A PAPAMOA OPINION

Te Puke Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 21, 18 March 1947, Page 1

A PAPAMOA OPINION

Sir, —I read with much disgust of the wrangling still going on over the Papamoa children attending the Te Puke school. This was supposed to have been settled amicably before. Christmas when an arrangement was made whereby the Papamoa children were to be transported to their school and the secondary school pupils taken back. It was stated that the pupils of that area preferred to go to Tauranga, but, if the Te Puke school provided the courses the Papamoa children wish to study, such as an agricultural course, it would, no doubt, gain their attendance. v Thc Te Puke committee’s cry has long been one of overcrowding; why then do they not exclude tlit* Papamoa children altogether from their school ? Surely this would be a help and they would ho longer be jeopardising Papamoa's chances of a new school. As has been mentioned previously in the correspondence column of your paper, the extension of the bus to the end of the Long Swam].) was for the sole purpose of conveying one child, the rest of whose family had always walked to the original bus stop, prior to the extension id' the bus service. 1 tail to see where the unnecessary hardship Mr Downs mentioned conies in. Admittedly the road in the vicinity of the Papamoa school is windy, but'not as dangerous as the intersection of Cameron road and the Main Road, and surely Mrs Kellv has read recently in the Herald of the many accidents where children have been killed alighting from school buses. The Te Puke School Committee lias every right “to try and arrange transport in dangerous areas’’ as long as they keep within their own boundaries, but surely Papamoa. is capable _ of looking after its own affairs without the unwanted and unwarranted interference of the Te Puke School Committee.—T am etc., PAPAMOA ITE. (Correspondence is welcome but views expressed do not necessarily represent editorial opinion).