EXTRA GRANT TO SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 12

EXTRA GRANT TO SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Correspondence which has passed between the Under-Secretary for Education, Wellington, and Mr Thomas Mackenzie, M.H.R., on tho subject of an extra grant to school committees has been placed at our disposal.

On the 19th ult. Mr Mackenzie wired to Mr Hogbeu, Under-Secretary for Education, Wellington, asking 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 is still under consideration. — Wellington.'" To that Mr Mackenzie has replied: — Allan Grange, Kaikorai Valley, February 25, 1003. G. Hogben, Esq., Undersecretary for Education, Wellington. Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of your telegram replying to mine of the 19th inst. regarding _ the grant due to the Otago Education Board for additional assistance to school committees, ; which was authorised by Parliament on October 1, 1902. You say the matter is still under consideration. I must at once confess" my inability to understand the delay in" this-" matter. The financial year clones in about a month's time, when the vote will lapse, so that there is now no time to be lost. It -is now some 12 months since, on my motion, tho Otago Board carried a resolution urging on the Government the necessity of giving effect to subsection 6, section 5, of the Public School Teachers' Salaries Act, which empowered the Governor, by Order-in-Council, to increase the allowance to boards from 11s 3d to 10s -for each child in daily average attendance. After Parliament met, deputations frequently waited on Ministers and i } °mt«d out to them tho present insufficiency of amount granted toschool committees, and strongly recommended i that the extra 9d increase be granted fox the purpose of enabling boards to extend more generous assistance to school committees. Although unsuccessful in sec.uring this increase on the main Estimate."", sufficient pressure was brought to bear on Ministers to obtain the amount on the Supplementary Estimates for the six months ending March 31, 1903. The House had already authorised on the main. Estimates £'250 for every Education Board in New Zealand; but as the act provided that if an increase of 9d were gi\'en, boards having more than an average attendance of 8000 children would not obtain the addit'ona-l £250; and as there are five such in New Zpaland, 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 the 19th inst. to consider ? 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* was going through Parliament, in order that there could be no chance of this increased vote being allowed to remain unexpended, I again brought the urgency of the question under th& notice of the Acting-Premier— Mr W. Fraser, of Wakatipu, did the same,— when the ActingPremier assured us that the money would bo expended within a period provided by law — namely, the 31st March, 1903. AYe are now within a month of that date, and not only has no information yet been supplied to Education Boards about tho matter, but the department is professing to be still considering a matter 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 much-needed help to school committees, and after Parliament has granted the money, the will of the Legislature of this colony is not going to be longer delayed. I may say that at the next meeting of our board 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 wilt have advised our board prior to the 18th March that the money has been placed to their credit, as provided by Parliament.— I am, etc., Thomas Mackenzie.

The Woodside correspondent of the Taieri Advocate reports a casa of scarlet fever ia that 'district.

A libel action by a Presbyterian clergy^ man. involving a claim for £3000 damages* is coining on this week in New Plymouth.

Mr A. H. MASSEY, Shieldsville, Minn.*" writes :

"Our only daughter had A SEVERE! COUGII, which continued te grow worse for over a year. We thought she was going into consumption. Jayne's Expectorant BROUGHT! RES, BACK TO TfttAMffir"