WELLINGTON COLLEGE GROUNDS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 232, 25 June 1921, Page 5

WELLINGTON COLLEGE GROUNDS

TO ARD EXERCISED OVER UPKEEP. The Wellington College Board of Governors met yesterday. There were present the chairman (Mr. W. F. Ward), Sir E. O. Gibbes. Messrs. W. If. P. Barber. W. Denton. T. Forsyth, nnd R. Ihrroeh. The statement of finances disclosed a debit balance of £2214 18s. 7d. Replying tw the board’s application for a grant of £593 18s. fld., to enable it to refund to Mr. Firth (the late headmaster) the amount expended by him on the maintenance of the school grounds during last year, the Minister of Education (Hon. C. J. Parr) wrote as follows:— "While Mr. Firth’s generosity is to be commended, it must, be pointed out that the Government’s liability for the maintenance of the grounds is limited to the proportion of the grant made under the regulations for general and incidental expenses that the board may devote to the purpose, and that in any case the practice of the Department is to refuse responsibility for expenditure incurred before it is consulted. I regret, therefore, that I can hold out no hope of a grant for the purpose.” The chairman reported that the headmaster (Mr. T. R. Grossweil) estimated in his statement for the current year that the sum of £593 would he available for grounds expenditure out of the total sum allocated for incidental expenses. The board was expected to find the money for the upkeep of the grounds out of incidental expenses, and this was impossible. .

Mr. Denton: The pre-war expenditure to ksep these grounds in order was «81 per day. The chairman remarked that the board would have to make another effort if the money available was not sufficient.