The Government has approved of the plans and arrangements for the new Technical School in Dunedin.
The plans have been approved in their entirety without a single alterations, and the board is likely to at once proceed with the work.
Evidently the provision is not being made too soon - probably not soon enough, if one may judge from the congested state of the present school and the large number of new pupils who have this week entered upon another year's work. The new school, a three-storey building, will be erected on the Stuart Street frontage of the old Middle District School site.
It will be a handsome structure, its estimated cost when complete being 25,000, and will well accord with the other educational institutions in the neighbourhood - the Girls' High School, the Convent, and the Boys' High School. Not only so, but it will form an imposing structure to any visitor coming up the harbour or from the north by rail or road.
The committee some time ago made calculations from which it is understood that this magnificent edifice will be opened to the public for the break-up ceremony at the end of the year 1913. On its completion it will be utilised for the holding of an industrial exhibition, which is to serve the double purpose of affording the public an opportunity of viewing the educational productions of the province and raising funds for the equipment of the building and the laying out of the grounds.
• One of the places of interest visited on Tuesday by the party of commercial and public men now touring Central Otago (telegraphs our special reporter) was the Mount Pisa Station, which is managed for Mrs Cowie Nichols, of Maheno, by Mr R. J.
Hendrie. The run contains altogether 130,000 acres, and is devoted entirely to sheep, of which from 32,000 to 33,000 are shorn every year. The luxuriant fields of hay and oats, which were much admired about the homestead, are grown simply for consumption on the estate. The whole is watered by several elaborate systems of races, starting from intakes on the back ranges.
The necessity for this is made very evident from the rainfall records kept by Mr Hendrie, which show that the average annual fall to be expected there is about 14 inches. All the produce of the estate at the present time has to be carted all the way to Clyde, which is 23 miles distant. The lease of this large area of land will expire in five or six years' time, and it is desired by many that the railway should be brought into its proximity before the question of cutting it up comes to be practically considered.
• At its recent meeting the University Senate made a number of alterations in the conditions with regard to the Home Science degree. In place of being a B.Sc. degree, a special degree has been created, which will be known as the B.Sc in Home Science.
Several alterations have also been made in the syllabus and courses, which will make it much more convenient for girls to obtain the degree. One alteration is that the ordinary matriculation entrance examination will now be sufficient.
In another part of the syllabus there have been some alterations which will very much improve the course.
It may be stated that there is urgent demand in several of our secondary and high schools for girls who have been trained. The diploma course is also altered. A girl who passed this course will almost certainly obtain employment in a secondary school.
- ODT, 8.2.1912.
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