STRONG CRITICISM.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1126, 13 May 1911, Page 10

STRONG CRITICISM.

JIASTERTON INFANT SCHOOL. During a visit to the Mastorton District High-School the other day, in his capacity as n member of the Wellington Education Board, Mr. A. ,AW Hogg, M.l\, was invited to inspect the infant room, which was very much overcrowded. Mr. Hogg expressed himself in very stroii" terms of disapproval at the condition of things in general and subsequently in a letter to the chairman of the board, adversely criticised the system of ventilation in use in the. infant department.

"It is true," he said, "that the. walls arc supplied with patent ventilators, and nil the windows are wide, open, but the fresh air is admitted from a 'height considerably over the heads of both children and teachers. The consequence is that the children and teachers are, for hours every day, working in a wooden walled tank of poisonous exhalations. This state of things is, in my opinion, most injurious, nay. destructive to teachers and their pupils. In rooms, practically unventilatcd. consuming the waste products of their lungs—carbonic acid,, ammonia, urea, and organic refuse-—they are for hours undergoing slow poisoning. Hcnco the- frequent applications for sick leave and the. prevalence of epidemics. . . . In some of our churches and public buildings warm air is conveved under the doors and circulated through gratinßs. Cannot fresh air bo conducted in the Piiine way? Air space nm! overhead ventilation are of little hep in crowded apartments. The atmosphere above saves no one from drowning. Impure air laden with poisonous jjases will ,not travel upwards unless forced by the-admission of pure air from beneath,"