EXTRA GRANT TO SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12603, 5 March 1903, Page 7

EXTRA GRANT TO SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

9 , Correspondence whioh has passed between Abo Under-Secretary for Eduoation, Wellington, and Mr Thomas'Maekenzie, M.H.R., on the subject of an extra grant to school committees has been placed at our disposal. On the 19th ult. Mr Mackenzie wired to Mr Hogben, Under-Secretary for Education, "Wellington, him to telegraph the exact amount due to . the Otago Education Board under the increased grant authorised by Parliament. The Under-Secretary for Education replied : "The proposal to provide additional capitation i_. still under consideration.— Wellington." ; • ' To that Mr Mackenzie has replied • Allan Grange, Kaikorai Valley, , February 25, 1903. >5. Hogben, Esq., Under-seoretary fox Education, Wellington. • . Dear Sit,—l am m receipt of your telegram replying to mine of the 19th inst. regarding the grant due to the Otago Education Board ior additional assistance to school committees, which was authorised' by Parliament on October 1, 1902. You- say the matter is still under consideratiop, I must at once confess my inability.to understand the delay in this matter. The financial year closes in about a month's .time, when, the yote ; will lapse, so that there is now. no time to be lost* It Is now some 12-months since, on my motion, the Otago Education Board carried a resolution urging on the Government, the necessity of giving effect to subsection 6, scotion 6; of the Public School ■Teachers' Salaries Act, which empowered the Governor,-by ,Order-iii-Council, to increase tho allowance to boards from 11. 3d to 12s for each child in daily average attendance. After Parliament met, deputations frequently waited on' Ministers' and pointed ; out to them the present insufficiency of amount granted to school committees, and strongly recommended that the extra 9d increase be granted for the purpose of enabling boards to extend more generous assistance to, school committees. Although- unsuccessful in securing this increase on- the main Estimates, sufficient pressure was brought to bear on Ministers to obtain the amount on tho Supplementary Estimates for the six months ending March 31, 1903. The House had already authorised on the main Estimates £2SO for every Education Board in Hew Zealand; but as the act provided that if an increase of 9d were given, boards having more than an average attendance of 8000 children would not obtain the additional £250; and as there are five such in New Zealand, your department was therefore placed in ample funds for all its requirements in the way of grants to Education Boards. The Otago Education Board met on the evening of th 19th inst. to consider a motion of mine dealing with the whole finances of the board. At that meeting I alluded to the increased grant authorised by Parliament, when I was astonished to learn from our secretary that they had never heard a word about the matter from your office. On 3rd October, when the Appropriation Bil 1 waa going through Parliament, in order that there, could be no chance of thia increased vote being allowed to remain unexpended, I,again brought the Urgency of-the question under the notice of the Acting-Premier—Mi W, Eraser, of Wakatipu, did the same, —when the ActingPremier assured us that- the monev would be upended within a period provided by.Jawnamely, tht 31st-March, 1903. ■We are now within a month of that date, end not , only has no information yet been supplied' to Education Boards about the matter, but the department if professing to bo still considering a mattei which the law of the land, without the possibility of a doubt clearly and specifically defines. Surely after all the effort that has been put forth to secure the muoh-needed help t school committees, and after Parliament has granted the money, the will of ths'Legislature of this colony is not going tt, be longer delayed. I may say that at the next meeting of our ncwd a motion of which I have given notice will be dealt with, which provides for the equitable distribution of that money. I therefore earnestly trust that your department will have advised our board prior to the 18tK March that the money has been placed to their credit, as provided by Parliament.—l am, etc., Thomab Mackenzie/