EDUCATION BOARD.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 109, 31 January 1908, Page 11

EDUCATION BOARD.

> The. Education Board met yesterday aft-cr-f BMiVtresent: The Chairman, (Mr. R. Left), : nd' Messrs. A. H. Vile, W. C. Biichanan, ■... Allen, .J. Kebbell, J. 6-. W. Aitkeii, i M.P ; W.'.B. Field, M.P., and A. W. ; Hoa'-', M P,., • ..W.'.-. FINANCE. The of finances, after providing fov>! pay-sheet, showed a debit balance on ' btiildings-r'ud general accounts of £2744. On ,j tho'oMioi'' tho following accounts were I in credit.: —Secondary account, £133 15s. Bd.; i technicnl account, £59 12s. 6d.; manual and i , technical, >L2lO 155.; teachers' salaries, £G72 6s. jd!; .deposit account,;£l7 Bs. 6d.j total, £1094 18s. 3d. There was therefore a debit . balance on January 29, 1908, of £1650 Is. 9d., as credit balance on December 9, 1907,; if £180 Is. . In.'inbying that'the statement be adopted, 'qhairmaii declared that the position 'was really riot so serious as it looked. The heavy v. j expenditure had included several' large amounts for sites., He might mention that thivi' Was still £2000 of. the annual grant available,' and that the Board had another : " £1000. on deposit. ' Mr. Hogg contended that the payment of £2000. for a/'site at thd Hutt was downright , extravagance. In localities where land values ywere ; exorbitant, the Board should , | not purchase areas of more than half an acre. .-"With the amount of money which had gone' to. purchase the site at the Hutt, half » dozeri small schools could have been built. Mr. ''Allen: But the country districts get their fair share. • ' Mr. Hogg;. We are not making proper use of moiicy. placed in our hands for a specific ■ purpose.; The motion was adopted. NE\Y SCHOOL FOR THE HUTT. The\Committee to whom was referred tho question'• of. the ; establishment of a new school,"on the eastern sido of the . Hutt Valley, recommended:—!.' That a main school ;ho. established on the recently-acquired site. . That'plans'bo prepared for a school ■ to accommodate 400 pupils. 3. That application be made to tho Departrrtent for a grant for the immediate accommodation of 250 pupils.!. ■ ,;Mr. Vile moved that the recommendations, ..upon, boing amended to secure the preparation of plans for a school to accommodate >600 pupils, be adopted. Mr.' Allenj' who seconded pro forma, said that !ifv an infant school were erected in place of; the proposed main school it would s°on be'necessary also to erect a main school. : . Kobbell moved as an amendment that #n infant school be erected on the site instead of a main school. ■ .Upon being put the amendment was lost and the motion carried. :.v .!'.REPORT TRUANT OFFICER, The Truant Ofßcer (Mr. J. Dinneen), in annual, report, stated that during the - VlS 'ted 462 schools. In all 3835 cases ; qf truancy had been reportedly head teachers. Proceedings liad been instituted in 141 cases, and had resulted in l'O convictions being recorded, The total amount of filiea r inflicted was £16 175.,' and costs against paronts had aggregated £37 2s. He lound 23 children who were not attending any ..school. Several neglcctcd children had been, repcrted to the, police, at whose instance 46 : b°ys and 18 girls wore committed to . receiving homes or industrial schools, their ages; ranging from 7 to 14 years. Tho average,fattendance for the respective quarters..was: March 14,403, June 13,887, September 13,636, December 14,101. The average attendance for the year was thus 14,007 the average roll being 16,549: The pefcent,dflnCe "' a , S S4 -G, which compared with 1906 shows a decrease- of 3 per cent. Compared with 1906 the average roll showed an , lnc l ®ase.^of 133, the average attendance a decrease of 349. -The falling off *h : iiunlbers and percentage-was;*accounteil for bv tho prevalenco .of epidomic sicknesses from wfiich . . the whole district suffered. The efFect was particularly noticeable in. the BoarS's principal schools. Some schools which made 90 Ce ri « ECtmhir quarters,' 1906, only ■ 60 ..P er cent- to 80 per cent, for the corresponding quarter of last year. This l£ a r allmg ,°, ft o£ 21 P er ce "t- in some Hm? -I" 5 the J ear ''e received a great deal of ass'stanco .froni St.. John's" Ladies' Christian . Association m the' way of providtH kid'r a " c ?? tS t-'i'ilflrcn. Through the. assistance of that Association manv clnldren were enabled to attend school. There was . still considerable trouble owing to tradesmen employing children on delivery carts,, more particularly milk carts. This caused many children to be late for school, T CaUS^ d to P'ay truant. Ihe . report was. adopted. OTHER BUSINESS. increased accommodation at Masterton was held over. > to acquire, under the Public W6rks Act; the site_for a new school at mendocl Committee had recomThe Board decided to adopt the following ' recommendatioas made by the Works anu 1 lnanco Ooinmittee(l> That the asphalt ?Lt-,IV Wellington he top-dressed: (2) that the roofs ot tho smaller buildings at rS, palnted '. and baseboards renewed; (d) expenditure on works and MaS u Newtown, l'etoiio, Oiareulle, Ulasterton, and Kereru. • : ~ TENDERS. It was reported that during the holidays tenders haa been accepted as follow:— Alakomako repairs, W. E. Li reaves; Hinemoa repairs, 1 .• ijailey; Paekakanki, bathrooui W M. eeS; - u hornd . on ' as l )ha lti''g and tarniig. ■— W. .ieversham; Carterton (old schoolK con-tract,.-Coo.i Bros.; Levin, tcacuers' resiArcus; Greytown, outhouse, 11. Humphries, Mt. Cook Infant School Jiyiop ate screens, Sanders Bros.; Infant School Masterton, painting, F. T. harding; To Ore Ore,i painting, F. T. Harding; Kaitoke, repairs, Hewit and Jameson. . ~, RESIGNATIONS. The following resignations were accented • i, -l^ 5 i f irtiss Alexander, cleaner of cookery rooms; Miss J. Glasgow, assistant at Mt. Cook Infants' E. Gaudin, assistant at Johnsonville;. Miss V. Nixon, assistant at Hamua.; and Miss E. Arcus, pupil teacher at Levin.