GRANTS TO EDUCATION BOARDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2724, 1 February 1910, Page 5

GRANTS TO EDUCATION BOARDS.

A REPLY TO THE MINISTER,

TPer Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 31

Mr. T. W. Adams, cFairman of tFe North Canterbury Education Board, states that the Hon. G. Fowlds’ remarks in regard to grants to Boards, published this morning, greatly surprised him. He thinks, indeed, that the Minister Fas been misreported. The position in North Canterbury he describes as a very serious one. Last year the Board received £8490 in grants, including £1715 for reinstating old buildings. This year tFe total grant Fas been cut down to £4331. The reduction amounts to £4159, or more than 50 per cent. “We cannot carry on ;. that is all about it,” Mr. Adams says. In regard to Mr. Fowlds’ statement- that the- Boards in the Dominion here paid £89,000 more than they ought to have paid during the past five or six years on the rebuilding of old schools, Mr. Adams states than it certainly cannot be applied to North. Canterbury, and that it is equally incorrect to include his district in the assertion that "a good many Boards have been using a considerable portion of this money, paid specially for the re-building work of schools, in generaL work in connection with schools.”. TFe North Canterbury Board, in fact, Fas reserved its grant for reinstating oldbuildings strictly for that purpose. In has kept the fund intact, and apparently it is being punished more severely than Boards which have not done so.