Headmaster "Dismayed” By Building Time

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31758, 15 August 1968, Page 16

Headmaster "Dismayed” By Building Time

Although the Mairehau High School board of governors yesterday was informed that tenders had been called for a new six-classroom block, that a contract had been let for a new library, and that plans were being prepared for a two-room extension, the headmaster (Mr A. B. Ryan) expressed dismay at the time to be taken for building. “I am shocked to hear that, in spite of the board’s request for urgency, library construction time has been set at 10 months. How it takes so long for a building 50ft square is beyond me,” he said. , Mr Ryan said he understood the successful Mairehau contractor, Rea Enterprises, Ltd, had also won the Burnside High School library contract. Perhaps both jobs were to be done by the same gangs.

“It also seems that the Ministry of Works does not realise the urgency of school building and the problems of prolonged interference with a school routine,” Mr Ryan said.

In October, 1965, the board recommended a site for the library. It would be almost

four years from that time before the new library was in use. The six-room block would not be ready when needed at the beginning of next year and neither would the tworoom extension.

Mr Ryan said the Nelsontype high school had many problems, chief of which was the absence of enclosed corridors and other circulation space for use in wet weather. During this winter Mairehau pupils had often to work in classrooms smelling of the lunch-hour. To give pupils something for wet days, the hall had been curtained for lunch-hour films and the Education Department should be asked for at least half the cost because its school plan created the need for such activity. The board agreed.

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