The Hawera Star. THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1926. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 25 March 1926, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1926. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Man gatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Htfrlev ville, Paten, tVaverley, tlokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararata.

It seems that the final ac-t of Sir James Parr’s term as 'Minister of Education is to be the establishment of a junior high school at Blenheim, presumably in conjunction with Marlborough College, the provincial high •school. So Marlborough is to enjoy the benefit which South Taranaki declined; for the tone of"an address by the Director of Education (Mr J. Caughley), delivered in Hawera towards the close of last year, indicated'*that this district might have a junior high school practically for the asking. The representative, though small, meeting which he addressed was favourable; but since then the Hawera School Committee has raised obstacles, and, as unanimity is essential to departmental action, any hope of seeing a school of the new type established here must be put out of mind for the time being. We think it a pity, because, as Sir James Parr has emphasised, the children’s interests should come before the Government, the Minister, boards, committees or teachers; and the consensus of opinion throughout the world is that the intermediary school system is. a marked advance on the present. Marlborough is .the latest district to share in the fruits of this advance; South Taranaki is one of the few r communities, if not the only one, to say that new methods in education are no good to it. In the meantime, until the junior high school system be approved for general adoption, only one institution will be established in an area the size of Taranaki. Stratford and New Plymouth should be deeply grateful to Hawera for having stepped aside in their favour.