IMPROVEMENTS TO GROUNDS

Southland Times, Issue 23443, 25 February 1938, Page 5

IMPROVEMENTS TO GROUNDS

TECHNICAL COLLEGE’S REQUIREMENTS ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE OF £B7O A decision to offer £250 towards the cost of improvements to the grounds at the Southland Technical College was made at a meeting of the College Board of Managers last night. The Director of Education (Mr N. T. Lambourne) wrote stating that the Public Works Department had advised that an expenditure of approximately £B7O would be required to carry out a programme of improvements to the school grounds. Of this amount about £5OO was for the formation of concrete tennis courts. The construction of concrete courts instead of asphalt was recommended, as better work wpuld be obtained and the maintenance would be reduced to a minimum. The whole cost of this work was strictly a charge against the board’s grant for incidentals but, so that the matter might be fully considered, he asked that the board advise him of the amount it was prepared to contribute towards the cost. Mr Weir moved that the board offer £250. The motion was seconded by Mr W. Grieve and carried.

STAFFING AND ACCOMMODATION "The continued growth of the school | in recent years has hardly been balanced by staff increases,” said the principal (Mr C. A. Stewart) in his report, “and we are now obliged to make three additional full-time appointments, one for engineering course, one for commercial, and a third to take general subjects and art work. It has become specially desirable to strengthen our art staff, partly to cope with the increasing number of day school classes (drawing being a compulsory subject in all junior classes) and partly for the sake of building up a genuine art course in both day school and evening classes. The need for more suitable and much more adequate class room accommodation has been brought urgently to the notice of the department. We shall have great difficulty in accommodating the additional teachers that are needed. The congestion in and about our main office during recent weeks with enrolling of pupils, selling of supplies and general work emphasizes more than ever the crying need for larger and more suitably-designed quarters. It is to be hoped that the Minister will be able to meet our requirements in these respects. TRANSPORT CHARGES “I believe that we have this year some 8(7 pupils travelling to school by bus, most of them of necessity because there is no rail service within reach, a few because of the saving of time by road travel. Last year most of our bus travellers drew the department s bus allowance of 8d a day; in other words they satisfied the department that they were not reasonably able to travel to Invercargill by train or to receive the desired course of study at a school nearer their home. In most cases the department’s allowance represented a substantial part of the fare charged. This year drastic increases in fare, especially on certain j routes, have increased the difficulties of parents. On one route the daily charge has been raised from 1/- to 2/6; that is, the parents’ share of the charge has been increased from 4d to 1/10. It may be no simple matter to reconcile the reasonable demands of the bus proprietors with the reasonable needs of the community they serve. I ' am now engaged, with the secretary of the High Schools’ Board, in collecting full information on the matter so that ; the Education Department may consider the possibility of giving further help in some way. Meantime a num- ; ber of pupils who have been enrolled , here have not yet attended, and sev- , eral who were in attendance last year and drawing conveyance allowance . have been obliged to transfer to nearer ' District High Schools. It may well be 1 that in these cases the reduced traveling more than balances any benefit , that was being gained from our more I specialized instruction.” , CADET CAMP t ’ Last week most of the boys of the ] school, more than 300, were in camp , at the show grounds under their cadet ( officers. A very few boys were for j various reasons exempt from drill. Ap- ] proximately 60 were with main j body during the day, lunched in camp, < but slept at home. Except on the open- 1 ing day the weather was good, and the boys enjoyed the experience of being , under canvas. The spirit throughout ] was very good, and the response to ] training was excellent. The number of < parents present on visitors’ day showed < that keen interest was taken. 1

'“I understand,” he added, “that ours is the only post-primary school in the South Island to hold a camp this year, and the school most strongly represented at the recent course of instruction at Burnham for cadet officers.”

The evening school session opened this week and so far the enrolment was very satisfactory, there being about 430 individual students, an advance of about 35 per cent, from the corresponding date last year. It was probable that that was an indication not so much of a greatly increased enrolment as of greater promptitude in attending. A noticeable feature was the keenness of junior and advanced students in the trades courses, and it seemed likely that there would soon be difficulty in coping with the demands in some directions.

The meeting was attended by Mr J. H. Reed (chairman), Miss C. McLeod, Messrs A. J. Ball, W. Carswell, W. Grieve, J. Weir, S. Anderson and A. W. Jones.