THE SCHOOL DIFFICULTY IN HAWKES BAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9497, 16 October 1889, Page 5

THE SCHOOL DIFFICULTY IN HAWKES BAY.

[BY TKI.EORAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Napiek, Tuesday. At the meeting of the Education Board today, when the letter announcing the amount ot the building grant was read, nothing was said, except a remark by the chairman (Mr. Ormond) that it would only pay off half the overdraft, and the Board could do absolutely nothiug towards meeting the crying needs of the district, or even keeping existing schools in repair. A Htatemerit prepared by the secretary showed that the population of the school district had nearly doubled since 1882, and in the same period of yeven years the attendnnco afc the ychools hud more than doubled, having risen from 2907 to 5990. It is this phenomenal increase in attendance which has landed the Board in its present financial straits, notwithstanding that over £3000 saved on general account and originally intended to form the basis of a scheme of pensions for teachers, has been trannferred to building account. The difficulty has been further aggravated by the persistent under estimate of the population of Hawke s Bay, which has of course resnlted in the Board receiving less building grant than it was entitled to under the population basis, on which the grant was supposed to be distributed before the hwt census. This under estimate amounted to 25 per cent., and it is again quite as bad.