SCHOOL BUILDINGS

Southland Times, Issue 19898, 17 June 1926, Page 8

SCHOOL BUILDINGS

EXPENDITURE. “MONEY WASTED IN TOWNS.” (Special to the Times.) Auckland, June 16. “Money has been wasted on large, expensive schools in towns,” said Mr E. C. Banks, of Matamata, a member and former chairman of the Auckland Education Board, in referring to the expenditure on school buildings in New Zealand. He stated that £450,000 was spent for the purpose last year and the bulk of it went into the cities. The towns themselves should have found about half the money. This would have left another £200,000 to be spent in the country. In some cases High Schools in towns were erected at a cost of about £5O a pupil. The Takapuna Grammar School seemed likely to be another expensive building. The Executive Committee of the board, Mr Banks stated, had recently decided to recommend the Education Department to limit grants to £1 6/6 a square foot of floor space in the case of brick schools and 17/6 in the case of wooden buildings. A reply was received by the Auckland Education Board to its request to the Education Department to have placed on the Estimates this year a sufficient sum to overtake arrears in the erection of teachers’ residences at schools in the province. The Department stated that while it was in accord with the board in its view that teachers’ residences were desirable at all country schools, especially those of grade 3A and upwards, it was manifestly impossible to provide funds this year. The most the Department could do would be to approve, say, eight residences in the Auckland district during the year 1926-1927. It therefore asked the board to submit additional applications in those cases which were considered most urgent. It was decided to make application for five more residences bringing the urgent list up to eight, and also to renew application for a sufficient sum to meet all the needs of the province.