THE CLEVELAND TRAGEDY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 140, 7 March 1908, Page 4

THE CLEVELAND TRAGEDY.

• . : — When the cable news reports any great disaster, abroad, in which, there - is a large loss of life,, it- is generally the case that few people are genuinely : moved to something more than a halfperfunctory sympathy, but the appalling calamity in Cleveland, where n nearly 200 young children were dei- strayed - in & fire, is of a kind to .cause it aching hearts all over the world. The story is an inexpressibly mournful one, e and in New Zealand a .deep and real e sympathy will be felt with the parents c affected. Certain features of the e tragedy cannot be thought of withoul e the bitterest, anger, , and the, hope of a is. stern punishment, for any discoverable ii guilt in the authorities responsible foi n the maintenance of the worst kind oi :s death-trap as a public school. Calamit ities such- as these have generally the e double . effect of. creating great alarni i- wliereiver they obtain report, and oi it directing public attention to the state 'e of the' local safeguards against siinilai c disaster. It may beltaken for granted is that every Wellington citizen who ha: > a child at school has experienced a' st least a momentary uneasiness at th< •e sudden and terrible revelation of whai " a parent may have to suffer. Tho'sf 5. who may be feeling any real alarm st however; should bear in mind the vast g indeed, the vital, difference betweer 1- our own school structures and th< st building that has been destroyed : ii te Cleveland. That building was of si? id stories, very old and apparently as ill i, constricted as it could possibly be It In New Zealand, on the other hand ig the school buildings, with few if anj m exceptions, are limited to two floors a

the most. In the majority of cases they do not go beyond the first story. They also have not been built without an eye to the necessity for speedy exit.. The Cleveland tragedy may wim profit be made the occasion of a re-inspection of our schools, in order finally to allay any lingering public uneasiness, but it is quite unnecessary to make the disaster an occasion . for alarmist suggestions of danger.