Evening Post. MONDAY. FEBRUARY 4, 1907. INEXCUSABLE DELAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1907, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY. FEBRUARY 4, 1907. INEXCUSABLE DELAY.

Tho discussion which took place at the mooting of the Education Board on Thursday last shows that its members aro thoroughly aroused to the gravity of tho wrong which tho capital city of tho colony is suffering from tho lack of a District High School, and how much longer shall wo havo to wait bofore ns much can be said of tho Government? At presont tho generous facilities for tho oxtonsion of secondary education, which wero provided by the legislation of 1903, havo been a great boon to other parts of tho colony, but in Wel- | lington tho chief effect of tho measure has been to cause an intenso feeling of disappointment that the promises hold out by tho Education Board in pursuance of tho law have proved alsolutely worthless in practice. Some twenty candidates have been awarded scholarships by tho board, said tho chairman on Thursday, but as yet it has not been able to show the beneficiaries— or the victims — of its generosity how to make any uso of theso rewards of merit. "Ihe question was," he said, "how ■wore they to take out their scholarships. Like many other prodigals, the board scatters its cheques right and left, but no moro than they hah it any knowlcdgo of how they aro to be made of any value to the possessors. " Tho chairman is euphemistically "afraid that those twenty scholarship winners would, so to speak, bo thrown upon their own resources," which is just what happens to tho holder of any valuoless cheque of the ordinary kind. "Tho Wellington Collogo and tho Girls' College," he continued, "had mado no provision for them," "and thoy had nothing to fall back on but the District High Schools and tho Technical Schools." What then© candidates are entitled to i» to have their education continued in a secondary nchool, and with tho doors of the- piesent secondary schools closed to them, and none other available, they are. just as well off without their scholarships ni3 whh them. Ifow much longer is the scandal to be tolerated? Mr. Soddon, who was tho author of the Secondary Schools Act of 1903 and who nbout a. year ago had sonva lively correspondence with the Governors of Wellington College on their failure to provido free places under tho Act, was veTj emphatic in his announcement that tho Government would establish a Dialrict High School a« tho only escape from the deadlock ; but nothing appoius to have beon done cither by his own Administration or by Sir Joseph Ward's to make the prom'iso good. Tno strong' agitation of six months ago in favour of having the Mount Cook site <sefc asids for the pur poses of a Technical School and District High School elicited the fact that the present Miniator of Education does not regard tho project with much moro favour than his predecessor; but we have seeu no other indication of nctlvity on the part of the Government in the matter, and even here, if wo interpret the chairman's speech correctly, they havo not hod vigoivr enough to tend a definite reply. The board, ho Knid, "had made application for a cito in tho centre of the city for a high school, but no action had beon taken ; no reply had yet been received from the department. It was understood that they wen* to have a high school some time or othor, and somewheTC, but at present they wero totally in the dark — no nearer the end than they were twelve months ago." It ,1s posnlblo that the vagueness and inaction of tho Governmont. may be duo to its dislike of tho Mount Cook Kite, and its inability to find uny other; and the board would certainly be wise to accompany tho request which, on the motion of Mr. Hogg, M.H.R., it decided to send to tho Ministor of KdjiicatJon, "to Carry o«t without AnUy ths intention of tlie late ProiaUr ;

by establishing a high school in the city of Wellington," with a further plea for the Mount Cook site. It is monstrous that tho question- should havo been dallied with fo long, and if the Government can find no other it will have to be content with endorsing tho proposal which afc least ninety per cent, of the citizens of Wellington approve.