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Show 350 REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN 80HOOL9. Quite instructive, in this connection, is the fact that during the past seveu years the Indian school service has lost by fire nine school plants, valued aL $235,000. This sum would have been sufficient to supply sixty schools with electric plants and would have removed the chief cause of these fires. Yet this sum does not inclnde the loss in fi~rnitutoa ~ c~ehodol s ~ ~ l ~ p lsioestsit ined in these Grrs, nor n ~~~~~~~~r of s l ~ ~ aflirle s, and I I I~I I IY. .unrrow esval~es.'' Even sdide from iu~portant hroitnic c t ) n s i d e~~t itoh~nt~ rse c o ~ u ~ ntrh~v~ ndd o ~ ~ toifo e~le~c tric lirrl~t. i G i u our boarding schools, every consideration of economy speakifor this valuable improvement. A great number of schools in the erection of whose buildings no pro-vision was made for ve~rtilationh ave within the last year added such provision, and I can see no reason why, with the proper display of energy on the part of school superiutendents, there should be at t,he close of the ensuing year a single bchool in the Indian service without means for introducing fresh air and expelling vitiated air from its rooms at all times. Ventilating shafts and air ducts are inexpensive and easy of construction, ar~rtlh ere is no difficulty iu reaching external atmosphere in auy of our schools. In all cases where i t was neeessarv the im~ortanceof attetidine to the c o ~ ~ c l iitr1~11o1 e~u~or truetio~o~t onti~ouues1 1;~sb ecu cmpl~:~sizeyd1,1 1d da~~geruunsn tl 11111r~gie1v1ii~e oltsa ud ccsspoola uru beiug sulll~lunted bv \vcll co~t.;tr~~ruteutdl less exoensiru drv.earth ell~setr. "~ncreased attention, too, has been given to washing and bathing facilities and to water supply. The objectionable bath tub, with its co~~s tantetl nptatiou to bathe more than one child in one water, ,is giviug may to the shower and ring bath, less expensive, more hygien~c, aud absolutely excluding the possibility of the same water for more than one child. In spite of constant eflorta on the part of supervisors, however, schools are still found in the service which, instead of fiwnish~ng each child with his own towel for the morning bath, use the filthy roller towel, which encourages the spread of certaiu contagions diseases that might be readily isolated by the exercise of proper care in this direc-tion. I hope that another year will do away with the abomination of the roller towel and the tin wash basin throughout the service. Insufficient and improper lighting of schoolrooms in the older build-ings is a great source of annoyance. In many i~rstaricest he windows are so arranged that children are compelled to face the light. In others the light colnes only from the rear, and in still others from opposite sides of the room. Wherever it is possible to do so these evils are being corrected, and care is takeu in new buildings to furnish the children nu abundant supply of light from the left side of the room exclusively. I desire, iu thiis oolmection, to express n ~ yhi gh rtpyreoiation of the seal and jlldgment with which the chief of your education division has aided me in securing these improvements, as well asof theprofessional sk~l lw lrich your architect has brought to this fundamental part of the Indian school work. The recommendation by these gentlemen of the e~uploymeuot f competent inspectors of bnildings should be adopted without delay. Thousalrds of dollars could be saved annually through the services of snclr insl~ectors by the uupervisiou of improvements in process of construction and by the haatelring of timely repairs. |
