SAFETY BARRIERS

Wairarapa Daily Times, 21 October 1937, Page 7

SAFETY BARRIERS

PROTECTION AT SCHOOLS. Further discussion on the erection of safety barriers at school entrances took place" at the monthly meeting of the Wellington Education Board yesterday, when the board received from the Education Department detailed suggestions as to the most suitable type of barrier. This was in reply to an enquiry’from the board concerning its legal position in relation to the local body when barriers were erected outside a school entrance.

It was an extraordinary thing to advise the board how to erect a barrier, said the chairman, Mr W. Y. Dyer. What the board was concerned about was the'legal position as to the erec-. tion of barriers on the streets. Colonel T. W. McDonald moved that the department he advised the board did not consider the suggestion practicable. To make it effective a barrier would have to be put along the whole frontage of a school. The more effective way would be to get teachers to instruct children in safety measures. The idea might be all right for the city, but in the country it was needless. The department’s suggestion was supported by Messrs P. Robertson and C. H. Nicholls, who said the barriers were an urgent necessity in the country. Th,e latter pointed out that the board had already erected some fine barriers, and did not need to be shown how to do so. He did not think school committees should be saddled with the expense. Mr W. R. Nicol suggested that local bodies would be glad to have the board put up the barriers. At the Masterton Central School such a safety measure was a necessity.

It was decided to enquire again as to the powers of the board to spend money on footpath barriers.