SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 130, 29 November 1904, Page 6

SECONDARY EDUCATION.

THE CLAIMS OF PETONE AND LOWER HUTT. Considerable controversy is taking place with regard to proposals put foiward for providing secondary education facilities at Lower Hutt and Petone, and it will be interesting at this juncture to set out the exact position of affairs. About two montlis ago the Lower Hutt School Committee applied to the Board for the establishment of a district high school. Tho application was referred to the chairman and inspectors to report r.pon at the next meeting of the Board. At the next meeting, a deputation from the Petone School Committee waited on the- Board and applied for a district high school for Petone. That request was also referred to-the chairman and inspectors to report upon, and eventually, after receiving both reports, the Board recommended to the Government that district high schools be established both at Lower Hutt and Petone. In the meantime a deputation from Petone had waited on the Premier as Minister for Education, and extracted 'from him a promise of a sub&idy of £200 for the purposes of a high school (not a district high school) at Petone. Subsequently a Petone deputation waited on the Board, and put that promise of £200 before it. The deputation also asked the Board to purchases Price's building for £2200, the £200 from the Government to be the deposit, and the Board to take up the liability of tho balance of £2000. The Board pointed out to the deputation that it could not acquire land or buildings for high school purposes, as a high school would have to be under the management of a Board of Governors, and the Board, had nothing to 'do with the school except recommending its establishment or otherwise. No reply has been received from the Government to the Board's recommendation for the establishment of district high schoois at Petone and Lower Hutt, except that a letter has been received from theC Premier informing the Board that the sum of £200 is available for the Petone High School when the Board intimates that a building has been acquired. At' the last meeting of the Board, another Petone deputation urged that Price's building should be acquired for the purposes of the district high scuool. The Board pointed out that the Government had not given permission to establish a district high school at Petone or Lower Hutt, and until such sanction had been given the Board could do nothing in the matter. The opponents of the proposal to establish a high school proper at Petone point out that the cost would be very heavy, even on the basis of £2200 for Price's buLding, as another £1000 would have to be expended in alterations and equipment ; whereas, if a d. strict high school were established, it would be attached to the primary school, and the small amount of increased accommodation necessary could be provided at very small cost, as is done at other places, such as Masterton anct Pahiatua. Further, Price's buiiding would, it is urged, be altogether too expensive for district high school purposes, besides being too remote from the primary school, to which a district high school has to be attached. Mr. Field, M.H.R., who ia a member of the Board, speaking to a Post representative on the subject, said he thought there was room for a High School at Petone. In default of that, however, the Hutt Valley was becoming so thickly population as to justify the establishment of District High Schools both at Petone and Lower Hutt. His view of the subject was that it only, one District High'Srhool was established it should be at the Lower Hutt, as being more central. He understood that Price's building was vory suitable for the purpo&e, and as the cost was low ho thought the opportunity of securing it should not be lost. But that was a matter for the Government, and not for the Boaru, on account of the state of its finances. He would be quite willing to see a High School at Petone and a District High School at Lower Hutt. Mr. J. Robertson, another member of the Education Board, said the Lower Hutt was in the 'fortunate position of having spare room in the school for secondary education purposes. He considered that Mr. Price acted in a very pub-lic-spirited way in offering his building for educational purposes at a lower price than he would have taken for any other purpose Where the hitch had occurred was that when the Premier intimated that £200 had been allocated, he used the words "High School." Mr. Robertson thought the Education Department Was annoyed at the Premier having given £200 without consulting it, because at the October meeting of the Board tjie Petone deputation informed the Board that the Premier had promised £200, and yet just previously a letter had been read from the Department stating that nothing could be done in the matter before Christmas. If a High School was established at Petone there could not be a District High School at Lower Hutt, because a District High School could not be established within three miles of a High School. Mr. Robertson favoured the claims of Petone for facilities for secondary education. Wellington College had not sufficient room for free scholars under the Act, and at Petone there were from $0 to, 60 pupils ready to go into the school as soon as it was opened. His sympathies, he added, were with the people of Petone, for the reason that sthere5 there was a large artisan population there, while at Lower Hutfc there was a better-to-do population, who would probably not send their children to a District High School if it were established.

During the last deer-shooting season, Mr. G. R. Pilkington, of Rainford Hall,' St. Helens, Lancashire, and his sister, came out to the colony, and were taken over some of our best deer country. They secured a number of heads, which were left with a friend and afterwards sent Home. Writing in acknowledgment by the last mail, Mr. Pilkington says that he has had the heads stuffed in Scotland, and they are now hanging in the Hall, where they "look splendid, quite dwarfing our best Scotch heads." A Chamber of Commerce has been formed at Carterton. Relief was dispensed to various applicants by the Benevolent Institution Trustees this afternoon at a meeting atterided by Messrs. C. H. Izard (Chairman), R. Mothes, Cook, C. W. Brown, W. A. Evans, and D. Robertson, and Mrs. Darvall. The City Council will have before it at Thursday's meeting reports bearing upon the recent flooding of the old racecourse at Island Bay, and will probably give some consideration to the best msans of saving a repetition of the flooding. The question is almost wholly one of efficient drainage of tha area affected. The creek which passes through the racecourse is badly overgrown with weeds, and the winding nature of its course is not conducive to good drainage. To carry out a complete and efficient drainage scheme in tho Island Bay district will bo somewhat expensive, but undoubted benefit to the whole district would result. . There is no doubt that owners of private property along tho west side of the Parade will be expected by the Council to do something towards preventing a repetition of overflow from fthe cueek at jjcrjods of he&vg rainfall