WAITAKI OLD BOYS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18135, 26 July 1924, Page 15

WAITAKI OLD BOYS.

♦ REUNION AND DINNERThe first annual dinner and reunion of the Christchureh branch of the Waitaki High School Old Boys' Association was held in the Cadena Tea Booms last night when members of the V. aitaki High School teams were cutertained. There vrere over 3-0 o.fl ooys present and Major .V* cstniaco occupied tho chair. . , Mr A. P. Morrison, in proposing tne toast of the "School and Masters, said it was over 41 years since t e sehool was opened. In IS7S a Bill was put through Parliament, and a site ot 150 acres was set apart for the "W aitaki High School. He outlined the happenings of the early days of tic school and dealt with the building up of the prestige of the institution. J-O----day, he stated Waitaki was second o no other sehool in the Dominion, ana it was almost , the duty of expupil of the school to bo in trie orefront of the movements in the direction of the uplift of the human _ race. Ino sehool was in a grand position bo 1 with regard to its masters and pupils. The Rector of tlic school, Mr P. Milner, . M.A., in reply, congratulated the organisers of the dinner on its success, and thanked the old bo^ s * present for the enthusiastic reception which thev had given him. He mentioned some .of the earlier episodes in the. history of the school, and said that the commencement of the institution was not 'a 'very happy one, on acconnt of the opposition which was offered to its foundation by some of the earlier residents of Oamaru. H° w ; ever, Dr. Don had placed the Waitalci High School on a firm footing, and the speaker, who was one of his successors, had experienced not a lit tle of the benefits of the Doctor's sterling service. Referring to the public school spirit, Mr Milner stated that, in Germany before the war a symposium had been held by some of the prominent men of Berlin,,, at whkh their school davs had been discussed. The majority of these had expressed horror and abhorrence of their school days on account of the rigour of the discipline and lack of sport, etc. The public Schools in. England, on the other hand, produced one of the finest assets -in ■English life. The present activities of the Waitaki School were not to be forgotten, said the speaker. One of the biggest things done during the past few months —and one for, which the old boys of the sehool were mainly responsible—was the project of setting on foot the school's ~war memorial.. To this the old boys had contributed no less than £7OOO. The memorial itself was estimated to cost £13,000, and the money was in hand. The memorial .would'be on the same lines as those of the English public schools. The school had had a splendid war record and during the recent struggle no fewer than 700 old boys had fought' in the service of the Empire. The Admiralty had' given the school some of the teak from the H.M.S. New Zealand for fittings for its war memorial and, .other honours had . been conferred upon' the school by several great Englishmen. (Applause.) Other toasts were: "The Team," proposed, by ,Mr L. Tosswill; - "Absent Old Boys," proposed by Captain Westm-a-eott; " Old Boys," 1 proposed by Mr A. K. Anderson; "Kindred Old Boys' Associations," proposed by Mr A. J. Learmonth'.