MASTERTON DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10233, 9 May 1911, Page 5

MASTERTON DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL.

INFANT ROOM OVERCROWDED.

OLD FURNITURE AND BAD VENTILATION.

Mr Hogg, M.P., accompanied by Mr R. Brown, chairman of the Materton School Committee, visited :h<school yesterday. The Headmaster (Mr \Y. H. Jackson) showed J:un over the new Museum, which is to be opened in a few days, an.! ai?o the -miniature riile range. Th ir principal attention was '.'irvc-cel to the urgent want of an Asse.ub;;. Hall, and the overcrowded coirJiti'U qf the infant room. Under the charge of Miss Wolfe and her staff of pupil teachers, the conduct and discipline of the young children seemed entirely beyond criticism, but it was evident that they laboured under disadvantages of a serious nature. In long wooden seats, with desks in front that suffered from the amateur carvings of a past age, each little boy with his legs screwed under him seemed a "Jack-in-the-box," and each little girl—-only that she was clean and tidy and neatly dressed—a CindcreEa making , pothooks.

"What a lot of trouble your mothers'must have, washing so'many little faces and combing and tying up so many heads, and them coeking breakfast!" said the member. Then be added: ' 'And your teachers, too; showing you how to make figures on your slates." These words, addressed to the youngest, mostly genuine infants, secured no reply, but Miss Wolfe, in kindly tones, exclaimed: "Oh, they're very good, Mr Hogg; they're very good!" Quite 150 were present, and the mistress isaid about thirty were away with the measles.

"Now how many of you have had the measles?"

"All you that have had measles, hold up your right hand," said Miss Wolfe.

The reply was a revelation. The hands of about two-thirds of the crowd addressed went up.

"You that want to have the meas'es, told up your hand,"-facetiously exclaimed Mr Brown. There was no response.

■; The youing people seemed closely pecked together, and Miss Wolfe admitted that tfoe room was too crowded. Then the children sat with their backs to the light, and the teadhem had the windows constantly in their eyes.

"Fit only for firewood," was the comment passed on the ipost and rail seats and desks witere the youngsters were imprisoned witli their legs and feet cramped up like offenders in the stocks.

"How long have these instruments of torture done duty?" was the question ,put to the Headmaster.

"Thirty years, about," was the answer.

"And thsy still hold together?" "With the help of my hammer and nails," retorted Mr Jackson.' "They are often mended," remarked Miss Wolfe.

The most serious defect of all had yiet to be tackled. "What's tihei good of these ventilators?" queried Mr Hogg, looking at the little squares in the walls between the widely open'windows. "Oh, these are patent ventilators," Mr Jackson replied, and he gave them their technical name. "I don't- care," was the stubborn reply., "Inventors and architects ought to be banged. Fancy keeping little children in a poisoned tank."

"Oh, but this is a patent process," was. the assuring rejoinder, and Mr Hogg was led out to see the corresponding little squares in the outside wails. Then it was explained that the -fresh air from the outside was admitted and travelled through tubes.

Mr Hogg was not to be convinced. "Where is the fresh air distributed?" he asked. "It is admitted from the outside bellow and distributed in the interior, a long wiay above the heads of the children."

"What's the good of that? They are drinking in poison all the time. How do you stand it, Miiss Wolfe?" "Not very .well," was the sad re-

ply. Anid tffien Mr Hogg thought of the littile ones, getting their shouMera miadie round and their bfecks twisted out of shape, and their legs nearly screwed off in the wooden racks they Iliad to occupy for hours together, and again he compkinied of the ventilation.

"Well, if that is the fault you bad better have.a look at the recentlybuilt secondary class-room," suggested the Headmaster. THs room was visited. Mr Haslam was at work among his students. .ML the windows were open, and the ventilators were above the windows.

"Another poison tank," said Mr Hogg. "Don't you suffer from the bad air?" "On a warm day I often feel sick," wiasi Mr Ha.slam's reply. "And the unfortunate students!" sighed Mr Hogg. In a letter that he has written to the chairman of the Wellington Education Board, Mr Hogg points out in reference to the infant room:— "It is true that the walls are supplied with patent ventilators, and all the windows are wide open, but tlie fresh air is admitted from a height considerably over the heads of both children a.nd teachers. The consequence is that the children and teachers are, for hours every day, 'working in a wood°u waPe-l tank of poisonous exhalations. This state of things is, in. my ooinion, most injurious, nay destructive to teachers and their u.pils. In rooms, ,praoti-

cally unventilated, consuming the wr.r'e products of their J' r :igs—-coa*-bonic acid, amumonia, lire** aad organic refuse—they are for 'hours undergoing slow poisoning. . Hence the frequent applications for sick leave and the prevalence of epidemics. ... In some of our church-

es and public buildings waam air is conveyed under the floors and circulated through 'gratings. Cannot fresh air be conducted in, the same way? Air space and overhead ventilation are of little use in crowded apartments. The atmosphere above sayes no one from drowning. Impure air laden with poisonous gases will not travel upwards unless forced by the admission of pure air from, beneath."