CHILDREN ON TRAINS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22056, 12 March 1935, Page 11

CHILDREN ON TRAINS

SENSELESS CONDUCT CRITICISM BY OFFICIALS PRESENT-DAY " INTELLIGENCE " Agreement with the remarks made at a recent meeting of the Auckland Education Board, criticising the conduct of children travelling to and from school by train, was expressed by railway officials. They emphasised the point that censure of the children's conduct was made for reasons of their safety.

" The secondary school pupils who travel daily from the suburbs to the city' are careless about observance of the safety regulations," remarked 0110 official yesterday, " and it is remarkable that accidents arc not more frequent. Guards have repeatedly complained about pupils boarding trains in motion, and only recently three schoolchildren had their tickets confiscated for this breach." Parents of children on whom such penalties were imposed generally took umbrage at the department's action, instead of co-operating to educate, the offenders to observe the rules made for their own safety, and the safety of others. The children travelled in special carriages, and at most suburban stations there was unnecessary jostling to secure the best seats. Of course, the older pupils always got the best of the engagements, and there was the constant danger of younger children being pushed under a train.

"It is no sinecure being in charge of a train on which the school children are travelling," remarked a guard, who said he had long and bitter experience. " They are a strange cargo, an<] you never know what is going to happen next," he continued. " The younger generation seem to be a race of prac tical • jokers." A favourite sport of the boys was to fill the paper drinking cups provided on trains, and bombard each other with the missiles, which exploded with devastating effect. A relieving stationmaster at Ellerslie was once the victim of a concerted attack, when schoolboys appeared like magic at the windows of a carriage, and hurled a shower of water-filled cups at the startled, and then irate, official. " The boys are sometimes extremely difficult to handle," the guard continued. " There are scuffles between opposing factions, and occasionally windows are broken, although this offence is not so frequent as it was. Some of the older boys become recalcitrant when admonished, and tact does not always avail."

Guards always feared what might happen in the Parnell tunnel. A number of school children travelled right through to the city, and the danger was always present of practical jokers taking advantage of the darkness When the train emerged into the light, it was on the cards the children's carriage would be littered with books and papers. Another trick sometimes indulged in was the throwing of apple cores into the carriages of passing trains.