TRAINING COLLEGE SHOULD BE PROVIDED AT PALMERSTON NORTH

Wanganui Chronicle, 28 January 1948, Page 3

TRAINING COLLEGE SHOULD BE PROVIDED AT PALMERSTON NORTH

That the board should approach the Education Department with a view to securing authority for the purchase of a site in Palmerston North on which to establish a fifth training college for teachers was the text of a resolution carried at yesterday's meeting of the Wanganui Education Board. An amendment by Mr. J. C. Batt that the motion should make no reference to Paiuivibcen rvortn as the site of the college was defeated. The chairman, Mr. W. B. Tennant, said that in 1945 the board passed a resolution urging the Education Department to consider the urgency of establishing a fifth teachers' training college ana that when such a college was established it should be in an area where the candidates would receive an agricultural bias. The present training colleges were situated in city areas and the first real contact candidates had with the country was when they were sent to the rural The new college being established at Ardmore would be used lor about five Or six years, in his opinion, as it was unsuited for a permanent training college. The ideal situation for a fifth training college was at Palmerston North. However, land on the outskirts of the city was being snapped up so fast that if the board waited for another live years :be would be difficult to secure a site. At th- present time it was possible for the board to secure a suitable site on the north side of the city.

He moved that the board ask the Education Department for authority to purchase a suitable block of land. Mr. J. C. Batt said that Palmerston North was only 80 miles from Wellington where there was a training coliege. He thought that Wanganui should be the location of the fifth training college because it was more central and would cater for the Taranaki district, too. Wanganui had some excellent sites for a traning college and he was very much in favour of its case being considered. Mr. Batt said that if the college were established at Palmerston North it would not be fair to Taranaki students.

“I do not want to start a debate as to whether Wanganui or Palmerston North is the better site,” said Mr. Tennant. He added that Wellington could fill all the vacancies in the Wellington Training College and Auckland could fill its college. What was required was a central training college to cater for Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay, the centre of the North Island, Wanganui, Taranaki, and Manawatu. “Apart from, the fact that I come from Palmerston North, I consider there is no more central place with such an agricultural bias," said Mr. Tennant The board had decided in 1945 that PaLnerston North should be the site of the college.

Mr. Batt moved an amendment that the reference to Palmerston North as the site of the college should be deleted from the motion. This would give other sites on the coast an opportunity of being considered. This was seconded by Mr. E. R. Hodge, who said that there was much merit in Mr. Batt’s suggestions. He said that the board was constituted to do the best for education.

“I am going to support the motion," said Mr. W. H. Brown. Palmerston North was a road and rail rentre and would be more satisfactory as the site of a training college than any other district in the North Island.

Tli e secretary (Mr. G. N. Boulton) said that when the matter was previously under consideration the senior inspector ot schools at the time had considered that Palmerston North was satisfactory as a site because of the large number of small country schools adjacent to the city. Wanganui, unfortunately, did not have these schools so handy. “It seems to me that Palmerston North is the obvious choice," commented Mrs. Gordon. "I think that if a fifth training college is to be established the Education Department will establish it there.” Mr. Batt’s amendment was lost and the motion to approach the Education Department for authority to purchase a site in Palmerston North was carried.