Educational Demands “Bordering on Fantastic,” Says Ministry of Works

Evening Star, Issue 26184, 20 August 1947, Page 6

Educational Demands “Bordering on Fantastic,” Says Ministry of Works

“ While the Otago Education Board has been led to hope that authority will be given before March 31 for some more of our proposed works to proceed, I think it is clear, from the tenor of the communications from the department, that we cannot hope to go on this year with more than one, or at most two, of the major works not at present included in the list approved by the Ministry of Works.. The information received means' a general slowing down in “the rate of progress with new buildings. It not only means that some of those that we had hoped to do this year will be postponed until nest year, but that those,that we had hoped to do next year arid in succeeding years will , have to wait still longer, said the chairman of the Otago Education Board (Mr J. I. Fraser) at its meeting this morning when advice was received from the Education Department to the .effect that the Ministry of Works had made the allocation on which departmental estimates'for the year must be based. Consideration of the matter, was held over until the next meeting of the board, and. Mr Fraser was thanked for I his statement on three circulars which \ were received. Also, present were the Mayor (Mr Cameron), Messrs W. Jacobsen, J. V. Riaeh, N. H. Colquhoun, C. E. Richards, H. A. Brough, G. S. Fincham, and R. R. Hunter. PROPOSALS EXCEED EXPECTATIONS. _

The department forwarded a list of approved works for the board, stating that in general the expenditure proposed by boards had been far greater than might reasonably have been expected to come to charge during the year, 1 having regard to the difficult building situation and the capacity of architectural staffs for. plan preparation. The board’s programme had accordingly, been ■ limited. to works .which were either under way at present or likely to be under way during the year sufficiently to entail expenditure. A further circular from the department embodied a copy of a lengthy memorandum from the Ministry of Works stating that the accumulated demands and . the potential demands, upon the building industry were greater than at any other time in the history of the Dominion. At the present time more works had been commenced than could _ adequately be supplied with materials essential to their completion within’ economical periods of construction. . That meant that much of the building effort lay dormant in partlycompleted works., It was imperative that additional man power land materials must be diverted; to housing to a greater extent than had been the case, hitherto.

It was asserted that the demands by education boards and other education authorities for inclusion of works in. this year’s programme were bordering on the fantastic in comparison with the existing limited capacity of the building industry..:- The decisions made by the Ministry of Works; unfavourable as they may . be to the particular j education . authority concerned, were made in-the-light of existing - conditions, and- with a very com- ' plete background of the whole industry. - A third circular dealing with priorities . in boards’ i building programmes ; stated • that the department was most anxious that working' drawings for . approved : cases should be available, as. early as possible in order that it might be in a position to press for a.; greater allocation each year, hut that it must be left to the board to set its own: order of urgency at the 6tage when it became necessary to,decide which' working drawing should next with. Authority to prepare working plans indicated approval of the scheme in principle only, and was -not a commitment to proceed immediately with the erection of all such works. The priority for 'erection would be fixed by the board annually when submitting, its construction programme for the following year. DISAPPOINTMENT. , “ The information received in these communications will'come as a disappointment, not only to the board, but to many .Committees and others interested in our schools,’’ commented the Chairman after .the circulars had been read. “.The , board has been only too well aware of . the serious supply position and “ other- factors limiting; our capacity, to carry out \building projects, but.: encouraged by the understanding that school buildings would be given a high priority, it prepared for this year what can now only be

regarded as. a too-ambitious programme. Early this year, when called upon by the department to submit its proposed building programme for the year, the board had to select from a list of urgent works that has been accumulating during the war years those that it considered most urgent and had a reasonable chance of being commenced before March 31, 1948. It was with regret that it omitted from the list many works that had long been classed as urgent, but whose claims were less urgent than others, and which therefore had no prospect of being started within the 12-monthly period. Now it is obvious that a number of important jobs that were included have little chance of being started this year." IMPORTANT WORK DELAYED. Important works which the board had hoped to start were detailed by Mr Fraser as including new schools for Dunedin North Intermediate, Georae Street, Balclutha, Oamaru North, Wanaka, Dunedin West Intermediate. Corstorphine, and - Waverley. Plans for Dunedin North Intermediate and George Street had been held.-up through difficulties about sites, but the Balclutha plans had been completed, those for Oamaru North were well under way, and the architect would soon be in a position to commence those for another school. It had been felt that the draughting staff would have difficulty in coping with the amount of work offering, but now, with the postponement of some ‘of the more important jobs, they would have a better chance of keeping ahead of the work to be done. Some of the works authorised by the Ministry of Works had already been completed, and the plans for several of the others were ready. “ 'there is a ray of hope that the Ministry of Works will allow further jobs to be commenced towards the end of-the financial year, or that the building position in this area may permit of additions to the programme,’’ added the Chairman. “ One thing that the board will have to consider very seriously is, if it is found possible to proceed with another of our bigger jobs, should it be Balclutha, whose plans are ready, or Oamaru North, whose plans are nearing completion, or the Dunedin North Intermediate School, whose plans cannot be commenced until the site position is clarified,;but which, in view of the condition of the Normal School, is really the most urgent job of all. In my mind it is clear that we must not proceed with any school just because the plans are ready, if by so doing we will prejudice the erection of the new intermediate school. As, however; there is no immediate prospect of either Balclutha or Oamaru North being proceeded with there is.no need to make a decision on that point at present.” RESIDENCES AND CLINICS OMITTED. Mr Fraser said it appeared that no teachers’ residences had been included in the list of approved works, but a telegram had been forwarded to the department to ascertain if that’ were actually the case. The board included eight residences in its programme. Unless inquiry reveals something different the board was not at liberty to proceed in any of these cases in the meantime. It was also significant that dental clinics, of which it was proposed to make a start on nine, had been omitted from the approved list. Continuing, Mr Fraser said: “This all serves to emphasise the desperate supply and man-power situation. The Education Department is more or less powerless in the matter, as it can only work within the allocation made for school buildings by the' Ministry of Works.- But it is a great pity that more rapid progress cannot be made with the big school building programme which lies ahead.” ASPECTS FOR FURTHER INQUIRY Four aspects of the matter which Mr Fraser thought the board might inquire further into were:—(l) The need for reaching finality regarding the erection of the new intermediate school at North Dunedin. The most recent proposals have now been before the department for more than a month. (2) The allocation of funds made to Otago in comparison with those for other education districts. (3) The apparent omission of houses from the list of approved works for this. district. (4) Whether, in view of the fact that site and other difficulties may delay certain of the approved works, the board should seek to get some other work approved by substitution or otherwise.