OVERCROWDED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 33, 9 February 1927, Page 10

OVERCROWDED

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—l have to thank you for publishing my letter regarding school accommodation at the Hutt. I must say that I ha\V read the replies of the Education Board and Mr. Gearing with surprise and regret, particularly that portion of the lat.™s- *tatement wherein he states that fp infants are crowded into accommodation provided for 160. Can you imagine what it must be like for these children and their teachers, particularly at this hot season of the year? I am informed by a scholar that in at least one standard three' children have been required to sit at desks made for two. It is hard to realise that during the last fifteen months the Education Board has failed to heed the urgings of the school committee, particularly in view of the development that has been going on in the vicinity of the Eastern Hutt School district lately. : Is the secretary to the Eductaion Board serious or only joking when he advises parents to send their children to the temporary school • at .Hutt Park Racecourse, which school is, I understand, already full, and is at least two and a half to three miles distant from Eastern Hutt? The children (particularly infants) are required to travel along streets and roads, m some cases there being no footpaths, where motor and other traffic is very heavy.

There lias appeared in the "Eyenin<* Post during the last few weeks several interesting articles-concerning the rapid development of Lower Hutt, and from the statistics quoted I think you will agree that the White's Line School (now being built) will be overcrowded before it is opened.

The obtaining of temporary accommodation at Knox Church Hall (a distance of at least three-quarters of a mile from the Eastern Hutt School), is, in my opinion, not in the best'interests of the school or the scholars, and I am sure It is not -favourably looked upon by the headmaster Mr. Editor, I think the school committee must accept a certain amount of responsibility for the position which has arisen. If the commmitteemen were unable to impress the Education Board with the seriousness of the position, why did they not call the householders (their electors) together and obtain their assistance in an effort to obtain redress?

I am of the opinion that something must be done, and on an extensive scale, and very quickly, too, otherwise there will be bitter complaints from parents, particularly those new arrivals in the district. I am, etc., . • ■

SHUT-OUT.