OVERCROWDWD SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17429, 26 March 1920, Page 6

OVERCROWDWD SCHOOLS.

. PROBLEM TO-BE FACED.

STATEMENT BY ME: PARR.

FIRST DUTY AS MINISTER.'[EY TEI>EGKArH —OWN COKBESFONDBJT.J . WELLINGTON, Thursday. The new Minister for Education, Mr. C. J. Parr, said to-day that he intends" to take tip as his first task the overcrowding problem in schools. He has already had something to say about the conditions in his own city of Auckland, and he has spent some time in acquiring a personal knowledge of the conditions in Wellington, where the state of things is considered to be almost as bad as in Auckland. Fortunately the very worst overcrowding is confined to these two cities. In Christchurch the evil is not very serious, and in Dunedin it exists hardly at aIL Mr. Parr feels that his first important duty is to see that overcrowding is checked by the erection as speedily as possible of suitable school buildings. After Easter, by which time Mr. Parr should have been sworn in as Minister, he intends to visit Christchurch and Dunedin, to see what are the conditions of the schools in those cities.

"I consider this should be my first duty," said Mr. Parr. " I want to seethat the conditions in every school are made healthful. K is no use to provide the best system of education for children, if at the same time we house them in schools under crowded conditions, and so undo all the good work of the physical training we are at pains to provide for them."