TAWHITI SCHOOL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 July 1924, Page 9

TAWHITI SCHOOL.

GROUND AND SHED IMPROVEMENTS. VISIT OF BOARD MEMBERS. Representatives of the Taraanki Education Board visited the Tawhiti School yesterday afternoon to discuss with the committee the Board’s share of tne expense of certain improvements tlie committee propose to carry out. ihe Board representatives were: Messrs A. Lees (chairman), and P. J. JJ. vVhitv, Mr Moore (architect) and the accountant. The committee members present were: Messrs Chadwick (chairman), Duncan (secretary), J. Minks W. McDonald and W. Williams. A careful inspection was made of the ground and slisds, and the committee was complimented upon the amount of work done out of its own funds, the architect remarking that when the concreting shortly to be put in hand is completed the school would stand pre-eminent .in this respect. The policy .pursued was warmly commended, and Mr Lees said that if any committees received more from the Board than others they were those who were doing something to help themselves, and Tawhiti. was in this class. This was reaffirmed by Mr White and thearchitect. It was pointed out, hoivever, by Mr Lees that the Beard had consistently refused to contribute towards the cost of concerte work, and they could not depart from a. well-es-tablished precedent. They had been obliged to take this stand by the limitation of their funds. At Wanganui the Education Board had sometimes included in the estimates for ne\y schools concreting, and such work had been recognised in their case as coming properly within that covered by a grant for a new building, but so far this consideration had not been extended to the Taranaki Board. While the Board could not meet the committee in the matter of concreting, it could do something practical with regard to the sheds, which it had been found necessary to enlarge. Members of the committee stated that this would he satisfactory, and that thev had not iieen sanguine enough to expect, after previous correspondence with the Board, that a grant for concrete work would he made.

It was pointed out that the committee would 1)0 able to lift subsidies running to over .1:20, and this would be a considerable help. Messrs McDonald Winks outlined a scheme by which the cost of concreting could be greatly reduced. The first intention had lieen to lay concrete on the north-east side of the school wide enough to take in the whole of the carriage drive, and their suggestion was that a path from 4 feet to 6 feet only be laid. The Board members undertook to meet the full cost bf the extensions to the two sheds, and the committee was authorised to invite tenders locally for the work. The girls’ shelter shed is to he made double its present length, and a wood-shed eight feet long is to be added to the other shed. The commit©© was also authorised to have the sheds painted. The members nf the Board were thanked hv Mr Chadwick on behalf of the committee for the very reasonable way in which their requests had "been treated. -