SCHOOL "STRIKE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 223, 20 September 1935, Page 8

SCHOOL "STRIKE."

TRANSPORT WANTED. GOVERNMENTS ATTITUDE. hard and fast conditions. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The refusal of the authorities to grant free tickets for the rail transport of children living at Pukemiro who ordinarily attend the Rotowaro School %yas raised in the House of Representatives this morning by Mr, D. S. Reid (Government, Raglan), who asked an uj-gent question of the Minister of Education, Mr. Smith, requesting that the difficulty should be overcome. In reply, the Minister said that he had been asked by the interested parties to take certain action, but had declined to do so until the children returned to school. It-is laid down in the Education Act that the attendance of all children of school age who live within three miles of a public of' registered school, or two miles in the case of children under ten years of age, is compulsory, and neither the Minister nor the Auckland Education Board is at liberty to vary the conditions thus decided by Parliament. Children living within the distance limits fixed in the free school season ticket regulations are not eligible for free travel by rail, and this provision is applicable throughout the Dominion and cannot be varied to suit the wishes of householders of one particular district.

The regulations, which have been in force for many years, provide that free railway travel slip 11 be available to children under ten of-age and living over two miles from school, and for children over ten years of age and living over three miles from a school. Any variation of the rule would have to apply to the whole Dominion and would involve the Government in substantial increased expenditure for the conveyance of children, which already is a heavy item. In the meantime, it is understood, the "strike" is being continued by the parents of the Pukemiro children.