EDUCATION RESERVES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16358, 30 September 1913, Page 5

EDUCATION RESERVES.

THE CRY FOR THE FREEHOLD. [Fiton Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, September 29. A statement is currant here that an organised effort is be|ing made by a number of South Island tenants of education reserves to secure from the present freehold Government the fee simple of their holdings. Formerly these reserves were administered by school commissioners, but those officers ceased to exeroise their functions in 1911, and the lands are now administered by the various Land Boards, the revenue being paid into the Consolidated Fund for the benefit of education. It is estimated that tho unimproved value of these reserves, 842,000 acres in extent, amounts to £1,378,000.' They are distributed throughout every province, but the mosfc valuable are I situated in Southland. The annual receipts reach £G5,000. A local aspect of the education reserves administration was raised by Mr G. W. Russell during the consideration cf the education estimates, when he pointed out that Canterbury provided nearly one-third of the total revenue for primary education endowment in Now Zealand, yet it got notliing like that proportion ot benefit. He contended that the actual receipts from Canterbury should be set aside so ihat special branches of the education system, such as science and technology, should be developed. There were so many points raised for the Minister's attention that, the reply to Mr Russell's argument was overlooked by the Hon James- Allen.