OTAKEHO.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 7 October 1913, Page 5

OTAKEHO.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) For some time past the local school^ committee have .been endeavoring to raise sufficient funds to make a tehiu» court m the school grounds to which the public would have access. The committee have also received estimates as to* the cost of putting down an asphalt. CO-?J t- .? h? uld the work be Proceeded: with and the court completed is a question which "your own" thinks should receive careful consideration. If a court Is to be put down in the school ground:'. with funds subscribed by the public, 01* the understanding that it would be a public court, they have no guarantee that it will remain so even for a day; as it complaints were raised in which it wasjstated (1) that the playing of tennis by the public during-school hours diverted the children's attention front their studies or (2) thab the public usedth? court to the extent of excluding the children the Education Board might give orders that the public would not be allowed to continue to use the court Now where does the public stand? After subscribing the money necessary theyhave not only enriched the Board to that extent, but they (the subscribers) have* nothing to show and no court on which to play tennis. Before the matter goes any further I think 4;he public should be* consulted and taken into the confidence of the committee and if they, as financiers, are favorable to the scheme, then set speedily to work. The committeehas decided to give the public an opportunity of expressing its opinion, as it ha* called a meeting for Wednesday night next. A few tennis enthusiasts willdoubtless attend but I think the majority of the people who will be asked to defray the cost of the committee's undertaking will be conspicuous by their absence. It is always thus in Otakeho! The people are too dilatory and slow in anything that pertains to the district's welfare and advancement, but are not too slowto criticise and to belittle the efforts of those who would work for the district's good. ,