SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 22, 18 September 1912, Page 5

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.

MONTHLY MEETING. The monthly meeting of the Stratford School Committee was held last evening, when there were present:— The chairman (.Mr. P. Skoglund), and Messrs. T. C. Fookos, .1. .YicMillan, S Clark-, A. Stewart, .). W. Boon, G. Smart, J. Jones, and K. YV. Hancock. Ccrrcs^onilence.

A letter was received from Mr. P. S. Whitcombe, secretary of the iaranaki Education board, .stating that tne Department had written to say Hi at the Board's application for tlie permission to-dispose of the residence, and for house allowance for the teacher, amounted to an application for £SO per annum for a horse paddock, and therefore' the Minister tailed to tall in with the suggestion. A further letter from the same source stated that it was pointed out to the Board tiiat they bad no room for a horse paddock at tne present time as the whole of the grounds were required for other purposes, and the other sections in Stratford held by the Board would be too far from the school for the purpose. The bqst solution of the difficulty would be to remove the residence and make use of that portion now occupied by garden, for the paddock. The Chairman stated that the Department had been wholly misinformed, and the second letter was the outcome of a reply by the committee's secretary.

Visiting Committee. The Visiting Committee reported that the work of asphalting the gymnasium shed had been completed, and was a great improvement. With regard to the infant department, tne committee stated that birds were building nests in the ventilators, and were, causing a nuisance. The caretaker informed them that he had tried to remove the nests, but had not succeeded. They recommended that wire netting be placed ever the ventilators, as this would stop the nuisance. The stumps at the southern end of the school had not been removed, neither had the work of filling in the space underneath the school with iron been attended to, and when thev visited the school there was

a large pool of water lying there, which they considered was a source of danger the health of the ehiidi-er. The caretaker informed them mat he had not received instructions to do this work.

The report was adopted, and a motion passed instructing the secretary to bring the matters, mentioned ur.dei the notice of the Board.

The visiting inspectors repcKTod that tho school records had been kepi in a satisfactory manner; the regularity of attendance and punctuality bad been very satisfactory ; suitable timetables had been.prepared; the methods of teaching, management, and punctuality were all good; tho'order, discipline, and tone were good; the grounds and promises were ;:ll in a satisfactory condition. For . beautifying of school grounds and supervision of tho promises, 7G per cent, of marks were awarded. Head Master's Report.

The Head Master reported i.hat owing to the continueu prevalence oi mumps the attendance at the ickoji, since the last meeting, had fallen ».'jtill further. Schools Mere graded , eacii' year, for 191.3 on the average attendance oi 1912, and so on. Their present daily attendance was 100 below the normal, and if the average for this quarter was counted in, when computing '.their annual average, there was little doubht their grade; us-a isehooJ would be lowered next year. There was, however, a clause in the Education Act which provided, with certain restrictions, that when an epidemic visited a district during any quarter, the attendance at any school for! that quarter need not be considered when computing the yearly annual averageof such school, and he intended to take advantage of this clause to prevent any decline in grade. Nominations for tho annual examinations wore made last week. For the Junior National Scholarships and Civil Service Junior they bad as many candidates as in previous years. For the Bayly Memorial and Education Board's Senior Scholarship, however, a great falling off has taken place, there being only 'fivo candidates from this school for each of these examinations. The explanation of this, as far as the latter was concorned, was that the greater number of the pupils in the High School now took science course of work, scholarships were provided, so far, only for those who took languages. The fact that they had 31 candidates taking, as subjects fir examination, physics, and dairy science, and less than a dozen taking Latin, is an indication of the direction to which modern education is tending. The report was adopted. For the Territorials.

In order to meet the requirements of the Territorials, a sub-committee had interviewed the Department, and as a result the members recommended that consideration bo given to a scheme to erect a building over the tennis court, the dimension of the structure being 89 by 99 feet. This would suit the Defence Department well, and at the same time would be of great use to the children on rainy days. In addition to this it could be hired out to tho general public, and would be a source of revenue. Question was made of the powers ef the committee to erect such a building, and it wardecided before taking further stops U: refer the matter to the Board for tlioii opinion. The Chairman and Mr. McMillan offered to donate cue guinea towards the cost of the building, and it is probable, if a satisfactory reply is received from the Hoard, that stops will be taken to open public subscrip tions and generally help along the scheme.

Agricultural Scholarships. The Chairman referred to the movement which is spreading over the Dominion with regard to the establishment of agricultural scholarships and colleges. At; far as Taranaki was concerned, there would, he said, lie little trouble about financing scholarships if the accrued funds from the Onakau reserves could bo devoted to this purpose. Of cours \ the money so found would have to apply to scholar sir ps for Taranaki children only. He did not wisli to connect the school with my agricultural college in particular, or to suggest anything re the establishment of such colleges, but simply to bring under the notice of the Board the desirability that such aericultural scholarships should be established (or Taranaki children. He moved "that the committee write to the Board, and impress upon them the necessity of considering the advisability of instituting agricultural scholarships for Taranaki and in this connection points out that an attempt miodit be made to use part of the Opakau Reserve Fund." The motion was carried.

A vote of thanks was passed to Mr. A. 1). Blick for his gonornrity in preparing a plan for the Board free of all cost.