CONSOLIDATION OF COUNTRY SCHOOLS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22109, 3 June 1937, Page 8

CONSOLIDATION OF COUNTRY SCHOOLS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRE.I 3. Sir—On extensive inquiries I have gathered sufficient verified information to be able to question Mrs Brooker’s letter of May 31. In the first place the buses may be overcrowded in Mrs Brooker s opinion, but the authorities responsible have laid down definite rules, and no bus is carrying the full number it is allowed to carry. Has Mrs Brooker ever considered the cost to the country if every bus in New Zealand was only carrying a minimum number of children? To make any alteration to the situation in Hawarden double the number of buses would be required. A little common sense tells us that the country could not stand the expense, also anyone who has ever been to school will know that a school teacher driver should have more control over the children than a mere driver. The fact that a person drives for eight and a half years without an accident on a road with hardly any variation in the grade and not a turn that could be called dangerous does not mean that the said person is a good driver. As to the buses in our district travelling at high speed, the statement is ridiculous. For years the residents have been asking for the bus service to be speeded up, and the contractor has always opposed this. The speed of the service is now set at fewer than 30 miles an hour, and I am given to understand the buses run to a timetable which does not require speeding to operate. The reference to the driver under 21 is uncalled for, to say the least. The driver under 21 was a man of 20 years of age last birthday, a sober, cleanIlvlng young man who had been driving cars and trucks for the last six years. The reference to the recent accident Is also sadly out of place, and should not be made until after an official Inquiry, for it Is a well-known fact that speed had nothing to do with it.—Yours, etc., ANOTHER HA WARDEN RESIDENT. Hawarden, May 31, 1937.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sjr,—l should like to thank Mrs Brooker for’her understanding letter in to-day 3 paper. She has put into print what so many of us feel but are unable to express. I do think that the boosters of the Hawarden District High School entirely overlook the small child's point of view. Let city parents imagine sending their five-year-old babies away at 8 a.m. to walk a mile and then travel 11 miles in an overcrowded and badly equipped bus, with the driver the only adult on board I Older children are more able to look alter themselves and usually please themselves about whether the bus curtains are pulled down, etc., while the little ones often come home half .frozen. It is certainly a case of the survival of the fittest. I would remind parents that children attending a country high school miss that education which comes from contact with city children—an education most helpful to the average country child in after life, it is very sad that the bus drivers have so much traffic to contend with, but at least the turkeys, etc., do no harm to buse" or children, while the buses can certainly harm the turkeys.—Yours, etc., Hawarden, May 31, 1937. , [Subject to the right of reply ot Interested” this corresponde. ee is now closed.—Ed. "The Press. 1