TRAVELLING SCHOOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18942, 13 February 1925, Page 14

TRAVELLING SCHOOL.

RAILWAY CAR KITCHENS. TEACHING DOMESTIC SCIENCE. [FROM our. OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY. Feb. 5. The establishment of travelling domestic science schools by the Queensland Government has been a successful innovation- " The problem of educating people in the " outback' regions," Mrs. Brydon, inspector of women's work in Queensland, who has been visiting Sydney, told an interviewer last week, "is much more troublesome in the northern State than it is in New South Wales, because there the area is greater and the population less. The whole question was considered by the Education Department in 1923. and a new scheme evolved. First of all two railway cars were built, each 43ft. long and Bft. wide. Then these were equipped for the teaching of girls in batches of 14, the subjects being cookery, housewifery, laundry work, and needlework. "At one end of each car is a stove recess, built out over the buffers. Near the stove is a sink, and under the sink a 60-gallon tank. Then there is an ice chest, a gauge safe, lortvred on the side of the car; saucepan racks, nooks for household gear, a china cupboard with glass doors, a table for demonstration purposes —in fact, all the appurtenances of a modern kitchen. The teacher has a room adjoining, in which are bedroom fixtures, but she uses it onlv while actually travelling. While the car is occupied by pupils, it serves as a fitting room for dressmaking. The pupils are accommodated by hinged seats, which fall from the sides of the kitchen section. Although the car is equipped to take only 14 girls at a time, as many as 21 have sometimes been taught in it. At each stopping place the car remains for six or eight weeks. "Girls over 12 receive all-day instruction for not less than four days in the week; and in the more sparsely-settled regions girls who have left school, but, are undei 17. are also taught, Last year many pupils ride as far as 10 miles each day from their homes. Patents living at Mount Isa sent their children to Duchess, the nearest railway terminus, to board as long as the car remained, and accommodation in the little town was severely taxed. . "The department has provided booklets on simple cookery, hygiene, and so on, for free distribution. Then on one day in each week the teacher gives a demonstration to adults. These demonstrations are always well attended and appreciated. During 1924 the two cars visited 14 centres."