THE GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13984, 17 August 1907, Page 8

THE GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL.

We venture to believe that the account wo publish this morning of the condition of decrepitude and decay into whioh the Dimedin Girls' High School building has fallen will be read with amazement by those who have hitherto been unacquainted with the difficulties under which a valuable educational work has been carried on in the institution in question. Finely situated, this building has an exterior of perhaps passable appearance, but a closer examination, especially of the interior, reveals the fact that one of the most important secondary schools in the province, a school with an excellent reputation to maintain, is housed in what is. little better than a dilapidated ruin, and its pupils and teachers accommodated in a manner that would cause any 'selfrespecting primary school committee to clamour for justice. But the contrast is painful between the Girls' High School building and our commodious and wellkept primary schools, not to mention the Otago Boys' High School building, a source of natural pride to the community. Erected many years ago, tho Girls' High riehool building has evidently not only, through pure age, fallen into a state which no patching or repairing can hope'to permanently improve, but it is hopelessly out of date, a relic of the past educational history of the city which the Board of Governors has grown weary of attempting to' make meet present-day educational requirements. A central structure not far. from half a century old, with wings and annexes tacked on to it at more or less remote periods to meet various exigencies, the whole building has now- for some years been literally a by-word by virtue of its inadequacy and Unsuitability for the purposes to which it is devoted. Money has been spent in the endeavour to, improve it, but the building has been palpably not worth such expenditure. Wo have heard many complaints from time to time of the condition of the school, and these are fully emphasised ill the picture in which our representative has embodied the impressions gathered on a recent visit of inspection thereto. His. description of tunnel-lika passages and inconvenient, damp, sunless class-rooms where the plaster clings undecidedly to the ceiling, reads as much like an account of a inediieval prison ns of a modern educational institution for young ladies. But that these impressions are justified there is nmpl« evidence, and indeed nothing strongei in this direction is needed than th< District Health Officer's condemnation of the building as insanitary and imsafc. Having had these facts now placed prominently before them, the citizens of Dunedin can judge for thcinselvei whether or not the Girls' High Schod building is anything short of a. disgraa to the community. We need not en large on the handicap imposed on ( school ho situated in the struggle foe tho highest efficiency- The Hi<rh Schoolt Hoard of Governors Ims long been fully cognisant of the deficiencies of tho building in question, and, while it has done its best to improve it, has quite recognised the urgent necessity that exists for the erection of a new and suitable structure. But the Board of Governors, as has been made clear, is in no financial position to move m tln>. direction, and it is to the Government, that the community must look for the removal of this blot upon our secondary educational system. Pressure exerted in this connection will have an excellent! case to rest upon, for the importantfact inust be boroe in mind that of late

, - years a school such as the Dunklin Girls' High School has almost entirely lost what was formerly one of its distinctive features—namely, tTint of being an institution for paying pupils, tho number of siich pupils now being quite insignificant. Tho High Schools have, in fast, become to all intents and purposes simply free continuation schools for tho move intelligent of the pupils of tho primary schools, and the Government cannot ignore its responsibility where provision for the proper accommodation of such pupils is concerned. Strenuous effort in the direction of securing a new Girls' High School building for Dunedin cannot he longer delayed. The Minister of Education, who h also the Minister of Health for - the colony, must be well aware of the unfortunate conditions under which Miss Marehant and the staff of tho Dunedin, Girls' High School have to carry out their duties; as on Mr Fotrlds's most recent visit to this city ho inspected the school building, the state of which was brought fully under his notice, and we doubt not it made a strong impression oil his mind.