EVACUATION!

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 193, 16 August 1941, Page 5

EVACUATION!

SCHOOL REHEARSALS

PRECAUTIONARY SCHEMES

"Air raid warning!" Valmarie struggled with the case It refused to budge.

Everyone else was under cover. Valmarie grew embarrassed; almost blushed. Someone called: "Valmarie! What are you doing? If you | can't get under that one get somg other one." f Valmarie cast about her ] All the other ones were occupied, j Aided furtively by her friends she recommenced he:- assault on the case. Finally it was cast forth into the aisle. Breathing a sigh of relief, Valmarie disappeared from view.

All of which was liable to be terrifically confusing, not to say puzzling, if you were not up with the trend of events.

The scene, as it happened, was set in the Standard IV classroom at the: Dominion Road School. A master: had just walked in and said sharply:' "Air raid warning!" At which all the; pupils stood not upon the order of! their going, but promptly dis-i appeared from human ken and crouched unseen beneath their respective desks—all, that is, but Valmarie, who found that the spacs beneath her desk was already occupied by a case. This may have been bad luck for Valmarie, but it at least supplied a human touch in what would otherwise have been an almost uncanny experience. j

Outside in 43 Seconds For the Dominion Road School—! like others—is nothing if not up-to-j date and emergency precautions schemes have been given no little thought. Yesterday afternoon, the pupils not only gave a demonstration of how they could leap to cover in the classrooms, but also cleared the school in just on 43 seconds and assembled in classes on the football field outside in orderly fashion. This, incidentally, was an all-time record, the previous best having been 45 seconds—and even that must be con-i

sidered an excellent effort for 530 pupils immersed in their studies when the warning bell is sounded. The organisers of the system have gone into it thoroughly. In the case ,of a sudden air attack the children j —as has been indicated—should bei well and truly under the best cover offering in a matter of seconds. Teachers are expected to crouch under their desks, too, although one voting mistress firmly declined to illustrate the method yesterday | despite the combined pleas of a Star I photographer and reporter.

Slit Trench in Field I In the event of fire or some similar emergency the school can be evacuated quickly, yet without panic. One pupil in each room has been selected to rush to the door and fasten it open at the first sound of the alarm. |The children then pass through the idoor in single file and run along the corridors through the six main doors linto the playground. At no door do jthey emerge more than two abreast. The organisers consider that a slit trench in the football field would then give them all the protection needed, but that is yet to come.

At the moment, the children look; jupon the rehearsals more in the light' of an amusing break in a dull day's, iwork, but with each repetition they iare becoming more practised in the! •art of quitting the building without Igetting in each other's way and in Iputting desk tops between them and !the squadrons of hypothetical bomb|ers that fly over the school at odd intervals. The whole affair to them [smacks very much of combined 'games on a grand scale.

i It is to be hoped that it never becomes more than a game.