CENTRAL SCHOOL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16724, 27 April 1920, Page 3

CENTRAL SCHOOL.

AGITATION FOR NEW BUILDING. FORCIBLE ARGUMENTS USED. At Monday evening’s meeting of "the chairman of tho committee, Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., again ventilated tho matter of the urgent need for tho provision of two new school buildings. In dealing with the question he said that the first move in that direction was taken as far back as 1911, when all the local doctors had signed a statement. Later the medical officer of the department had reported in similar terms, and the senior inspector for the board, an officer of the department, had also given an unfavourable report.

However no action had been taken by the board, although plans had been .prepared and application made to the department for grants for . that purpose. These, said the speaker, had been turned down by an officer of the department who said he would be “tho laughing- stock of the community” if lie recommended tho grants. Mr. Smith read one medical report and added that the headmaster had, with the concurrence of the committee, refused admission to scholars in certain classes which he considered- would still further menace tho health of tho children already attending. Ho moved that this meeting of householders most strongly condemns action of the Education Department in refusing a grant to rebuild the'Central and Courtenay St. Schools, and notes with alarm tho apparent disregard for tho health and well-being of the children of this district by such refusal, notwithstanding tlie reports of its own departmental officials drawing attention to the urgent need for action, and that the incoming committee bo empowered to take every necessary step to place tho whole position before the Minister of Education with a view of effecting some improvements in tho present unsatisfactory and insanitary position of the school buildings, duo to age, structural defects, lack of sufficient lighting, and overcrowding. Tho motion was carried.

A suggestion was inado that tho school should bo thrown , open some time to parents so that they might gain first hand knowledge, of tho unfavourable conditions under which the children were being educated. The matter was left in tho hands of tho incoming committee.

The Rev. J. Napier Milne congratulated tho committee on the way that they had fought out tho question of new schools. It was quite apparent to all that tho present accommodation was by no means adequate, quite apart from a sanitary point of view. Ho hoped that the committee would keep pestering the department, until their object was attained. He had been in many schools in England, and had never seen a room with so many desks in it as the one that they were then sitting in. . He considered that the children should he (aught under the most beautiful conditions and surroundings.