SLUM AREA

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 91, 19 April 1939, Page 7

SLUM AREA

MOUNT COOK SCHOOL

A BAD ENVIRONMENT

When it was announced at today 1* meeting of the Wellington Education Board that the Government had approved of a grant for additions to the Mount Cook School, Mr. C. H. Nicholls said that the whole question needed publicity and ventilation.

"The slums in Tory Street cannot go on indefinitely," said Mr. Nicholls. "Many of the buildings, are not.fit, for human habitation, and the board should not tolerate them, any longer. We ought to take a firm stand and get the buildings removed so that we can, go on with the scheme. The old school in Buckle Street is not' fit to be used. I move that something be done at once to get these hovels removed."

The environment of the Mount Cook School, remarked Mr. A. C. Blake, was distinctly bad for the children. They looked into some of the worst b.ackyards in Wellington.- Two important institutions, the > Museum and th« Technical College, were in the vicinity, and such a neighbourhood as they were in was. most undesirable.

The'chairman,' Mr.' W." K. Dyer, said that he was quite in accord with "what had been said. There had been delays in getting properties vacated since it was difficult, in these days to get people out of dwellings, but the board could rest assured that all possible was being done to get the area cleaned up.