“IMPOSSIBLE DEMANDS.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17569, 20 June 1925, Page 1

“IMPOSSIBLE DEMANDS.”

HEATING OF SCHOOLS. MINISTER’S REPLY. “Last year the Government spent twice as much money on Christchurch schools than ever before, and the board might recognise this fact instead of making impossible demands,” said the Minister of Education (Sir James Parr) when interviewed to-day concerning the complaint against school heating at yesterday’s meeting of the Canterbury Education Board. The board protested against the Department contributing only a third of the cost of installing school heating systems. The board proposed that school committees should not be called upon to find more than one third of the cost. Sir James Parr this morning said:—“The schools in Canterbury are, in common with all the older schools throughout the Dominion, heated by fireplaces. For thirty or forty years the present system of fireplaces has obtained and the Education Board’s protest therefore, against what one member calls ‘a monstrous state of things’ seems somewhat belated. ‘‘The climate of Canterbury is no more rigorous than that of Otago and Southland, where the boards do not ask for this change. It would no doubt be a fine thing to convert all the fireplaces in New Zealand into hot water systems, but the Department cannot find the money to do it. It would cat up most of my money. Tho cost of altering the system in a very large school would be close on £IOOO. Where the boards and committees arc, however, keen to do something themselves, the Department is willing to share the expense. More than this the Department cannot do.”