VALUABLE HELP

Evening Post, Issue 154, 1 July 1936, Page 14

VALUABLE HELP

COLLEGES BENEFIT

PARENTS' ASSOCIATIONS

Two examples of the manner in which parents' associations have, by their own efforts, materially assisted the scholastic institutions to which they belong were provided at yesterday's meeting of the Wellington Colleges' Board of Governors when two deputations waited upon that body.

The first of these was from the Wellingion East Girls' College Parents' Association which sought the board's assistance in securing an assembly hall. The association, it was stated, was prepared to contribute £500 and to repay the balance o£ the sum required at the rate of £100 a year until such time as the Government assumed liability, and the board was asked to act as sponsors for the association. The association, it was pointed out, had already raised between £2000 and £3000 which had been expended upon various improvements to the college.

Board members paid tribute to the association's activities, and said that its offer should materially help in prevailing upon the Minister to make a favourable decision about the needed assembly hall, and it was decided to endorse the proposal and to forward it to the Minister with a favourable recommendation.

The Rongotai Boys' College Parents' Association, through the mouthpiece of its deputation, asked for a further two acres of playing grounds. The present four acres, it was pointed out, were inadequate for the 550 boys with their 17 cricket teams and 22 or ?3 football teams. The additional ground could -be put in order for £300. In the seven years of its existence the association had raised £2300 for improvements, and it now asked for the board's co-operation in getting the Minister to agree to providing the money required.

The chairman, Mr. W. H. P. Barber, while admitting that the parents' association had the board's sympathy, pointed out that a lot of money had already been spent on" Rongolai College. The Minister was always being asked for- money and could not accede to every request. The board was prepared to assist the association in gaining what it wanted, but he thought that the best method would be to approach the member for the district and arrange a deputation to the Minister.