ORAKEI STATE HOUSES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22444, 4 July 1938, Page 8

ORAKEI STATE HOUSES

OPENING OF £13,000 SCHOOL

PROGRESS OF SCHEME

(PRESS ASSOCIATIO* TILISAAM.) AUCKLAND, July 3. With a gold key the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) opened a new school at Orakei in the presence of about 3000 cheering spectators on Saturday afternoon. He said that the school cost about £ 13,000, but it was money well spent, and he expressed the hope that it would serve the children of the district for many generations to come.

The ceremony was held outdoors, and Mr Savage and his Government associates were given a demonstrative reception. The official party included the Mayor (Sir Ernest Davis), the Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry), the Attorney-General (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason), the Under-Secretary in Charge of Housing (Mr J. A. Lee. M.P.), and other members of Parliament. Mr Parry said that the Orakei State settlement and school would stand as a living monument to Mr Savage, who as Prime Minister had thus fulfilled the wish ox a lifetime. Mr Parry said that he hoped it would be his own duty to assist in developing the physical and mental constitution of the children at every school, through the organisation that it was proposed to establish in New Zealand. The best legacy the Government could leave, the Minister added, was a sound physical generation of children, and there would then be no worry about the future of the country. “Site Without Parallel”

With the opening of the school on a site without parallel in New Zealand. the Government's housing scheme was well on its way to proving its own success, said Mr J. A. Lee. The Prime Minister’s only concern was that 10 times as many houses had not been provided. The Minister for Finance had said that he would find the money, and it was hoped eventually to reproduce Orakei in many places throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand.

A presentation to the school of 15 native trees, to represent the Prime Minister, the High Commissioner (Mr W. J. Jordan), and 13 Cabinet Ministers. was made on behalf of the Tamaki branch of the Labour Party. On rising to perform the opening of the main door, the Prime Minister was greeted with cheers, and the singing of "For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow." In his address, Mr Savage emphasised the necessity for an extension of education facilities in New Zealand and referred to the inability of the Government to find the men to do the work requiring attention. He referred to the transformation in Orakei in the last two years, and said that the settlement scheme had been referred to as a wild dream, but it had come true. In his own wildest dreams, he said, he had never imagined being there in the heart of an ideal residential suburb opening a magnificent school on one of the finest sites it was possible to find. “We have a lot to do before we have done justice to the people, but we are. well on the way;’’ continued Mr Savage. “We are £17,000.000 in arrears in New Zealand in the matter of public buildings, and I want to say that it is 'no't the whole of the Government’s responsibility. ■ There is a shortage of men to provide the facilities we are prepared to give. “We want men to come forward and work.” he said. “We will supply the rponey, and ask nobody questions about where it will come from. We want 330 more houses like those now’ at Orakei. but no Government can.do it without the assistance of the men who do the work.”