MIRAMAR PROTEST

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 252, 21 July 1934, Page 12

MIRAMAR PROTEST

School Ground Convenience MAYOR INVESTIGATES A storm in a tea-cup has broken out at Miramar in connection with, work being done at the Miramar Central School by relief workers. The matter was referred to at the last -meeting of the City Council. It seems that the men employed on the job objected to a certain type of convenience, not exactly up to date, being provided in the school ground itself, when there was a proper public convenience not very far away. Parents of the children attending the school supported the men, and threatened to take their children away from the school if the board insisted on the erection of the conveniences objected to. Following a statement by the chairman of the works committee, Mr. T. Forsyth, who is, chairman of the Wellington Education Board, an order was given to stop all work in the playground and draft the men on to other work.

At the meeting of the council the Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, promised to visit the place‘the next morning and judge for himself the merits of tne case. He did so, and did not take long to make up his mind about the matter. He 'did not think the convenience should have been placed oh the playground. as the site was directly opposite the school, and within a short distance of four other houses, while the public convenience on the polo ground, a city reserve, could have been made available by making a gap in the fence. He recommended the removal of the convenience from the school ground; the matter was really in the hands of the Education Board. There the matter stands. There has been a proposal to remove the shed in question from the school playground to the polo ground, but no action has been taken in that connection. In the meantime the men have been drafted to other jobs, in some cases a good deal farther away from their homes than the school grounds. The people of Miramar Central are still perturbed over the matter, and it is reported that some have, as a protest, sent their children to the Worser Bay gghool.