HALL OF MEMORIES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1927, Page 9

HALL OF MEMORIES

WAITAKI BOYS' SCHOOL

A EOYAL OPENING

On 10th March the Waitaki Boys' High School will receive its second visit from a member of the Eoyal Family, when the Duke of York arrives to perform tho official opening ceremony of tho Hall of Memories, a beautiful building erected to remind future generations of tho fine spiiit of service which actuated cx-Waitakians to take up arms in the Empire's hour of peril. Tho foundation-stone was laid by the Governor-General (.Viscount Jellicoe) in November, 1923, but tho work was hold up twelve months owing to an adequate supply of suitable stone not being available.

The stylo adopted is perpendicular Gothic in rock faco Oamaru stone with ashlar dressings. The heavy main doors which face the west are constructed with tracery panels, and directly above is engraved the shield containing the school coat of arms. Passing through the main entrance the vestibule is reached, two glass doors giving access to tho hall. The ceiling of the vestibule is carried out in jarrah, with heavy beams, and on .cither side aro two towers with winding concrete stairs, provided with a ceramic nosings finish, leading to the gallery, which is 30£t by 34ft. Prominently placed in the vestibule is a brass plate containing the following inscription:— . "In memory of the Old Boys of this school who served in- the Great War (1914-191S). This hall is erected by their comrades and friends in tho sure hope that their example will inspire all future generations of Wuitnkinns with tho same loyalty to the Empire." Then follows an excerpt from the Oration of Pericles:— "So they gave their bodies to tho commonwealth, and received each for his own memory, praiso .that will never die, and with it the grandest of all sepulchres, not that in which their mortal bones aro laid, but a home in tho minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by. For tho whole earth is tho sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not only graven on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol woven into tho stuff of other men's lives.'' Immediately below tho memorial window is a dedicatory brass panel with stone mountings. The wording on this plate is:— • "To tho Glory of God and in sacred memory of Old Boys of this school who gave their lives in the Great War (1914----1918) in the high cause of Empire, this window is dedicated." "Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt, dispraise, or blaino; nothing but well and fair, and what may quiet us in a death so noble." —Milton's '' Samson Agonistes.'' Brass plates flank the memorial window and on them are engraved the names, in alphabetical order, of cx-Wai-takians, who offered their services, with a distinctive mark against the names of those who made the supreme sacrifice.