MISS PICKEN'S FAREWELL.

Auckland Star, Issue 291, 9 December 1925, Page 9

MISS PICKEN'S FAREWELL.

BY OLD GRAMMAR GIRLS. HANDSOME PRESENTATION MADE. Gay and alluring could well describe the scene in the large assembly hall at the Girls' Grammar School in Howe Street last evening, when some 300 Old Girls of the school , assembled to do honour to the retiring headmistress, Miss W. Picken. The hall was most tastefully decorated •with flowers and evergreens, the main note of colour being blue and gold, the school colours.. Probably never in the history of the school had such enthusiasm been displayed. The girls had evidently worked hard to make the function -the success it proved to be. Bow,ls of blue larkspur and coreopsis lined the dais, the white supporting pillars being entwined with trails of asparagus fern, while at the back of the" dais on the walls huge landscape paintings made a most fitting background. Seldom if ever has such a bey yof beautiful womanhood and girlhood been gathered together, and the bright colourings of the many dresses in the dimmed lighting effects added to the picturesqueness of the animated scene. Many were the old stories told of school life that is gone but memories of which will last for ever. .One young mother was herad to remark, "Oh, it's lovely to be back," and that seemed to be the spirit of all. Some were greyheaded and some had apparently just left school. One and all had assembled to do honour to their own headmistress who had been with them for thirty years. A bell tinkled and all was silent. Then ■Miss Helen Wilson, president of the .association, in a short, but pretty little, i speech, said it seemed hard to part with j Miss Picken. She had been with them so jlong and was so well loved by all. The I old girls of the school would never quite I feel that the school was the same without 'her. One and all would never forget Miss Picken's unfailing kindness and justice in every way. They would not forget what she had' done for the Old Girls' Association either. Miss Wilson then presented Miss Pieken with a silver tea service. Miss Picken was greeted with rounds of applause when she rose to speak. She felt that they were still all girls, especially when she looked round the room and saw those who had taught her, taught ■with her and those ■whom she had taught, as well as those with whom she had been taught. During the last few weeks she had often felt sad when doing school routine work, that it was the last time she would perform certain offices. 'For the Old Girls' Association she had a very deep affection. On her return to Auckland she hoped to take a more active part in the work of that body. Miss Pickne concluded by expressing the hope that the girls would quickly realise that her successor was just as much a Jpart of the school as she had been and would still be. Subsequently a most enjoyable musical programme was submitted and a sumptuous supper partaken of.