THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1934. CONSOLIDATION AND DISCORD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22295, 22 June 1934, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1934. CONSOLIDATION AND DISCORD

The progress of education in rural districts is liable at times to be a little hampered by exhibitions of local feelingj What is known, as the consolidated school has obvious recommendations. It means the absorption of a number of small country schools in one central institution, which, having the requisite staff, is able to carry on the business of education on lines of much increased efficiency. But while the advantages of the consolidated school are generally recognised in country districts, the question of its establishment is likely to be fraught with difficulties arising out of differences of opinion as to its most desirable location. A now almost historic illustration in point is provided by the long-standing dissension among householders in the school districts of the Upper Manuherikia Valley, whose wrangling on the question of the most suitable site has held up for over four years a project for the establishment of a central school in that region. ! Within the period over which the controversy has extended the Otago Education Board, which has shown reasonable patience in receiving deputations, petitions, and counter-petitions bearing on the matter, has more than once solemnly arrived at the decision that the consolidated school should be established at Omakau. Investigations made by its own officials apparently convinced the Education Department also that Omakau was the most suitable site. But-this only served to provoke a stronger assertion from within the district of the claims of other localities. It is not the policy of the Board or of the Department to establish central schools against the wishes of the people of the districts concerned. In March last the Education Board came to a decision, certainly not hastily, that Omakau should be the site for a central school for the Upper Manuherikia Valley, and instructed its architect to prepare plans for a district high school for submission to the Department. At •its meeting in the following month it received a deputation of protest which evidently shook somewhat its assurance, and it resolved to refer the whole matter to the Minister of Education, who, in the interim, had visited the district. The Minister's reply was that, in view of the inability of the people of the district to agree either on the question of school consolidation, or on that of a site, he must decline to take any further action" in the matter. At its meeting this week the Education Board received another deputation which presented a petition signed by 217 residents of the Manuherikia Valley requesting it to proceed immediately with the erection of a central school at a site to be determined by the Board. As a result the Board reaffirmed its previous decision, and will endeavour to persuade the Minister to sanction the erection of a school at Omakau as soon as possible. In view of all that has happened it would be rash to suggest "that finality is even now in sight. The fact was elicited at the Board's meeting this week that some of the signatories to the petition that was presented to it had previously signed a counter-petition. The inference may possibly be drawn that the people of the district do not know and will never agree as to what they precisely want. They may be pretty well unanimous in desiring the establishment of a school that will provide improved educational facilities, but they are evidently not all willing to concede that this should involve the closing of this or that school in a particular locality. The majority of the parents in the district concerned are said to regard . Omakau as the most suitable location for a central schools The .question of the site remains, however, a cause of difficulty. It has been suggested by one of their number that the residents of the Upper Manuherikia Valley would all be agreeable " to put education before site." In their own interests

it might be well that they should provide more convincing evidence of this. It is for them to consider the educational advantages of which their disagree'ment is depriving their district. The question whether the requirements of a scattered district will be adequately met by the Board's proposal will never be settled by mere discussion. Unless that is recognised by those most concerned the Minister is likely to wait a long time for an assurance of unanimity among them.