The Star.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume VIII, Issue 1433, 23 September 1886, Page 2

The Star.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1886.

THE SCHOOL BUILDING QUESTION.

• A telegram received the other day reported that the North Canterbury Education Board had protested against the action of the Minister for Educttion in disallowing a certain class of expenditure on school buildings out building fund. The circular of the Minister of Education is to this effect : that boards must not use money granted to them by way of building Bubsidy on repairs or painting. The building grant it, we may explain for the benefit of those who do not follow these matters very closely, a sum of money granted to the boards for the purpose of building schools, and has hitherto been applicable to those purposes, to which, the Minister says, it shall not be applicable in future. It is money provided out of loan, and its borrowing has generally been authorised by a lir.e in the schedule to the loan bills allocating so much to school buildings or public buildings. Now, there can be no doubt that this is a very large question, and must be faced and settled before long. It go«s without saying, we think, that to borrow money for the erection of wooden buildings is bad policy, and the remark applies with much greater force to borrowing money for painting buildings. Confining our remarks purely to school buildings, we apprehend that the justification for such a policy was the necessity •£ the moment. When the State took over the work of education in 1877, there was an urgent need for school buildings being erected at once. It is a matter of history that, under the system which prevailed previously, some districts were lamentably deficient in buildings, and it was absolutely necessary that buildings should be at once erected. There was n ) possibility of the consolidated revenue bearing the charge. There was nothing for it but to put expenditure upon loan, but unquestionably it was the duty of Parliament to devise means for transferring as soon as possible this expenditure from loan to consolidated revenue. But the difficulty was that the needs were so great in order to overcome past deficiencies, not to speak of the large demands made for new buildings owing to the extension of settlement in various parts of the colony, that no Government dared face the question. A transfer from loan to consolidated revenue would have meant increased taxation at once. Last session, finding themselves in a corner owing to the Colonial Treasurer having omitted when making his Financial Statement to take account of liabilities to something like the amount of £800,000, the Government made a proposal on this question of school buildings. They had, in the first place, put into the Municipal Corporations Bill and the Counties Bill a clause setting out that the Council " may " spend money on school buildings. Anyone who knows anything on the subject of county and municipal government will be aware that it is in the last degree improbable that any council would find itself so flush of funds that it would be able, even if it were willing, to spend money on school buildings, and the proposal was regarded somewhat as a joke. But when the Colonial Treasurer exp!ained that no joke was intended, and that, as he epigrammatically put it, the option of this year might be the mandate of next, year, the House regarded the proposal as an insidious attempt to throw school building on to local aties, and the clauses were thrown out. Then, in order to get rid of difficulties in the finance, it was proposed to throw expenditure on school buildings on to the Education Boards to the extent, if we remember aright, of £60,000 for next year. The boards were to borrow the money from the Government just as local bodies are to borrow for roads, and the boards were to pay interest on this money out of the capitation grant. This, too, was rejected. Now, the Minister, unable to get the House to sanction the transfer of liability to the local bodies, transfers it himself by regulation. We shall not say that is " sly, deevilish Bly, Bir," but we shall say that the Minister is defeating the intention of Parliament. Let us not be misunderstood. We believe that the object and intention of the Minister of Education is right and proper, and we think that the House must soon make different provision for meeting this expenditure than that which at present exists ; but, as was pointed out during the discussion on this subject in the House last session, there must be a fair start. It has unfortunately been the case that the building grant has been distributed upon a very unfair basis hitherto. It has been distributed, with very slight deviation, on the basis of population, and under this system all the old inequalities have been pretty well maintained. In some districts there are handsome buildings, and plenty of them, and the needs are small, and are likely to be comparatively small ; in others the buildings have been and are plain, of which we do not complain, but they are not sufficient for present wants, and as the districts are only being now settled wants must continue to increase. Taranaki and Wanganui districts are of the latter class, and to say that they are to be left just as they are and told to provide for their own grants, is to Bay that the national system of education is to break down as far as these districts are concerned. What is needed is that steps shall be taken to put all districts on a level footing as to buildings, etc., and then, as to the supply of future wants, to make

provision for local effort being aide^, the greatest help being given to those boards which from the nature of the district they have in charge must necessarily have the greatest needs. So far as the new regulation concerns this district, it means that there can be no repairs done. Neither Wanganui nor Taranaki have large town schools which they can conduct cheaply, and so save funds to spend on the small country schools which cannot be carried on for the sum per head granted by the Government, a»d therefore with them it is a perpetual struggle to make ends meet. They have no surplus of current revenue, and if they are to spend capitation money upon repairs and painting, it means that they must refuse to open much-needed new country schools, or mayhap to close some that are now open. We hope to hear that this regulation has been withdrawn, and tbat the Minister will devise some well considered scheme for carrying out what we quite recognise to be a very proper and laudable int ntion.