STOKES SCHOOL VALLEY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 21, 25 July 1927, Page 8

STOKES SCHOOL VALLEY

(To tbe Editor.)

Sir, —The children at present attending the above-named school come from an area extending for fully two and a half miles. The roll at present numbers about twenty-four; Five of the pupils live at Haywards and two in Xaita Gorge, tor in the extreme southern portions, and the remainder come from well distributed homes between the extremes.

The whole district comprises blocks of land subdivided for closer settlement, and with the advent of the new railway and the bituminising of the Hutt road all the way to Wellington, it is only reasonable to assume that within a period of- five years the school will average 400 pupils. The school has to be moved from its present site owing to being practically on the road.

At the present time the southern portion has the advantage in settlement in consequence of having been placed on the market two years before the remainder of the district. In this southern portion there is a reserve of 2V4 acres, representing a part of the usual 5% per cent. Eet aside by the owner when subdividing. This particular reserve is low-lying, and is situated well in the shade of a range of hills. The means of access is an unformed right-of-way.

It is estimated that the cost of repairing the ground, etc., for a school site will cost at least £400. The principal objection is that this reserve is situated at one end of a long district, and the erection of a school thereon would in a few years' time necessitate another school nearer the Main Hutt road.

By the acquisition of a central site and the erection of a school which would serve the district for all time, the capital cost of such site would be saved within any period of two years in teachers' salaries alone. If such-like preventable waste of public money becomes general throughout New Zealand, how many hundreds of thousands of pounds could be saved by the investigations of a non-political Commission of Inquiry, or the services of a Departmental inspector specially appointed for the purpose.—l am, etc.,

EESIDENT.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—"Mother of Tiny Tots" states that should their school be moved, parents would be compelled to send their children by train, with its attendant risks, to Silverstream, or Belmont. It wilt, evidently, be quite a surprise that in the well-populated district of Belmont we have no school. There are 49 children of. various ages attending school, and a number nearing five years of oge and over, who do not attend because of the train journey. Our children all have to leave home soon after 8 o'clock to catch the 8.23, and then have a 25-minutes' wait before school begins. They are away all day, the tiny ones included. The latter have 45 minutes to wait on leaving school for the train home. Twice a week during the winter months they come on an earlier one because the goods train only runs three days out of five. The older children then have over an hour to wait for their train. Throughout the year the only available drink is .water, except for the primary classes, who have a cup of cocoa at lunch time during June, July, and August. The younger children also have no shelter shed provided, so it appears that the children of Stokes Valley are better catered for than those of Belmont.—l am, etc.,

ANOTHER MOTHER,

23rd July.