SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 8, 9 July 1935, Page 5

SCHOOL BUILDINGS

SUBSIDY OF £15,000

TIME LIMIT IMPOSED

An offer by the Unemployment Board to subsidise work on school buildings to the extent of-* 15,000, the money to be distributed this year conditionally upon the: work being started' by March 31,' 1936, was mentioned by the Minister of Education (the Hon. S. G. Smith) in the course of an address to the Wellington School Committees and Educational- Federation last evening.

Grants to boards for buildings had decreased from £112,265 in 1929-30 to £63,000 in 1934-35, he said. Nearly all boards planned to have buildings repainted at intervals of five years, but this work had been postponed. If funds for maintenance were inadequate, it followed that the Department had to incur additional capital expenditure sooner or later. "The Unemployment Board has agreed to place an additional sum at the Department's disposal for distribution this year," said Mr. Smith. "If boards spend the sum of £45,000 between now and the end of the year, the Unemployment Bwd's subsidy will amount to £15,000, one-third of the cost of the work carried out. The additional work, however, must be begun by March 31 next. "Boards have been asked to submit monthly statements of the expenditure on maintenance, and these figures will form the basis of a claim to the Unemployment Board. The amount appropriated by the Department is paid over to the boards in monthly instalments."

No special type of building had been devised for Wellington, it being found generally that the standard design of the Department was the best for most conditions. The Wellington Education Board, however, was considering the erection of an open-air type in the rebuilding plan for Newtown.