EDUCATION GRANTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2723, 31 January 1910, Page 5

EDUCATION GRANTS.

WHAT THE REDUCTION MEANS.

[Per Press Association.! WELLINGTON, Jan. 29. The recentlv announced reduction in building grants by the Education Department to Boards was the subject of remarks by the Hon. G. Fowlds to a “Post” reporter. “Some Boards,” he said, “talk as if these grants that are being cut are- grants for new buildings. It has absolutely nothing to do with the question of new buildings in newlysettled districts, or with additions to buildings necessitated by increased attendance. Grants are still made directly from tlie Department to make provision for cases of this kind.” The grantfor maintenance and repair of schools remained' exactly where it- was before. What had been out down was simply an allowance that had been paid for a number of yearn on a given basis for the purpose of re-building old schools. In the last five or six years the specific grants for this purpose amounted to about £SO,OOO more than the Boards to whom the grants were made spent for that purpose. “I do not,” added’ Mr. Fowlds, “think there is one Board in. New Zealand that could show that it has spent more on re-building wornout schools than has been paid to it by the Department for that purpose.” The fact was, he said, that a good' many Boards had been using a considerable portion of this money in general work, a purpose for which they did not get it.