SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

Northern Advocate, 30 January 1922, Page 4

SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

It is reported in the Public Works Statement that the expenditure out of loan moneys on education buildings during 1920-21 was "easily a record." Tha Public Works Fund provided £244.721 and the Education Purposes Loan £214, 071, making a total of £459,292. Of this tntal £270,(550 went in new primary school buildings. The Public Works Estimates'for the current year provide for an expenditure of £735,000 from the Education Loans Account, but we take it that this does not mean that all this Ruin will be available for new building enterprises. As the financial year will end two months hence we may assume that the bulk of this money represents engagements already entered into, and that there will be no immediate loosening of the purse-strings. The Minister of Public Works may take credit for the large 1920-21 expenditure, but the difficulty that the Government has hnd to meet is that the schools have bee-i starved for as far back as any of us can remember. Both primary and secondary schools all over the Dominion rue sadly handicapped by lack of adequate buildings, and the', health of children is prejudiced by serious overcrowding and out-of-datoiiess of buildings. The Minister of Public Work 1 - frankly admits that though much ha? been done to meet the pressing need for more and more school accommodation, owing to the high cost of building and the magnitude of the projects to which the Government is already crmmitfed, the provision made this year falls far short of the essential requ'.remrnts. The Minister mentions the fact that in some districts the residents have

come to the Government's assistance by taking up debentures in order to finance the construction of schools. A scheme of this kind was mooted in Whangarei some months ago, but we have heard nothing of it for some time past. To-morrow the primary schools will begin the new year's work, an i the Whangarei school, with the prospect of an increasing attendance, will be worse off than ever. It is a pity there fias been so long a delay in working out a scheme for new accommodation, for the proposals that have been discussed have presented no great difficulties. Whangarei will have to make a serious effort to induce the Government to make reasonable provision for the schooling of its children.