STARVING SCHOOL CHILDREN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3526, 19 August 1926, Page 3

STARVING SCHOOL CHILDREN.

PITIABLE CONDITIONS. Auckland, August 18. Children so hungry that they try to get each other’s lunches are reported to be attending some of the schools on the northeim gumlands. Mr. A. Burns (chairman of the Auckland Education Board) stated at to-day’s meeting of the board that Mr. M. Priestley (inspector of schools) had found conditions at five northern schools of an alarming nature. The children —some of them half-caste, others the descendants of Austrians —were in many eases under-clothed, underfed, and on the verge of starvation. The decline of the gumlands had brought poverty and distress to numbers of 'families, and some of the girls had only one article of clothing to wear this winter. One boy had a big overcoat and not much more. Some of the children went hungry to school and others were unable to go at all. * “In a young country like this, it is pitiable that such a state of things should be,” remarked Mr. Burns. “It is the duty of the board to see that children go to school, but it is no use trying to teach a hungry child. Some of them are starving.” Mr. Burns suggested that some arrangements should be made to get food and clothing to destitute homes.

Mr. W. J. Campbell volunteered to make immediate arrangements to co-operate with charitable organisations to have supplies sent. Mr. Burns: Thank you. I think I hat is splendid. Mr. E. C. Banks said that grocers and storekeepers would probably be willing' to give their support through the teachers.