SCHOOL SWIMMING BATHS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24800, 14 February 1946, Page 3

SCHOOL SWIMMING BATHS

MAINTENANCE RESPONSIBILITY DISCUSSED

The responsibility of maintaining school baths should be borne by the Canterbury Education Board and not school committees, said Mr C. A. Rogers at a meeting of the Canterbury School Committees' Association, last evening. The Minister of Education (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) had previously ruled that the board should bear the responsibility, but when some school committees had asked the board for timber and labour to carry out necessary repairs, the board had replied that it had no power to shoulder the cost. As baths were necessary at schools, the board should be responsible for maintenance, said Mr Rogers. ' The board would do the work, but did not have the money, said Mr W. T. Langley. It had not heard from the Minister on the subject, and had written to the Education Department, but had not received a reply. It was necessary for children to learn to swim, said Mr J. D. Gray, but school committees were not getting any help. At times committees had constructed baths, but had found that repeatedly they had to bear the whole of the financial burden. Mr R. Cooper said that swimming clubs helped considerably in maintaining baths. They received little revenue, and if it were not for their efforts, nearly all the baths in Christchurch would not be fit for the children to swim in. He moved that a letter be sent to the Minister of Education, asking him to clarify the position of the maintenance and repairs to school baths. The motion was carried without dissent.