GIRLS' COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 151, 23 December 1921, Page 8

GIRLS' COLLEGE

PREPARATORY DEPARTMENT MINISTER: REPLIES TO CRITICISM. Interviewed', regarding the letter of "Disgusted," which appeared nn The Post this,week, and which' dealt with the disestablishment of the preparatory department at the Girls'.. College, Wellington, the Minister of Education (Hon. C. J. Parr) stated -to-day that this step had been", taken as the school-was not carried ou in accordance with tho; Education Act. Section 97, Subsection 3 of the Act states that a lower department may be carried if it can be shown to the satisfaction of the Minister that no part of the actual cost of the pupils' instruction or of the establishment, management, or maintenance of such lower department is met out,of the endowments of the school, or out of any moneys granted by the Government. As a matter of fact a lower department, if established, , must be self-maintaining, for the Government cannot provide free elementary education in public schools, and at the same time contribute, to the cost of similar education in any secondary school. The lower department at the Girls' College has been conducted at a loss of £500 or £600 prior to the present year, and the loss for the present year would have been possibly £700. There is considerable difficult"- in accommodating the secondary pur>ils in the Girls' College buildings, and vet the Board has been paying £700 a year as rent for the building used for the primary pupils. As the board has not shown to the satisfaction of the Minister that the school can be carried on in terms of tho Act, the only course open to him was to require the department to be discontinued.