SITE FOR FINE ARTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20744, 11 December 1930, Page 14

SITE FOR FINE ARTS.

Opposing points of view have been taken in connection with the proposal to devote the site of the old Grammar School in Symonds Street to the projected School of Fine Arts, hnt a way of agreement can and should be found. The Grammar School Board, holding that the site is one of the endowments on which it must depend for means to provide secondary education, has agreed to hand it over in exchange for the vesting in the board of property of an equivalent value and otherwise satisfactory. In taking up this attitude, the board is commendably concerned lest its surrender of the site should jeopardise its prospect of providing adequate accommodation for pupils. With the growth of the city and district, as the board rightly anticipates, there will be a recurring necessity for additional accommodation, and its reluctance to give up this site, until it has definite assurance that another or others of equal utility and value will be vested in it, can well be understood. On the other hand, the Minister of Education, who is sympathetic with the proposal to place the School of Fine Arts on this site, is not disposed to handle the question in this way. All the sites necessary will be provided, from time to time, by the Government, according to ruling practice, he says; and the needs of Auckland will be met as they arise. He has given an assurance that the finances of the board will not be affected. Both parties to this discussion are looking to the future, including the immediate future, the board demanding an assurance in the form of definite sites now to be vested, and the Minister preferring to give no more than the general undertaking governed by present practice. For his attitude there is the support of principle and precedent, whereas the anxiety of the board, commendable as it is, is based on contingencies only. Of one contingency the chairman of the board is admittedly aware ; it is that Parliament may deprive the board of the site. That is so, especially as the University College Council and the City Council, sharing an interest in the projected School of Fine Arts, are asking for the devotion of the site to this purpose. In view of this, the board should reconsider its position. By accepting the Minister's assurance, it will strengthen its claim for consideration as need arises for new sites for schools under its governance. Having quite rightly expressed its concern for the future of secondary education in the district, and been given as full an assurance as can be reasonably asked that the need for sites will be duly met, it can facilitate agreement on a project of great value, without really surrendering anything vital to the discharge of its trust.