KINDERGARTEN FOR EXHIBITION

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 150, 21 March 1939, Page 8

KINDERGARTEN FOR EXHIBITION

Afterward To be Used At Wellington South MATERIALS DONATED Plans for the erection of a model kindergarten as a separate pavilion at the Centenial Exhibition, one afterward to be re-erected as an actual children’s schoolhouse in Wellington South, have been arranged by the Wellington Free Kindergarten Association in conjunction with the exhibition authorities. Yesterday the acting-president of the association, Mrs. Robert B. Gibbons, Miss Enid Wilson, principal of the Free Kindergarten, and Miss E. Scott, director of the Taranaki Street Kindergarten, visited the exhibition grounds in Rongotai with Mr. Edmund Anscombe, exhibition architect, and Mr. J. Fletcher and Mr. R. Love, contractors.

They inspected the site selected for the kindergarten, on the left of the main gate of the exhibition, Kingsford Smith Street—one of the finest situations available.

The building has been designed by Mr. Gray Young, Wellington, honorary architect. It will be a new departure from established precedents of kindergarten architecture. The building will be 78 feet long by 30 wide. In addition to the usual classrooms, cloakrooms and kitchen accommodation, it will incorporate a very large enclosed sunroom and two open-air verandas. On the close of the exhibition, the kindergarten will be dismantled and reerected on a site to be selected in Wellington South. Negotiations are at present being carried out through the Government for a suitable site, where, in addition to rebuilding the model kindergarten, it will be possible also to establish a children’s play area. No decision has yet been reached as to the final location. It is estimated that the cost of the building, completed in Rongotai, taken down, and re-erected on its final site, will be only a little more than £3OOO. This has been made possible through the presentation free of cost by various firms in all parts of New Zealand of most of the materials required for the building. • The laying out and embellishment of the grounds surrounding the kindergarten at the exhibition will be carried out by the director of parks and reserves, Mr. J. G. MacKenzie. A special feature will be made of this display, so as to provide a perfect setting for this interesting building.