THE MACANDREW ROAD SCHOOL.

Evening Star, Issue 9472, 17 August 1894, Page 3

THE MACANDREW ROAD SCHOOL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — In your last evening’s issue appears a report of the Board of Education meeting, in which mention is made that a deputation from the Macandrew road School Committee waited upon the Board with regard to an application from St. Clair and district residents to have a school erected there. Mr Chetwin is reported as saying that the School Committee would not like to stand in the way of the St. Clair people if their claims were just and equitable, and then points out that because the Macandrew road School would accommodate 700, and the average attendance is 529, therefore the St. Clair children shall be compelled to walk a long distance, iff all sorts of weather, to attend a school where,’as Mr Chetwin admits, the insanitary surroundings have been a sore point for years. You will still bear in mind Mr Chetwin’s opening icmarks about justness and equity, especially when he goes on to say that he did not think the Board had treated the school in a proper manner. This is surely no argument against a school at St. Clair. Because Mr Chetwin’s Board did not attend to the Macandrew' road drains appears to me a very strong argument in favor of a new school.

Now, with reference to Macandrew road School? let any parent go and inspect the same. There is a large open drain in front of the school and another at the side. In this latter the Chinamen deposit their refuse. lam perfectly sure that if the parents of children attending the Macandrew road School knew the immediate surroundings the attendance would be far less than 529. , Mr Chetwin’s last argument is that a new school at St. Glair would directly interfere with the Macandrew road School finances. Is this a fair and equitable reason ? A/e we to jeopardise our children’s lives on this account?— l am, e(c., C. H. Osmond. Dunedin, August 17.