EDUCATION IN THE BACK BLOCKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13287, 20 September 1906, Page 6

EDUCATION IN THE BACK BLOCKS.

_ ': ♦ :——_ The recent resolution of the Auckland Land Board, .'expressing- the opinion that a travelling teacher should be appointed for outlying districts, ,as the absence of educational facilities was severely felt by settlers in out-of-the-way localities, was before .the Education Board ,' yesterday, . and . the Land Board also wrote, offering to supply schedules of houses where t!fis want was felt. : Mr. A. R. Harris said the principal trouble experienced by tho Land Board was the continual applications for exemption from residence conditions, owing to absence of educational facilities. These settlors were very much handicapped in this respect. Those who could afford it lived off the land, and applied for exemptions, but those who could not afford to live off the land had to let their children go without education. He believed that the Taranaki Board had found the travelling teacher system a great success. The chairman (Mr. L. ,T. Bagnall) said the Board had travelling teachers now; £pr instance, at the Great Barrier there was an itinerary teacher, who attended to three different, localities. • The Education Board did not know of any cases such as those referred to by the Lands. Board, for no application had been made so far that had not been complied with in some way. Mr. Harris said between Kawhia and Awakino there was a place where settlers were 20 miles from a school

or store, "and he knew of families where the children : were growing up, one girl was ~ 15 years, without ever seeing the inside of a V school. It was resolved by tho Board to request the Land Board to forward the schedules referred to. '