CENTRAL SCHOOL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 204, 30 July 1931, Page 7

CENTRAL SCHOOL.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Our lessons from to-days and yesterdays determine our successes fqr to-morrow - . Some are a little slow in profiting from learning, hence, a little backward in grasping the necessities of the future. Your correspondent ; “Stunned” states that I _ voice no argument supporting the Minister s decision for decapitation. My argument is that safety is the essential factor in the construction of a school where children are housed in hundreds. _lo most careful thinking people, anything considered “unsafe” about a building nullifies its beauty, and value, but evidently “Stunned” is of a more careless trend of thought. He prefers to risk the mutilation of innocent and promising young lives to removing bricks and mortar. I understand the upper portion of this school has been condemned by experts for its constructional weakness to seismic conditions. The experience at Nelson was sufficient, and that of Napier bad. Knowledge can come to us from warning and it can-be brought home to us from suffering and remorse. It is infinitely better to be guided by the former than to learn to feel the anguish resulting from .* the latter. If “Stunned” wishes to restore the pupils’ confidence in their school, as well as that of parents, then the shortest route is .for the Minister of Education to put his decision into operation as soon as possible, for confidence once broken is a very difficult thing to replace. In any case, the immature mind of youth grows up to appreciate a school not so much for its architectural beauty, but for its doctrines and teachings, so little harm can come to them meantime until their safety is for. —! am, stc.j ensured ror rat jj’ er 0F F QUR.