A HIGH,SCHOOL AT PETONE.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 99, 24 October 1904, Page 4

A HIGH, SCHOOL AT PETONE.

<> The movement for the establishment of a High School at. Petone, which has been for some time under consideration, took a step forward or Friday last, when an influential deputation of residents, with the Mayor at their head, waited upon the Premier to ask for the assistance of the Government in the matter. The rapid growth of Petone and the Hutfc in population and the overcrowding of "the schools render the making of home change in existing arrangements an absolute necessity. According to the statement made by Mr. Wilford, M.H.R., in introducing the deputation, there are 1100 children attending the public schools of Petone, and sixty-five of them are ready to receive higher education than a primary school can supply. We have called attention more than once to the hardship inflicted upon the Petone boys who had qualified for free places in the Wellington College, but were refused admission by the Governors on the ground of want of accommodation ; and the Revs. J. D. Russell and A. Thomson both referred to this refusal as "setting at naught the sanction given by Parliament." No doubt a better education could be supplied to boys in this position at a large town institution than at a smaller local one established and supplied solely by Petone and the Hutt, but it is to be feared that the train fates and other inconveniences of distance would prove insuperable obstacles to such a scheme in large proportions of cases. This being so, we think that the deputation has taken the proper course, and the only question L one between Petone and Hutt as offering the most suitable site. Lower Hutt is more central in relation ti> the whole valley which has > to be tapped, but against this the great preponderance of population is at Petone, and there is no reason to anticipate that this ground for preference will not become an increasing one a," time goes on. At the present rate of progress Petone will be quite large enough before many years have passed to support a High School of its own, and as, under existing conditions, it must supply a majority of the scholars to. the school now proposed, we do not see that its claims can be ignored. To the request of the deputation for a. Government grant for the purpose the Premier properly gave a non-committal reply, but he asked for details of the scheme with a view >.o subnutting them to Cabinet, and the case is clearly one in which a, reasonable scheme should be accored their desired help.