FREE PLACES

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 50, 27 February 1918, Page 7

FREE PLACES

MR. BRANDON'S POSITION. - - An exposition of his connection with the free plaoo system at the Wellington Colleges was given by Mr. A. de B. Brandon at hia meeting in Molesworth. street last night. ... Mr. Brandon said that at. the time he was chairman of the Board of Governors of Wellington College, Mr. S<;ddon came along and said: "You must take free place pupils," for which the Government would pay considerably less than the fees being paid by the paying pupil 6. "I said, 'no,'" • Mr. ■ Brandsw remarked; "my own personal■■ opinion was that it was not a good thing for the State to distribute secondary education indiscriminately and'at a huge cost when many of the youths would be better employed m learning trades or following occupations which are absolutely necessary to the existence of the community and must b« performed by someone. And I also said that unless we have room we can- | not take these free places. This went on for three or four years. Then the ! Government came along and said: 'If we give you £10,000 to build a new room at the Wellington College, will you take the free places? 1 I said, 'yes.' The £10,000 was paid, we got the accommodation, and the free places were given at the College. Then the question of the girls came along. The girls' school was overcrowded and I was continually impressing upon the authorities not to overcrowd the school to such an extent that the teaching would be interfered with. The cry came along for "free places. I said we would not disturb paying pupils for those paying a smaller amount. It was purely a question of whether the receipts .would pay.the. expenses. That was the problem facing the Board of Governors at- the time. In order to meet the demand-, at. the price, it seemed to me rthat tb- .alaries of the teachers would .have to oe kept at the lowest po.int:and...that_.tlie_.c.lasses"~wbul<l have to be crowded up to the fullest point. The Government came along again, and I think about £4000 was offered. The Government said, 'If we give you this- sum- for the Girls - College, ■ will you take the free places? I said; 'Yes, to'the extent that that new accommodation will permit.' That is what I have done "in connection with the free places, and I am not ashamed of the principles I hold. If I.were on the .Board oLGovernors to-day, I would not call, especially dunnc election time, emergency meeting! ot the Board of Governors to

provide accommodation for free-place pupils, when we know that the school ia already chock-a-block, when we know that every building in the neighbourhood is occupied, when we know that if: anyone wants a house at the present moment he has to pay three or four times the rent he would have _ had to pay before the war. And yet, in order to tickle the electors, we see certain gentlemen get the Board of Governors to hold an emergency meeting to consider the propriety of extending free places. I say this : that during the war everything should remain, as far as possible, in its present condition, and there is no justification whatever for spending £80,000 or £100,000 on the extension of secondary education in this Dominioti. That-money is wanted for the winning of the war."—(Applause.)