GREENS FOR LUNCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1940, Page 5

GREENS FOR LUNCH.

SCHOOL PUPILS' FARE. NOVEL MT. ROSKILL SCHEME. BATH WATER PUT TO USE. I For ingenuity in installing a miniature school bath the Mount Rofekill School must be given full marks. As a result of efforts by the headmaster, Mr. E. F. Snell, members of the teaching staff, parents and children of the school, coupled with a Government subsidy, a swimming pool was recently installed in the school grounds at a coe-t of under £100. Before they went on holiday the children had had three weeks' use of the pool. But that is not the whole story. Baths must be filled and emptied at regularj intervals, and this immediately raised a problem for the school committee. They were faced with the need for putting in a special drainage system to carry awayj the water, until Mr. Snell came forward with a suggestion that both novel j and practical. Why not have an attachment to the baths so that the school garden might be irrigated? he asked. The committee was receptive to the idea, and the health authorities raised no objections. The scheme went ahead, and the children now have a bathing pool 40ft long by 12ft wide, of an even depth of 3ft. and fresh greens from a well watered garden to eat with their I lunches!

Use of Vegetables Regulated. Of course, the pupils, who have the ordinary healthy appetites of most children of their age, are not lets loose in the garden. '1 he choice of »reens to go with their bread and butter is wisely supervised by their teachers. There is a wide variety of vegetables to choose from, with a plentiful supply of sreens' which appeal during the hot summer months, such as spring onions and lettuces. Those who prefer carrots may ha\e them, and tomatoes are coming along nicely and will be in good supply when the children start off the new ■year of studies next month.

The irrigation scheme is as- effective as it is simple; one look at the 'welldeveloped vegetables is sufficient testimony of that. At one end of the bath an ordinary ball-cock has been installed and to this i» attached a length of fire hose. Shallow* trenches run round the garden plots, which are on either side of a tar-sealed path. All that is required to manipulate the "plant" when the pool is ready for emptying is to pull a lever, and a flood of about 8000 gallons of water is let loose to make the greens bulge and grow as few vegetables have ever grown. The enterprise, of course, was made possible by having the pool built above ground level so as to permit the water to run away freely when loosed. Cornwall Park Type. The bath is of the Cornwall Park type, which is becoming increasingly popular in the Auckland district. Its upkeep in supplying water for swimming purposes is provided by each child contributing a penny a week. Fitted to the pool is a chlorination plant. The water is tested every day under the | supervision of the Health Department, | and it is changed three or four times a week.

he novel scheme has evervthin<r to commend it, and, no doubt, it will be introduced in other schools as the miniature bathing pool idea spreads -hroughout the Dominion.