BOYS’ COLLEGE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 118, 12 February 1926, Page 10

BOYS’ COLLEGE

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER EDUCATION

NEED FOR NEW BUILDING

£4187 EXTRA WANTED FOR MEMORIAL HALL

Members of the Wellington Colleges Board of Governors (Messrs. W. 11. P. Barber, F. E. Ward, W. 11. Eield, M.P., and 14. Darroch), together with Messrs. Pi rdy (secretary), T. R. Cresswell (pn. ipal), and C. A. Lawrence (architect), waited on the Minister of Education yesterday in regard to matters affecting the Wellington College. Dr. E. Marsden (Assistant-Director of Education) and Mr. E. J. Parr (secondary inspector), were also present. Mr. Field introduced the deputation. Air. Barber said that the first matter they wanted to bring before the Minister was the memorial hall. It was originally expected to cost £17,900, of which the Government had decided to contribute £10,009, and the old boys £1990 (in addition to' £2090 for furnishing and interior decoration). They now found that it would cost £18,187 to erect a building, and they wanted the Government to contribute another £llB7.

The Minister (.Sir James Parr) said the Government had agreed to find £lO,OOO, and it was a question whether an additional £4090 would be provided. Mr. Barber ,said that would mean that the ball could not be gone on with, but he hoped that further consideration of tlie matter would result favourably. The next point was the provision of increased accommodation at the college. They really had accommodation at the utmost for 800 boys, and the year had started with a roll of 911, or a surplus of over 100 boys had applied for admission. If the additional rooms were- built whilst the memorial hall was in course of erection, the classrooms could be erected much m6re cheaply than if they were dealt with later on. Then they had to consider the question of fire. The existing wooden building was in such a dry state that a fire might consume it any day, and there was no provision for such a contingency, so they were anxious that something should be, done to prevent such a condition arising.

The Girls’ Colleges. Another matter to which they wished to direct the attention of the Minister, said Mr. Barber, was the provision of a play area at the Thorndon Girls’ College by the acquisition of land abutting on Murphy and Pipitea Streets. Land could be acquired at the present time, qnd would afford a good opportunity for developing the physical training of the pupils, and giving them an area for games. At present there was really little room lor anything of that sort at the college. Sir_James Parr said that already additions had been made to the playground in his time. Mr. Ward reminded the Minister that the money for that was obtained from a windfall from endowments. Mr. Barber said that there was also the question of the numbei of pupils at the Wellington East Girls’ College. The attendance had been limited to 400, but there were 200 girls, many living in the. locality, who were debarred from attending, and had to go past -the college, to attend elsewhere. Sir James Parr pointed out that £50,000 had already been spent on the building, without considering the site. The position was that quite good accommodation existed in the Thorndon College. Mr. Cresswell said that at present no secondary school in the Dominion was in such a position as his college for old buildings. Something must be done immediately to improve the conditions.' They had really put up with enough in the condition of the buildings for years. Sir Janies Parr said that Mr. Cresswell should have come to the Department at once when he found the enrolment was so much in excess of the accommodation.

Mr. Cresswell pointed out that one of their difficulties was the exceptionally large number of senior pupils who had returned to the college this year, which, although a gratifying fact, made matters very awkward. If tlie Department gave instructions to reduce the number of pupils on certain lines that would be carried out. “A Pretty Large Programme.” Sir James Parr, in reply to the deputation, said that they came to him and suggested a pretty large programme of expansion. The present Government and Minister of Education had been very good to Wellington educationally for the last five or six vears. Monev had been spent in this citv to provide for secondary education at a great rate. A new hostel had been built for the Bovs’ College at a cost of £50,000. Money had been found from endowments, certainly; but they had to face the burden of grants for interest on the money spent. He would sooner have put that amount into a new school, but the need for a hostel was so pressed upon him that he gave wav. It was quite the best hostel in New Zealand. Six years ago the point of pressure was the necessity for better accommodation for the girls. He had £350,000 for secondary school buildings in the whole M New Zealand.