WELLINGTON GIRLS COLLEGE

Free Lance, Volume X, Issue 476, 14 August 1909, Page 6

WELLINGTON GIRLS COLLEGE

No Room for Free= Place Pupils. THE Governors of Wellington. Girls' College and the State are still a,t loggerheads on the subject ot the admission of freeplace pupils from the primary schools. It has been a sore point for years, and neither party to the dispute has shown any disposition to give way. The State, by its legislation, decrees that girls winning pro^ ficiency certificates at the primary schools shall be entitled to free places in the endowed secondary schools. In Wellington the Governors of the Girls' College, which is an endowed institution, will only admit a few of these free-place pupils, on the score that the room is limited and that it is the duty of the State to first enlarge the building. Moreover, to cope with a large influx of pupil 3 the staff would have to> be increased proportionately. • • • There is reason on both sides. It is a very old-standing complaint with the Governors that the Wellington Girls' College is far too small for its functions, and that it is the duty of the Government to make a grant of public money for its enlargement and bettei equipment On the other hand the State maintains that in return for its public endowments this institution must open its uoosrs more widely to scholarship or freeplace pupils from the primary schools. If it were not endowed then well-to-do parents would havo to pay higher fees for their children's education * * * This sounds very plausible until you ascertain (1) that the State endowment yields the magnificent income of £328 per annum, and (2) that paying pupils aie charged at the rate of £11 17s 9d per annum — which is certainly not too low a rate> — while the Government pays £10 3s 3d a head for the free-place pupils, of whom there are at present 23 attending the Girls' College. It is manifest therefore that the fees of the paying pupils form the mam sinews for running the Girls' College. To reduce this revenue by crowding out paying pupils m order to admit more nonpaying ones would be to place it m financial difficulties • • • On Tuesday last a deputation consisting of twenty chairmen of school committees in and about Wellington waited on the Minister of Education to urge the necessity for action It was pointed out that during the three years and eight months the grievance had existed 2367 children had won proficiency certificates, but had found the doors of the Girls' College closed against them. The Minister, m reply, threw the whole blame on the Board of Governors He also made the definite statement that if lack of accommodation is the trouble, he is quite willing to provide the money if it was shown that accommodation was needed. But the Governors must first make their election ; to take the holders of proficiency : certificates.

On this basis the two bodies ought to bo able to comt, to an agreement There must be a spirit of give- and take on both sides. The Governors cannot expect w successfully defy the State and flout public opinion if fairness is not on their side. They are merely the trustees of the. pub! at large, and not the representatives of a privileged clique or coterie. At the same time, the State must i < pair its long neglect of this Girls' College, and provide it with a building ample enough for thp enlarged duties which it is asked to fulfil . It seems to us. that at present the qualification foi proficiency certificates is too easy, with the result that large numbeis of primary school children are being drafted out for a secondary course before they are ripe for it. If this state of things is to continue, then the sooner the State start® to build a District High School for free-place pupils the better it will be for all concerned. At any rate, m the face of the fees now charged, it is idle to contend that the paying pupils of the Girls' College are getting any indulgence at the public expense