Punils Save School £600

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30191, 24 July 1963, Page 17

Punils Save School £600

A team of amateur bookbinders has saved the Shirley Boys’ High School £6OO in the last three years. Yesterday librarians and interested pupils from nearly ail secondary schools in Christchurch went along to see how it was done

Some of the 18 boys engaged in book-binding in their spare time set up a display in the assembly hall and lectured to the visitors about

their work. Among the guests were some from the Geraldine District High School and the Christchurch Teachers’ College The book-binding department was started at Shirley when Mrs S. J. Collins, the school librarian, began there three years ago. She noticed ’hat the library books were a bit battered, and arranged for a professional book-binder to show some fourth-form

boys how to fix them. They went to the Canterbury Public Library for further instruction.

Now they repair both textbooks and library books, working at the rate of 3500 books a year. “It's all spare time work,’’ said Mrs Collins "They work quite independently. doing their own hiring and firing " She said the boys began with equipment worth be-

tween £l5 and £2O. but had added to it since then. They are allowed £10) a year for materials. It is believed that the Shirley Boys' High School is the only school in New Zealand with its own book-binding department, but after yesterday’s demonstrations similar departments are likely to spring up at schools all over the city.