THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 116, 2 February 1918, Page 10

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

SHORTAGE OP LABOUR. CURTAILS WORK. The summer holiday period is as a rule one of marked activity on tho part of the department of the Education Board which attends to the extension and renovation of the schools of the district, During the vacation noiv drawing to a close a good deal of work has been done, hut not nearly an much as the board would like to have accomplished. What has prevented all the work being donehas been tho difficulty experienced in obtaining contract tenders in a number of instances for advertised jobs, due to the shortage of labour and material. This has been particularly noticeable, in connection with work required tc be done in country schools. During tho holidays additions have heen made to the board schools at Upper Hutt and Karon, and additionswill be complete in a little timo to the Levin School. Tenders are i.bout to he called for a new side school (at Seatoun) to the Worser Bay School, which has been over taxed foi- some, time past. It is intended for tho present to take scholars up to the fourth standard. Temporary promises have heen secured at Solwav (Masterton) for a school, which it is hoped will be erected during tho year. Otherwise, tho summer holiday work has consisted of i cno v a tine and cleaning all the schools in the district. It is more than probable that <1k board , will he asked to consider the advisability of erecting'a small school in the vicinity of tho boundary between the city and Miramar Borough during the .present year. A great deal of building has taken place in this vicini.ty during tho last twelve months, and the houses are being occupied as rapidly as they can be built,' besides which Kilbirnie South _ has stretched eastward with surprising rapidity, rows of neat cottages and • shops occupying land that three years ago was nothing moro than an area of sand-hills. _ This district is three-quarters of a mile as tlio crow flies from the Maranui School, and moro than a mile by road. The settlement of the western part of Miramar has not progressed.so rapidly.