SCHOOL WATER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 65, Issue 5494, 6 July 1942, Page 2

SCHOOL WATER

ALTERATION IN CHARGE SOUGHT COMMITTEE TO WAIT ON COUNCIL A decision to approach the Borough Council frith a view to securing a drastic reduction in the present scale of . charging for the school water supply, was reached at the monthly meeting of the Te Awamutu District High School Committee on Friday. The question was raised when a Council account for £32 15s was before the meeting. Of this sum £l2 15s represented an account rendered, while the remainder was the charge for 800,000 gallons of water used during the 1941-42 period. The secretary thought that something ought to be done regarding the matter; some schools received their water free and in other cases only a nominal sum was charged. Mr Day recalled that a former chairman, the late Mr G. B. Melrose, had communicated with several other schools, and the finding was that where charges were made they l were small.

Mr Bryant favoured a deputation to wait on the Council. It had been stated that the Primary School made no payment for water, so why should the High School be asked. Mr Johnson thought that the system was wrong, for if the committee did have to pay the money would have to be raised from the public. The Headmaster (Mr W. G. S. Smith) stated that he had obtained a plumber to confirm his own view that the school meter could not be read The amount of water assessed in the Council’s account could have been arrived at only as the result of guesswork. It was possible to read the millions. In answer to a question, he said that the school had paid nothing for water during the whole time of its existence. So many thousands of gallons which were supposed to be supplied free were not mentioned in the Council’s account. On the motion of Messrs Johnson and Bryant a committee comprising the chairman (Mr G. Donaldson), Mr Spence, and the Headmaster, was appointed to wait on the Borough Coun-