DANGER TO HEALTH?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 58, 9 March 1936, Page 3

DANGER TO HEALTH?

FLOODED SCHOOL PROPERTY.

COMMITTEE'S GRAVE CONCERN.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent) TOKOMARU BAY, this day.

For the first time in local history an extraordinary meeting of the Tokomaru Bay School Committee was held at the school grounds yesterday morning, when members surveyed a concrete playing area converted into a sea of silt" and filth. It was stated that it was the fifth time in 12 months that floods had swept the school and left it a breeding ground for disease. Members agreed that the teachers would be "foolish to remain in Tokomaru Bay, and that parents would be foolish to allow their children to attend," unless either the Education Board moved the school or the Waipu County Council took steps to prevent further flooding. The chairman, Mr. J. B. Stafford, expressed concern when informed that all four teachers had suffered from catarrh since coming to Tokomaru Bay. "If the teachers have it the children must be suffering too," he said.

Silt inches deep lies under each building and never dries, and it is impossible to clear it out. As members later attempted to scrape the mud from their clothing and shoes, the danger of an outbreak of diphtheria was mentioned. Mr. Stafford agreed to wire the board that the committee had decided to employ six men to clean the grounds, and to inform the board that the committee would not take the responsibility if an epidemic broke out. It was also decided to ring the district board member, Mr. Wauchop, and to get in touch with Mr. A. G. Hultquist, M.P., in an effort to have the four buildings shifted bodily to higher ground.

The first service car since Friday from the North for Gisborne reached Tokomaru Bay this morning.