EDUCATIONAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIV, Issue XLIV, 21 May 1924, Page 7

EDUCATIONAL.

FUNDS FOR SCHOOL COMMITTEES

LOCAL. RATING PROPOSED

(BY TELEGA * r*T -p««■*<: ime j/-~ , T , O xWELLINGTON, May 21. The conference of th© New Zealand Educational Institute discussed this morning the question of local rating for additional incidental school expenses A long report on the subject was presented on behalf of the Auckland i^ 110! °J the NZEA- The- report stated that the growing interest in schools which the public was now showing, particularly in the matter of environment, had led many districts to raise money locally for the purpose of enlarging and improving playgrounds, lliis had been of great benefit to the schools concerned, yet the principle was wrong, being directly opposed "to the contention of the Education Act, which proposed making public schools absolutely free so far as upkeep was concerned. The report therefore contended that the funds required for these improvements should be raised by means other than those at present employed. The purpose of local rating was to furnish an alternative to local begging, and to free schools from the responsibility of raising funds and to place the entire expense of education where it belonged, namely, over the whole of the people;, and so relieve those on whom the burden now fell. Ihe machinery suggested was that at present existing, viz., city, borough, or county councils, for the collection of iunds required. At the annual meeting or at a special general meeting called for the purpose the school committee would estimate the amount required for additional incidental expenses, and having obtained the sanction of householders, would notify the local rating authority. The report was adopted, after some discussion, by 41 to 26. f A point was made in the report that the raising of funds would be optional with the districts.