King Country Chronicle. Monday, July 3, 1939. TE KUITI SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4805, 3 July 1939, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Monday, July 3, 1939. TE KUITI SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

The concern felt by the Te Kuiti School Committee at the delay in the replacement of the burnt school buifcling is also felt throughout the whole community. Though the block of school buildings was burnt down on March 20, no move has yet been made to replace them. Certainly the position has been somewhat complicated by the alternative schemes of encroaching on the Domain, or of utilising the paddock lying immediately south of the Presbyterian Hall, but as the Committee has pointed out, this provides no excuse for the delay in commencing work on one block of three rooms. Whichever scheme is adopted, this block is to stand on the site of the building destroyed in the fire. This is no ordinary case of adding building's to a school. When the fire occurred the school was already much overcrowded, and now that the block of five large rooms, headmaster's study, and teachers' commonroom has been destroyed, the position is.a desperate one. By utilising the technical buildings, and cramming two classes into each of the Presbyterian and Municipal Halls, it has been possible to carry on, but under difficulties so immense and trying as to demand the utmost speed in the replacement of the buildings. The necessity of having two classes in one room the lack of suitable conveniences, inadequate playing areas for those in the Municipal Hall, and the lack of heating facilities, are only a few of the many inconveniences suffered. Because of the Winter Show, the Municipal Hall pupils were housed for a week or so in the Parish Hall, where conveniences are inadequate and playing areas non-existent. Even when these pupils are in the Municipal Hall, the necessity for them to use the Rora Street lawn as a playing area immediately gives rise to a

danger to the children that is too great to. be permitted to continue. The block of three rooms would relieve the-situation somewhat, but it is hard to imagine that the difficulties of fixing upon a .site are so great that a decision could not have been made before now. From the point of view of the town, and of the pupils who use the Domain as a playing area, it would seem a great pity to carve up this recreation area. It is understood that the circus paddock now belongs to the Crown, and with this lying so handy to the Domain, and likely to make in itself a worthy addition to the school grounds, surely the best way would be to transfer it to the Education Department and proceed with the erection of school buildings there. Though originally acquired with a view to building State houses, there must be ample scope for the extension of the. housing scheme in •Te Kuiti on either Crown or cheaply acquired sections, whilst large areas of flat land suitable for school buildings are scarce.