HUTT PUPILS AT THE COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1922, Page 7

HUTT PUPILS AT THE COLLEGE

TO THE EDITOI.

Sir,—This subject has already taken up a good deal of your valuable space, I know, but th© parents of Hutt boys who wish to attend Wellington College feel that their side of tho question is not fully appreciated. The position, is this—Fifteen boys of Hutfc Valley were enrolled on the books of Wellington College; they wore accommodated in rooms which contained several empty benohes, and yie college authorities had rio objection to receiving them as pupils. Then, at the whim of the Minister, they 'were debarred, and were not allowed to enter even as boarders. A boy who is foTtunata enough to claim as his home-town Masterton, Palmerston, or Auckland's fair city, may enter as a boarder at Wellington College, but if he has the misfortune to come from the Hutt ■ Valley, he is debarred. One poor boy, whose people, are leaving the distriot shortly, must wait until the household goods—^aiid, incidentally, the stigma of belonging tti tho Hutt—have been removed, before he can be enrolled, when the question of room will not be raised. The fact. that thetg are district high. schools easily accessible to other places- does not deb*r boys from those plaies from entering the college. This invidious distinction applies only 16 the Hutt Valley

I know that the college accommodation is not all that could be desired, but I maintain that the inconveniences are no worse than are being put np with in schools all over the Dominion at the present time. At South Miramar the othetf day >the Minister Was lamenting the fact that the man in the street to-day did not eeom much concerned as to whether his children had modern educational advanI tages or not, and yet when a deputation jof Hutf parents, very much alitfe to the N interest of their boys, tried to put their views before him the other day, they received scant consideration. The- Hutt is a suburb of Wellington, as easily accessible as most suburbs, and residents fepl that the. modern advantages of a large institution like Wellington College might well bo extended to their children. Possibly, in the years to come, the Hutt, Valley may. be filled by a large and thriving city, and may then have an efficient college; but that is no reason why our boys should be penalised now. /Probably, however, now 1 that the Minister has embarked on such a rigorous campaign <jt economy, even. extending to the school, fences, which must not presume to show any superiority , over their poorer neighbours, he will be I able to find funds to provide accommodation for our boys.—l am,- etc., . ALICE DYER. 23rd February. ■'■