Auckland's Sacred Heart estimates total annual expenditure on its First XV to be $50,000. King's College spends $70,000 a year on rugby overall and $40,000 on its First XV.

The Herald says the other three schools, St Kentigern College, reigning Auckland, New Zealand and world champions, Auckland Grammar and Mt Albert refuse to divulge their financial commitment.

Sources with good knowledge estimate St Kentigern will spend $150,000-$200,000 this year - with the figure inflated as the First XV travelled to Japan for the world Sanix championship in April.

The clustering of talent has fed concerns among the educational fraternity that winning the competition is now beyond the other seven, lower-spending schools.

Since De La Salle, the decile 1 Catholic school from Mangere, won in 2008, the list of 1A winners reads, Mt Albert in 2009 and 2010, followed by St Kentigern in 2011 and 2012 with those two schools fancied to make the final again this year.

"The big worry for me is that we have a really good Under-14 team this year," says De La Salle's head of rugby, Nigel Hurst. "But how many of them will be here when they get to Year 11? South Auckland has just become a talent pool for the rich schools."

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Auckland Rugby

The decile ranking system is intended to compensate adequately schools whose parents cannot afford to make big donations.

However, schools in rich areas are still about $1,000 a year better off for every student despite this Government funding that favours poorer schools, says Dr Cathy Wylie of the NZ Council for Educational Research who has carried out a survey of 177 schools.

A survey of five decile 10 and five decile 1 primary schools by the NZ Educational Institute, quoted by Dr Wylie in a book on inequality to be published next week, found the schools' total budgets averaged $8,653 a student in decile 10 areas but only $7,518 a student in the decile 1 schools.

Another Fund available to schools allows students to sit assessments under special conditions. That could include a room to themselves to avoid distraction, being assisted by a reader-writer, use of braille, rest breaks, or computers.

In 2012, a total of 3418 of the 143,000 pupils who sat NCEA-level exams got special assistance. Private Auckland school King's College, which regularly tops national academic tables, had 180 pupils sitting NCEA exams last year. Of those 44 qualified for special exam conditions.

By comparison, neighbouring school Otahuhu College, which is decile 1 and had four times as many NCEA candidates in 2012, had no SAC applications.

School decile ratings have not been reviewed since the 2006 because the census was delayed two years by the Christchurch earthquake.

The Ministry of Education told the Herald on Sunday that school decile ratings will be reviewed next year and related changes to funding will be applied in 2015.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• New Zealand Herald
• Stuff
• Image: historic.org.nz

He agrees with Matt McCarten that successive governments have shown no concern for the poor and downtrodden.

"The transformation of New Zealand society from one in which Jack was every bit as good as his master, and Jack's children had every opportunity to succeed, has occurred in just two generations."

Hide says this change has not been caused by just one policy, "but rather through a multitude of interlocking policies."

In his opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald, Hide gives a lists of nine factors which he says " are just a small sample of how government stomps on the poor and blocks upward mobility."

He says a total policy reversal won't return New Zealand to the egalitarian society it once was.

"That's because two generations of bad policy have embedded an underclass. The problem is now cultural, not political."

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Zimbio

The Elim Christian Centre, formerly known as the Equip Church, will deliver food packs to needy families in Whangarei rather than organising a Christmas dinner which it did previously.

Wellingtonian of the Year and former City Missioner Father Des Britten said there was no doubt things were getting worse.

Unfortunately in today's world it was up to each person to pull themselves out of a bad situation, he said.

Father Britten had been in the unique position of serving up food to both Wellington's wealthy, when he owned top restaurant The Coachman, and to those down on their luck while at the Wellington City Mission.

"It is up to individual responsibility and at the mission we tried to help people to help themselves because you're never going to be happy living on a benefit."

City Missioner Susan Blaikie said she had previously worked in the corporate world where beneficiaries were seen as bludgers.

"But I don't know anyone that actually wants to be on a benefit. The bigger the gap is between the richest and the poorest, the more likely there will be social problems and crime."

The Reverend Blaikie had spent the last decade working with the church and said the issue was worse today than ever before.

She was concerned that no major party had produced a serious policy this close to the election.

The Salvation Army's social services spokesman, Major Campbell Roberts, said he had seen the gap grow over his 40 years there and in recent times more people were worse off.

"Even over the last two years there has been a significant increase in people coming for welfare services. At the same time you've got salaries at a level which have increased significantly.

"This is most probably a reasonably recent thing over the past 15 to 20 years."

People who had a long history of working and contributing to society were losing their jobs and more families were struggling for the basics.

At the Catholic charity St Vincent de Paul, national council chief executive Anne-Marie McCarten said more government agencies were referring people to charities. Read more

• Source: Sunday Star Times
• Image: The Dominion Post