“We shall watch the experiment with interest,” remarked the Victorian Director of Education (Mr. Tate) to a “Herald” reporter on Friday, in regard to the trial which the Director of Education of South Australia (Mr. Williams) is about to give to tents for school purposes in districts where the number of settlers does not offer sufficient inducement to the Government to erect permanent structures. Mr. Tate said that in Victoria remote districts were provided for by half-time school and by conveying children to school in wagons hired by the department. Mr. Swindley, Chief Inspector of Schools, who also discussed the matter, said that the idea was not new. He was not sure that, in a variable climate like that of Victoria, a tent unless it was of a fairly substantial character, like the type in use at the Consumptive Sanatorium at Greenvale (Broadmeadows), would serve very well for a school. He proposed to have a chat with Dr. Norris, chairman of the Board of Public Health, on the subject. If, as he had heard, it would cost £80 to erect a tent of that description, that would be a heavy item. He had no doubt, however, that is the idea were practicable – and the South Australian experiment would give some guidance – a serviceable tent school could be set up in any selected spot for much less than £80. In a second paragraph the “Herald” said: – “When Mr. Sachse was Minister for Education he proposed to establish schools on wheels. Roomy covered waggons were to travel through the ‘bush’ and children were to be taught on certain days as the waggon travelled around a particular circuit. Boards of advice were so charmed with the idea that they disputed with the Minister as to whether they or he were entitled to the credit for the proposal. The proposal was not given effect to, but all the same, in some Canadian and American newspapers Victoria was patted on the back for its progressiveness. Verbal pictures were drawn of the children at work and play, and a parental Government was represented as sending two officers with the waggon lost one should get lost in the ‘bush’. And yet it was all ‘only an idea.’ In South Australia when they get an idea they make an experiment, as witness the action of the Director (Mr. Williams) in sending a tent to the remote hundred of Shannon district for school purposes.”
Source: The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA); Mon 18 January 1909 (Page 6)
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5163862
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