarantors.