Deb. Balls Defended

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31976, 1 May 1969, Page 2

Deb. Balls Defended

Although some people criticised debutante balls for the wasted expense and their unreality, they did have a real value, the Roman , Catholic Bishop of Christchurch (the Most Rev. B. P. Ashby) said last evening.

The traditional purpose of the presentation of debutantes was to welcome them

into adult society, he said, at the Sacred Heart College Past Pupils’ Association’s twenty-third debutante ball. _ “We give you a ticket of admission, as it were, to adult functions; we ask you to take your place at our side in the real world of struggle and pain, of joy, fulfilment and maturity as you prepare yourselves more closely for your life’s destiny,” Bishop Ashby told the debutantes. “We place on your shoulders the burden of responsibility that comes with adulthood. You now become productive members of society; your concern for others must replace the nonchalance and selfishness of childhood. “Your growth in maturity will be measured by your ability to make decisions affecting yourself and others and your tenacity in sticking to them.”

He mentioned - with pleasure the number of fathers who were partners in the debutante presentation. “Their presence is rich in symbolism: the head of the family issuing a manifesto that his daughter is now a fitting person to grace the social scene.

"He implies that he and your mother are now willing to give you that controlled freedom you will need for continued growth. Freedom because you are going to be treated as grown-up; controlled because you still need the love and security of your family circle to carry you through these next few critical years.

“Girls, take the memory and assurance of this experience shared with your father into your future. It is a true gauge of the love between you.” Bishop Ashby said people tended to kid themselves they did not like ceremonial dressing up and the formalities of occasions such as debutante balls. < ’3"

“I do not think this is true. Formal occasions with their accompanying ritual do : respond to an emotional depth in us, and also require a sense of discipline and breeding which have their own social value.”