1.—13 a.

72

[t. macgebbon.

position of not being endowed, and they, in common with other schools, will get only £100 a year. That seems to the Board an unfair division of the revenue, because there are fat Boards which have over the standard of £17 and up as high as £30 per pupil, and they get the £100 all the same. 2. Mr. Hanan.] Where is that?—Gisborne. That does not seem to us to be just, and we think the Boards should be placed on an equal footing. If one Board is well supplied they do not require to be given so much to keep them going. It looks as if it is giving to those who have and withholding from those who have not. We come within the £4 capitation given to the high schools where the amount of revenue is £17. That seems to be taken as the basis, and includes schools whose revenue amounts in some cases to as high as £25 and £30 per pupil, whilst the provision for unendowed schools is meagre and quite inadequate. The Gore High School has no endowments, and under the scale proposed is placed at a disadvantage as compared with others who have. To wit, Southland High School has very valuable endowments in the Town of Gore, which, when the leases fall in within the next few years, will be much more so owing to the increasing value of town property. The Gore High School will not profit by these increased values, although situated within the Town of Gore. These lands will let at a very much higher rate than they have, and, of course, that, will materially increase the revenue to the Southland High School. It is rather unpleasant for the Gore people to see these endowments before their very eyes increasing in value and the revenue going to support another school, while we are left out in the cold without any increase in our revenue, and still have to spend considerably more in the way of salaries for the teachers. I would also point out that the Gore High School saves the Southland High School a very considerable amount of expense. Many of the pupils who are now attending the Gore High School would have to attend the Southland High School, and that would involve a considerable amount of expense to the Railway Department, because the pupils would be conveyed free by the railways if there was no school in Gore. The establishment of the Gore High School saves that expenditure, and therefore we think some consideration should be given to the unendowed schools. The whole of our revenue amounts to £2,036 3s. 4d., or about £13 13s. 3d. per pupil, and the sum proposed to be paid by the Department by way of salaries is at the rate of £12 10s. per pupil, or £1,862 altogether, leaving a balance of £174 3s. 4d. to pay all charges. 3. Mr. Sidey.] The Minister has agreed to strike out that clause 6 in the Bill?—Well, that might meet the grievance if it is liberal enough. 4. The Chairman.] It does meet the trouble?—I am very pleased to have that assurance. If that were not so it would leave a deficiency of £211 16s. Bd., and the Board of Governors wondered how they were going to carry on under those conditions. Then there is another point I wish to bring before the Committee, and that is the matter of house allowance. That is provided for in the Bill for primary-school teachers, and why should not a similar provision be made for secondary-school teachers? 5. Mr. Hogben.] I have already explained the matter to the representatives of the Gore High School Board, and they are now perfectly satisfied that they can finance the school?—I was not aware of that.

George James Anderson examined. (No. 31.) 1. The Chairman.] You are a member of Parliament for Mataura?—Yes. 2. Do you wish to make a statement to the Committee?—Yes. I wish to speak in regard to the finance of the Gore High School. I have heard the explanation by Mr. Hogben, and I wish to make this point : that it is hardly fair to expect us to know of anything that is not in the Bill. We came here in all good faith with the evidence supplied to us by the Board, and we now find that it has been all explained. That cuts the whole of the ground from under our feet, and if the Board is satisfied, as Mr. Hogben says they are, they have not communicated with us, and we want to be sure that all the points before them are before the Committee. Of course you have assured us that that is so. I wish to say, Mr. Chairman, that the reserves that were set apart in the various 'provincial districts by the early settlers and by the Governments that succeeded the early settlement conditions were intended for secondary education in the provincial district. They were not intended by the founders for any particular school. At the time these reserves were set apart there was no thought of more than the one school. It was never anticipated, I presume, by the Legislature that such would be the case; and the Legislature at various times has appropriated these secondary reserves to individual schools right throughout the colony—l am not referring to Southland more than anywhere else—and the consequence is that the secondary schools throughout New Zealand which have not been provided for are in a very disadvantageous financial position. I would urge, therefore, upon the Committee that when deliberating upon this matter they should take into consideration the question of whether a portion of the secondary reserves should not even now be appropriated to other schools in districts which are only now being developed. We have a number of [ibices in the North Island where high schools will be required in a very short time, and I have no doubt that in time to come more high schools will be required in the Southland and Otago Districts. If you cannot see your way to apportion part of those reserves, then I would suggest that you place the new schools on quite as advantageous a footing financially as the present schools which have reserves. The only other way I see it can be done and ought to be done is by giving the unendowed schools a larger grant than the proposed £100. 3. That is covered?— Well, a larger grant should be given, or, better than that, you should give something in the way of town reserves. I have little faith in country reserves.