EDUCATION BOARD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 60, 25 October 1911, Page 5

EDUCATION BOARD.

MONTHLY MEETING. Yhe .ordinary monthly meeting of the Taranaki ‘ Education Board was held last night. Present: Messrs. H. Trimble (chairman), G. A. Adi am. J. Young, i G. W. Rogers, W. L. Kennedy, A. H. Halcornbe, A. 'Morton, Rev. J. McArthur. . Whangamomona. The Chairman reported that Miss Price had been temporarily appointed, assistant’ at Whangamomona. . Rebuilding Stratford School. Messrs. Sanderson and Griffiths, architects, ’ reported 'on the rebuilding ’of the Stratford school. The above work has been visited, and, considering the weather, fair progress has been made. All the boxing for'the concrete work is in position, the trenches are all excavated, and a considerable portion of concrete has been placed in position. A large portion of the timber is on the ground and stacked, and a 1 large' quantity 1 of bricks and shingles is delivered. The contractor expects to have all the concrete work completed in a day or two, and the brickwork commenced this week,- when an extra gang of men will be put on, and the work pushed oh. ! Members considered that the pro- ' gress to date was too slow, and Mr. Sanderson said that more speed would be shown now. The question of the appointment of a clerk of works was discussed, but no action whs taken. * Truancy. Mr. , Archie Hooker, truant Tispectbr, reported that for the quarter ending 30th September he had issued '4O final notices for non-attendance of children at school. He had also prosecuted 29 parents, in which he got 26 convictions. One case was withdrawn on account of bad roads, cue op account of sickness, and one for fgilure to report the child as sick until after the summons was issued. FitioS amounting to £2 18s were in- . dieted. Mr. Hooker drew attention to- the■ fact that within the last year or so .fines amounting to about £5 15s had been inflicted on parents in the Stratford S.M. Court. The Board was entitled to. this mopey, but none had so far. be® ll paid oyer to the Board. He had 22 summonses oil 1 issue for Stratford. 'the' matter of obtaining monies from the Stratford S.M. Court was referred to the chairman. y Technical Classes. Mr. F. J. Heatloy, technical organiser, reported:— i. At- New Plymouth the second term had, closed, the number enrolled in the various classes, showing an improvement on the first term. Commercial arithmetic 14, book-keeping 12; ’ shorthand 15, English (junior 16, senior- 4, commercial 5); Latin 8, mathematics 5, electricity 4, education 5, dressmaking . (afternoon 8, j evening 10), cookery .4, carpentry 10, pptiltry class. 22, arithmetic (mensur- , ation) : 12, English 12, dairy work 12, agriculture -12, farm woodwork 12, farm, metal work 12, mechanical drawing (junior) 6, building and machine construction 8, plane and solid Scpmetry 10, freehand and model 10, rawing'from nature 14, painting 7; total 259. Dressmaking and art are being supported for a third term. Inglewood.—No second term was held here, the number of students enrolled during the session being: Bookkeeping 11, dressmaking 16, woodwork 4, cookery 6; total 37. During the month Mr. F. E. Gordon delivered an interesting address on “Poultry Rearing,” with the idea of forming a class next session. Stratford.—The second term lias closed, with the exception of a dressmaking class at Tariki. Book-keeping 9, dressmaking (Stratford 11, Tariki 8), drawing 6. The total students enrolled during the year were 141. Schools.—The weather this month has been rather unfavourable for much outside work in the garden. During the month I have visited the following schools :—Okato, 801 l Block, Leperton, Tikorangi. Urerun, Central, Tariki, Stratford High School, Rowan, and Cardiff. Most of the grounds are neatly laid off, and the work for the season well in hand. The report was adopted. ■ director, Mr. Ballantyne, recommended that a bonus of £2 10s be paid to Miss E. Tiplady, trainee at the cookery classes, for assistance in connection with the Inglewood classes. New School Wanted. With reference to the application of the settlors at Mimi for the erection of a school, the inspector rc-

polled as follows: —That then? were 22 children of school ago residing in the district, a number of whom, owing to the distance, had never attended any school. Others had to travel as much as six miles in order to receive an education. The land was eminently suited for dairying, and, should some of the larger holdings bo cut up, the district was bound to steadily increase. About a mile away there was a dairy factory, and, in bis opinion, everything pointed to permanency of settlement in the district. He recommended that the request of the settlers be acceded to, and that application be made to the Department for a school. Mr. Ballantyne added that at the junction of the Pukearuhe and Mokau roads thero was a piece of native land which, if acquired, would make a fine building site. If the school were placed there it would suit all parties. —Referred to Mr. Halcombe for enquiry and report. Regarding the application for a school at Radnor Road, referred to him to enquire into, tiie Chief Inspector reported that he had gone carefully into the question and found that the majority of the children concerned were within reasonable distance of the Midhirst School, and nad a good metalled road to traverse. The settlers living at the upper end of the road were certainly deserving of some consideration, as they lived a. considerable, distance from the nearest school. He thought, however, that the case could ho met if arrangements were made with some settler to convey the children to the Midhirst School. Should this he found to be impracticable, ho would suggest that the Department he approached and it should lie pointed out that the cost of the erection of a now school would, be saved if a sum of, say £IOO, were expended in making a good track along the Derby Road to enable the children on the Radnor Road to attend the Denbigh School. If this toad were made no child would have to travel a greater distance than three miles to the Denbigh School. . The report was received, and the chairman was requested to try and make arrangements for .the carriage of the children to the Midhirst school, and, failing this, to apply to the Department to use its host endeavours to have a track opened along the Derby Road. Whangamomona.

Mr. Kennedy reported, as the result of his inspection, that the shelter shed at the Whangamomona school had been erected satisfactorily. Ho recommended that the present lessees of school sites be offered renewals of their leases. He added that it was absolutely necessary that immediate provision be made for accommodation of the large number (about 71) of children now attending the \Vhangamomona School, and recommended that the Board urge the Department to make a suitable grant forthwith. The report was adopted, the chairman remarking that it had been suggested that an addition to the school building, should be erected/in such a ‘‘ashion as to enable it to be dismantled and re-erected in sections, : f necessary, at some other school whoso attendance may be swelled as the railway workers moved further inland. The Chief Inspector reported, re additions to the Bird School, referred to him for report, that lie found the roll number of the school at the end of the last quarter was 46. being three less than in October,, 1903. and ho was of opinion that there was not likely to he a further increase in the attendance, although the seating accpnimodatinn, was somewhat taxed. He did not think the case was one ih at -warranted an application to the Department for additions.—Report .dopted. Mr. Halcombe reported upon the Mt. Messenger School site lately occupied hv Mr. D. Fraser. The fences were still in a very bad state, but a start had been made with the work of improvement. Mr. Halcombe recommended that the Board’s section on the Okau Road he leased to Mr. Anderson.