THE LOCAL EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXI, Issue 12190, 11 June 1907, Page 7

THE LOCAL EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM.

The iindefiioted inatlnr in Mr Ailken'g .■nonthly report was read, and was the r-au.li- of an hour's discussion on the best way to settle the technical, secondary, and infant education matters in Wan«*anui. It was eventually decided not to come to any definite proposal there and then, but to accept the Board's suggestio nfor a conference of the Board, the Technical School Committee, and the School Committee, the chairman to see to the arrangements ior the conference. Mr Aitken's report contained the following with regard to the piojected change* in t hi •vhoola: — Anything I have to say might !ie looked on a3 gratuitous and as coining from one interested. If the proposed removal of the secondary pupils were to be general throughout the educational dis trict, in every place where there was a Technical School side by side with a District High School, there might be less ground tor objection. It wa<s Wanganui that moved for the establishment of a District Hiffh School, it was Wanganui that would take no denial; and Hawera and Palmerston North, and perhaps Foild'•ng, had their educational advantage! 1 thrust unasked upon thorn. Now the Wanganui District High School is to be sacrificed to secure a larger income for the Technical -School, while no such policy i? proposed anywhere else. If the provisions •if the Education Act of 1904 were followed, I am satisfied that the- District High School cannot be disestablished except foi the establishmnt of a High School, as waf done at Palmerston, andthat would be a dignified course to pursue. But to simply remove the scholars and leave the room's empty wonld be « very strange course indeed. The chemistry room and workshop are fully equipped. The personal element is not supposed to enter into the calculation of all matters of the kind— public policy over-rides everything of a purely private character. And so it outfit to do, if the principle is uniformly applied. Thr Committee and the public are perfectly conversant with the hintorr of my Conner*Mon with the school. If they are" satisfied to drop all that baa been" gained with mich an amount of struggle and effort, and to allow the District High School to' pan? out of their control, then I have no more to say. Then there is the question of an infant department, which is bein* most unfairly kept from the school, to the financial detriment of every teacher in the school 'exclusive of the Secondary Department). Hie Committee will remember that diirina Mie short tim* the Infant Department a*t this school was open, as many as 41 pupils were enrolled, of whom five had never beei< to school before, seven came from St John's, and the rest (29) from the Queen.-" Park School Infant Department. I have reason to know that, had parents been certain the Infant Department would be permanent, there would have been many

more. Ap.nl fiom pul>ii< coinenieuce. x\i(h which (except a^ a householder) I have nothing to do, I ask the Committee to think of the interests ot the n\e assistants and myself who would receive better salaries it the school were allowed to ho full than they do now with the attendance artificially "kept down. "Right xxrongs no one."