SCHOOL BUILDING

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 August 1946, Page 3

SCHOOL BUILDING

MINISTER REPLIES TO COMPLAINT CONSTRUCTION PROGRAMME (P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 5. j The Government certainly has al plan for school buildings, and that! is to erect during the next few years| every possible school building that labour and materials permit, said the Acting Minister of Education, Mr. Nordmeyer, to-night. “The priorities of such buildings will depend mainly, on priorities laid down by the controlling Education Boards, and there will be no lack of money to have the work done as quickly as the building industry can cope with it.” Mr. Nordmeyer was replying to an article in the Journal of the New Zealand Educational Institute, which complained of the condition of certain school buildings, and. alleged a lack of planning on the part of the education authorities. The Minister said . that the Government, although by no| means satisfied with all of the school | buildings in New Zealand, had done its utmost since 1935 to remedy the position which then , confronted it, with many of the buildings in a de-i plorable condition. The war inter-; rupted the programme, but now despite serious difficulties, the Government was determined to speed up its school building programme oncel again. This was indicated by the fact! that capital expenditure on school) buildings for the last financial year] totalled £1,187,546. This was the largest sum so spent since before 1930, and an expenditure of that magnitude could not be undertaken without a plan. Various boards worked to priorities of their own, but the shifting of the population and the changing ol the birthrate complicated the position at times. He said the number ol births m New Zealand in 1945 had been 37004. This was the highest for many years, and was almost 10,000 more than in 1938. The increase in some particular districts has been more phenomenal even than these figures indicated. Mr. Nordmeyer recalled that the Prime Minister, when he addressed the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute last May, invited the Institute to set up a representative committee to discuss with officers of the department the school building plans for the future. The institute, instead of accepting that invitation, had made generalised complaints. Mr. Nordmeyer said, however, that he now took the opportunity of renewing the Prime Ministers offer to the institute.