BRICK OR WOOD?

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 140, 16 June 1931, Page 8

BRICK OR WOOD?

SCHOOL BUILDINGS. MINISTER CRITICISED. At the Central School Committee meeting at Palmerston North this week, the chairman, the Rev. J. D. McArthur, stated that he had nothing further to report in regard to the school building. There was apparently a difference of opinion between the two architects and engineer, and the Minister of Education (the Hon. H. Atmore) would not, when the children’s safety was at stake, give the casting vote. Professor Cull, of Canterbury College, had been asked to make an inspection, but the chairman said he had not received anything definite as to when this would take place. One committeeman expressed the view that according to the report on the Hawke’s Bay schools, the Central School should be condemned. The Minister was taken to task by members of the Terrace End School Committee last evening for statements recently made concerning brick schools. “I think the Minister has been a bit premature about putting statements around regarding brick buildings,” said Mr W. B. Cameron, chairman. “There will be some difficulty in getting the children back into Central School, and if he goes on the way he is doing, we will not have the parents sending their children back to any of the brick schools. He should have taken the whole thing in committee.” The Wanganui Education Board advised the committee that, in regard to the alterations to the brick building as recommended by its architect, no action could be taken until advise was received from the Minister.