NEWS BY MAIL

Hokitika Guardian, 29 March 1926, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL

GIPSIES WHO LOVE SCHOOL. LONDON, Jan. 26. AVlien the Surrey Education Committee undertook the experiment of establishing a school for gipsies on Hurtwootl Down, between Guildford and Dorking, the members could not have realised that the scheme would have been such a success. Gipsies from ~2Q miles around are trekking to JTurtwood Down, those living on the Down have shifted their tents close to the corrugated 'hutschool so that- now it resembles a lug encampment, and the teacher has to work 13 or 14 hours a day. The youngest pupil is •! years old and the oldest is a woman of .70, who in company with 50 other men and women fill the classroom with smoke from clay pipes. “There could Hx> no more enthusiastic pupils.” said Air ALilner, the teacher, to a reporter yesterday. ’1 he hours for children are from 9 a.lll. to 4 p.m., but some of them are waiting outside the hut at 7 o’clock, and so intorcsed arc they 111 the stories he tells them that it is nearer 5 o’clock before the door is finally locked on the reluctant children. In the evenings the fathers and mothers file into the classroom end listen intently to Air Aliluer, wlui, by tho light of acetylene lamp, explains stories to them with the aid ot coloured pictures ol animals with movable limbs. “It is a difficult tied; teaching them to read, write, and draw,” said Air Milner, “but they are very willing and enthusiastic. My wife is arriving on Saturday to help me.” O BSD I .ETE TR A AIWA YS. LONDON. Jan. 20. Since 1914 there lias been a deficiency oil the working of the East Ham municipal tramways of £213,000, which the ratepayers have had to pay. The local council now propose to replace tramway-cars on one section of the route hy electric omnibuses, obtaining the motive power by means of trolly-poles from overhead wires, and to extend this system of trolly-omni-buses, which will ho independent of rails, in other directions. Though approved by the council, the scheme, which involves tho promotion of a parliamentary Bill and an expenditure of more than £150,090. has aroused great opposition. A poll of the ratepayers will take place to-day. Aid. If. H. Osborn, who is leading the opposition to the proposal, said yesterday that the tramways already cost, the'borough a rate'every year of Is 51 d in the £. The total rates are 23s 5d in the £. The new proposal would add another -Id to the rates. It is also contended that such forms of traction as trolley-omnibuses are obsolete, and an intolerable expense to l lie ratepayers. .