CORRESPONDENCE. THE NEW GIRLS' SCHOOL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 17 April 1907, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE NEW GIRLS' SCHOOL.

To the Editor. Sir,— lf one may judge from your üblished report of the proceedings at ho last meeting of the Town Schools lommittee, it would appear that beause a majority of the Board sancioned tenders being called for the erecion of a new girls' school on the Shel-lourne-street site (a course from which : dissented, and divided the Board), hat the Board will, at its next meetng, in the usual course of things, accept a tender, and the matter will then je apparently finally settled. The circuar from the Education Department dat;d 25th February, 1907, says distinctly that the Audit Department will not sanction any portion of the Board's Building Fund being expended on new buildings. Such being the position, how is this proposed new building to be paid for? Certainly not out of the Building Fund, and so far as the Board's General Fund is concerned, that was a considerable amount in debt at the last monthly meeting. It may be suggested that the Board might borrow the necessary funds. Fortunately, however, the Board has no borrowing powers under the Education Act, and consequently could not properly do so. But even if this point was waived by a majority of the Board (I should vote against "it) and some person, or persons lent the Board money without security, naturally no portion of the lent money, not even the interest, could be repaid out of the Board's Building Fund, which has now become a special trust fund and inalienable. As a member of the Board, I can think of no way out of the difficulty, except the Education Department assist with a special grant. Up to the present, I have not observed any notice board fixed up on the Toi Toi Valley school buildings warning "trespassers," and the suggestion of such an absurdity appears to my humble opinion and simple intelligence to be childish in the extreme. I am, etc., W. N. FRANKLYN.