Cash needed to finish school

Press, 27 December 1986, Page 6

Cash needed to finish school

PA Wellington Money and equipment is needed to finish a new school being built in China to replace one founded in the 1940 s by the New Zealander, Rewi Alley, and later destroyed by an earthquake. A New Zealand-China Friendship Society spokesman, Mr Tom Newnham, said the society was renewing its appeal for New Zealanders to support the new Shandan Bailie School in Gansu Province. The school replaces one founded by Mr Alley during World War II and which trained many young people who served in the industrial co-opera-tives, playing a significant role in China’s war effort This year the society raised more than $22,000, but felt it had scratched th of support for

Mr Alley’s work. ' The society was now asking for tools and educational material suitable for a school which placed emphasis on practical tuition, especially in agriculture and forestry. “Anything that is useful for the furnishing or equipping of a school could be welcome but it must be in new or firstclass condition — we are not looking for cast-offs,” Mr Newnham said. Mr Newnham said the society would approach firms for help. . “We see the school as a living and continuing symbol of the close relationship between New Zealand and China, which Rewi Alley has done so much to create.” . The original school was destroyed in a 1953 earthquag. .