HOUSES JUST HOVELS

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1935, Page 7

HOUSES JUST HOVELS

RESIDENTS AT SCHOOLS S CRITICISM BY TARANAKI BOARD. NIHO NIHO TEACHER COMPLAINS. BOARD MEMBERS IN AGREEMENT. Strong criticism of the conditions under which some young married teachers have to live in country districts was voiced by members of the Taranaki Edu- ] cation Board yesterday, when support < was given to the teacher of the Niho , Niho in his protest against the residence < provided. ! Mr. J. C. Barclay said that he was ab- , solutely disgusted at the type of houses 1 provided.for the teachers in some coun- . try districts. Some of them he could , characterise as hovels. It was not right that teachers from good homes and > with years of university education . should be expected to go into the coun- , try and live in hovels. The men in the railways and post office were provided with a suitable type of house, and he thought that it was time that strong representations were made to tfie Education Department tha such should be provided for teachers, particularly in country districts. There was no inducement for teachers to take up the profession. Sometimes, too, in the country teachers had to accept board and lodging in most undesirable houses. Indeed, in one ease the teacher had applied for permission to be allowed to sleep in the school porch, which, of course cOuld not be granted. , , . Mr. W. H. Jones said the board aid not want to do anything to jeopardise the chances of the young married teachers from obtaining residences. Those were the teachers for whom the board had evolved a moveable type of residence, but he felt that in such cases the full deduction from the salary for residence was not warranted. PROVISION FOR MARRIED. The chairman, Mr. J. A. Valentine, agreed that provision had to be made for those teachers, who, since the depression, had accepted the fact that they had to be content with a lower position and had married and settled down in the community, a very desirable thing. “I have to inform you that I have arrived at Niho Niho and taken possession of the school housfe,” wrote Mr. R. H. T. Newrick, the newly appointed teacher at Niho Niho. “I was not, however, prepared for the shock which I received on inspecting the residence,” he added. It was advertised as a four-roomed resl " dence, whereas it was only a threeroomed bach with a small scullery. There was no bathroom, only a tin bath in a small detached wash-house. The rooms were small, the walls, lined ; with wood, being painted various col- ' ours in a crude manner, while the chimneys, of the bush type, were hardly in keeping with a school house. The ’ lavatory was in an inaccessible comer oi the horse paddock and could be reached only by climbing a four-foot fence. ! There were only two small tanks, quite 1 inadequate to meet the demands of a 1 family. There was no room for his fur--1 niture as he had sufficient for four rooms as anticipated. From a health point of

’ view a woman could hardly be expected ] ' to rush to and from the wash-house in £ ! all weathers to wash herself and hei ] ’ baby and young child. 1 “As a consequence, he said, ■ I have ] : had to arrange for my wife and two ; children to board at Auckland until Such | 5 time as the residence here is made habitI able for my family, white I have had to , 1 procure board locally. Obviously, such ■ c a state of affairs is very unsatisfactory, , • both from a family and a financial view- s, J point, inasmuch as I have to pay double ; ; board expenses as well asi a house al- £ lowance equal to those who have a pro- j 1 per house with conveniences.” < s IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY. c Improvements necessary to make the . house suitable for a married man wito a family included the addition of a siting room with open fireplace, a bath- . room with porcelain bath, basin and ■ hot water service, removal of the stove, erection of proper chimney, painting and papering throughout and a verandah. The Niho Niho school committee supported the teacher’s application. Application was also received for alterations to the Mangatupoto residence to make it suitable for a married man. Mr. C. H. Moore, the board’s architect, v pointed out that the inference in the e Auckland province would be that the n Taranaki Board provided that type of i four-roomed residence for its teachers. ’ Mr. W. H. Jones said at the time the e Education Department had no money available for teachers’ residences and as L an expedient two Public Works Depart,s ment married quarters were procured. = The board’s own architect removed one "e of them and re-erected it at Tahora, giva ing the teacher there a much more preif sentable one than the one at Niho Niho, ts which had been shifted by the Public s Works Department and dumped on the te site. Personally he did not think that ie in calling applications for a teacher for that school the advertisement should have gone out as a fOur-roomCd resi■v dence. The teacher had certainly made ie out quite a story, but he had been misled by the way the residence had been L described. The board should, at least, make application to the department. Two ir of the windows he did not consider could ; n be called windows. He very much reA gretted that the board had ever consentsi ed to the use of the Public Works Department cottages, and he would support 1. the teacher’s application. x i The chairman said that he regretted they had allowed the Public Works Department to erect the building at Niho ,f Niho. He thought the matter should be referred to the architect with power to ' act in carrying out what repairs and alio terations were necessary. The matter was urgent.

NO PREVIOUS COMPLAINT. The architect said the previous teacherhad apparently made no complaint, but it was pointed out that previously that teacher had been living in a small bach. Mr. T. J. Griffin said he had been in the residence and he considered that the teacher was absolutely justified in his complaint. As a young man he certainly would not have liked to have taken that house as a residence to take his wife to. He agreed with Mr. Barclay that generally speaking teachers’ residences, especially of the older type, were not at all suitable for tire position held by the teacher in the district. Kaponga, Warea, Inglewood and dozens of others could be cited. In this case the teacher had ample justification for his complaint. The chairman considered the architect should do the necessary work and make application to the department for a grant to cover the cost.

It was pointed out that £4O per annum house allowance was deducted from the teachers’ salary, so that as the residence in question had only cost £BO, it had been paid for in two years. On the motion of the chairman and Mr. Barclay, it was unanimously resolved that the question of renovations to the Niho Niho residence be referred to the architect with power to act and that application be made to the department to cover the cost. The question of making representations to the Education Department con-

cerning the deductions being made from 1 teachers salaries for house, allowances for the use of movable baches was left in the hands of the chairman. . During the discussion on the necessity for the provision of houses for jnarne teachers, the architect stated that Purangi and Whareorino were the most serious cases. , . Mention was made of the fact that the department could not be expected to provide expensive residences m every country centre, when there was the danger that a young married teacher might apply for a transfer and be replaced by a single teacher who would not require the house. The chairman stated that the moveable type of house evolved y Mr. -Tones and the boards architect had been designed to meet such cases.