CONVENT SCHOOL

Waikato Independent, Volume XXX, Issue 2304, 27 February 1930, Page 2

CONVENT SCHOOL

NEW STRUCTURE AT MATAMATA

OPENED ON SUNDAY The new Convent School at Matamata was officially opened on Sunday last by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Listen, D.D., of Auckland. The school, which has bean erected at a cost of £2,550, is most up-to-date in every way and reflects great credit on the architect, Mr. Thos. S. Craig, of Cambridge, and the builder, Mr. A. Stanley, of Matamata. In addressing the people, Bishop Liston urged that Catholics were not treated justly by the State in regard to educational matters. The Catholic population at the last census was 181,922 and as the cost per head for primary education was £l/16/4 it meant Catholics paid £252,036 towards State primary education. The total cost of all forms of education was £2/15/3' per head and on this basis Catholics contributed £502,532. In return they got educational facilities for some 14,000 to 15,000 of their own children and proficiency certificates. These latter carried free places in State secondary schools but not in Catholic schools. Further, in Matamata, Catholics might not use buses used by other children. The buses bringing other children to local schools passed Catholic children on the road, and that was what they got for paying £500,000 in taxes.

He invited tbs attention of the Minister of Education to this aspect of the question of buses.

The Bishop welcomed the school as a proof of the Catholic faith in Christian education, as an appeal to all New Z?alanders to meet the legitimate claims of a large section of the people, and as a hope of a fair solution of this problem.