Page 774 - Reading Mercury

Many people watched a thrilling demonstration by the Russian horsemen, the Don
Cossack Riders, at Norris Farm on Tuesday evening. The performance was floodlit.
Proceeds were for the Wokingham Welcome Home Fund.

FAMILIES INSTALLED AT CAMP
To prevent squatters getting there first, Wokingham Town Council has taken over
Toutley Camp for families on the emergency list. About ten families who were living
in crowded or insanitary conditions were moved in towards the end of last week. Four
families of squatters who were already in residence have been allowed to remain for
the present, and all the huts are now occupied.
Work is in progress to improve the Nissen huts in every way possible and to make
them into really comfortable temporary dwellings. Brick partitions are being built to
divide them into several rooms, clear glass will replace the frosted glass, and light,
water and indoor sanitation are to be installed. The Sergeants’ Mess is already
partitioned off, and it has a bathroom. The housewife who is living there with her
husband and child showed a reporter over her new home explaining that the other huts
would soon present a similar appearance. The combined kitchen and dining room,
quite adequate in size, contains a stove which gives out a pleasant heat, and, in
addition, there is a scullery and a bedroom.
Some of the other families are, for the time being, sharing communal bathrooms,
and as a temporary measure, the arrangement is working well. One reporter was told
that when Ald. F.J. Barrett, chairman of the Housing Committee, called to see how
things were progressing, he was assured that the occupants were definitely satisfied.

WOKINGHAM’S CHURCH SCHOOLS
The fate of Wokingham’s Church Schools was the subject of a well-attended
meeting under the chairmanship of the Bishop of Reading (the Rt. Rev. A.G. Panham)
in the Church House on Tuesday. “The Church was the pioneer of education long
before people entertained the remotest idea of this coming up to be the affair of the
State,” said his lordship. He stressed the need to preserve the independent character of
Church Schools and concluded, “There is no government in the world I would trust
with the education of all the children in the country. “We have seen where that can
lead.” The Bishop then introduced Sir Charles Harper, K.B.E., C.M.G.
Setting out to answer the question, “Why Church Schools?” Sir Charles said, “Our
Church stands and has stood for the religious side of the State and of the country. As
each, and in its own right, it has taken a great part in education and the formation of
the British character. Today in the new Education Act, church people have the chance
of carrying on that tradition. If our children are to have a fair chance of growing up
into Christian men and women, their education must have its roots in Church
Fellowship.”
The second speaker was the Rev. A.H. Rees, vicar of Chiswick and a minor Canon
of St. Paul’s. He explained that if Church people managed to raise half of the sum
required to run the schools under the New Act, Church Schools would become aided
schools. This would mean that the majority of school managers would be churchmen,
representing the principles for which the schools were built. They would have the
opportunity of appointing teachers who were believing Christians, and Church
teaching would be given without restriction. Also, the school premises would be at the
disposal of the managers on Sundays and workdays. If, on the other hand, Church
people failed to raise the money, the schools would become controlled and religious

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