USE OF SCHOOLS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 August 1942, Page 2

USE OF SCHOOLS

BY ARMY AND HOSPITAL BOARDS PROTEST TO THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION. MATTER TO BE TAKEN UP. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Opposition to the continued and frequent use of school buildings by Army and hospital authorities was expressed by a deputation of the executive of the New Zealand Educational Institute, which interviewed the Minister of Education, Mr Mason, yesterday. 8 While fully appreciating the present state of emergency and realising all the demands of the Army to be paramount, the deputation said it considered that ultimate victory would be of little value unless there was a citizenship worthy of meeting post-war conditions, and such conditions depended on the work in the schools now for the duration of the war. The needs of the children were being given little consideration by certain sections of those in power, this being a distinct tendency on the part of the military and hospital authorities. Schools worthy of the young folk had been built of recent years, and these were the very ones that were being taken over. Hospital boards, it was stated by the deputation, were clearly making a wrong use of the emergency regulations, which had not been introduced for the purposes for which they were being used. In the opinion of the deputation school buildings were being taken on very slender pretexts and more for the purpose of saving inconvenience than for meeting real emergencies.

The Minister, in reply, said that he appreciated that the position was unsatisfactory, and it was his intention to take the matter up with the Department of Health.