LYALL BAY SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 74, 20 December 1933, Page 16

LYALL BAY SCHOOL

Successful Concert Given

The .concert chamber of the Town Hall was filled to overflowing with an appreciative audience on the occasion of the annual concert, of the Lyall Bay School. The programme, consisting of musical and dramatic items entirely by the children, was an ambitious one; but it was carried out most, successfully. In many of the items the stage was a kaleidoscope of .colour with the costumes of the children. while their singing and acting must have been a revelation even to their parents.

There were action songs and fairy plays by the infants and Standard I, including one which evoked round after round of applause, "The Wedding ofthe Painted Doll.” A comic action song, "Rheumatiz,” by Standard 11, for which boxes and cupboards must have been ransacked for the crinolines, the old-fashion-ed veils, the bonnets, the button-up boots, the butterfly ties, and the like, created much .laughter. In addition, Standard II staged a second action song, “Who’ll Buy My Lavender?” a most picturesque production, the costumes of the children attracting much favourable comment. Standard 111 gave a dramatisation, “The Wedding of Hiawatha.” Standard IV gave, in character, darkies’ choruses, a gavotte song, “Lackaday,” also in special costumes. Among the senior classes the school choir, holder for some years of the Competitions Shield for primary school choirs, repeated their competition items, “Who is Sylvia?” ete., under the baton of the headmaster, Mr. 0. A. Banner. and the Verse Speaking Choir, of well over 100 voices, under the baton of Mr. W. J. Mountjoy, junr., was a revelation in Masefield’s “Trade Winds” and Kipling’s “Smugglers’ Song,” giving as an encore “Menin Gate.” The senior scholars presented a story without words, “Before Marriage and After Marriage,” and a display of eurythinics, the concert concluding with a Maori scepa, poi dances, hakas, etc., all in special costumes lent by’ Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton. The spotlight effects by Mr. Colledge evoked the admiration of the audiences on both occasions, and were a feature of the stage. On the second evening of the concert Mr. T. Forsyth, chairman of the Education Board, presented a wristlet watch to the dux of the school, Marie Heron, and prizes to the following: Joyce Park, champion girl athlete; Maurice Scott, champion boy athlete; Betty Charteris, best sports girl; Frank Gooch, best sports boy. On both evenings a ladies’ committee, under the guidance of Mesdames Harris and Bruce, dispersed sweets, drinks, and ice cream, and their takings Were an appreciable source of revenue.