MINUTE BY THE HON. E. R. BELILIOS.
20.943
24 W/12
I regret that I am unable to express my entire concurrence in the Report of the Commission, and think it advisable therefore to embody my views in a brief memorandum, as follows:-
1. I am in favour of the erection of five good elementary schools rather than a new structure, which will be an enlargement merely of the Central School, for the following
reasons:
a. They could be erected at a lower cost and maintenance-considering there will be a gain in the shape of interest on un-expended capital-than the proposed new institution.
b. Being distributed over every district of the city of Victoria they would be more accessible to the population generally than would one central institution, a matter of some moment in a place where there are no rapid means of com- munication.
c. The site selected for the new Central School is not a healthy or desirable one. Hemmed in on all sides by houses, many of them occupied by disreputable characters, the locality is not one at all calculated to have a good moral effect on the scholars, who must necessarily see much of their surroundings in
play hours.
d. The tendency of the city is to spread, and as time goes on the inconvenience to parents of sending their children into the heart of the town to be educated with necessarily be magnified.
e. Five elementary schools would accommodate a larger number of scholars than one central building, and a larger proportion of the Chinese population would receive the benefits of an English education.
2. The primary cost of the five separate institutions would be actually less than that of the new Central School proposed. According to the estimates this will amount to $108,700 to which may be added value of site (estimated by a competent authority at $150,000) making together with the $85,000 the value of the present Central School, a total of $343,700 exclusive of $10,000 allowed by the Secretary of State. I estimate the cost of the suggested five separate schools at $170,000, as compared with the above, leaving a surplus in the hands of the Government of $183,700. This estimate has been based mainly on valuations of sites and buildings favoured me by a competent authority with liberal allowance for contingencies, valuations in which I entirely concur.
3. This surplus, resulting of course, from the sale of the present School and the site cleared for the new edifice, both very valuable, might be devoted to:
4. Build a Collegiate Institution on the Bonham Road, at a cost say, for site and building of $23,700, the sum of $40,000 to be lodged in the Bank at 5 per cent to go towards the cost of maintenance.
b. The sum of $120,000 yielding at 5 per cent $6,000 per aunum, could be devoted to some useful municipal purpose, say, for instance, the provision of a new market.
4. If no better site can be obtained for the Central School of the five I suggest, the existing building should be retained, but this would of course cost more than my foregoing estimate by some $20,000 which amount would have to be deducted from the surplus I made out. There would, however, be a gain in the accommodation and probably, therefore in the income from fees. Should this alternative be adopted I need scarcely remark that only four new elementary schools would need to be constructed.
53