RONGOTAI COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 129, 2 June 1945, Page 9

RONGOTAI COLLEGE

SPORTS GROUNDS HELD

MR. SEMPLE'S ASSURANCES

A promise made six years ago to the Rongotai College authorities appears at last to be in a fair way of being redeemed. Since May, 1939, when the college authorities generously handed over the playing field to form part of the Centennial Exhibition grounds, the boys have had no suitable playing area. Having exhausted every avenue to persuade the Government to honour its* word, the Rongotai College Parents' Association decided to petition the member for Wellington East (Mr. R, Semple), who is also Minister of Works. The petition, signed with many hundreds of names, was presented to Mr. Semple this week at a largely-attended gathering in the college assembly hall. Mr. Semple made it plain he would do everything possible to have the stadium grounds adjoining the college placed in a fit. condition as a playing area, and later the college grounds also. The president of the Rongotai College Parents' Association (Mr. D. C. E. Blake) presided over the large attendance of barents, friends, teaching staff, and boys of the uoper forms. He reminded the meeting of the promise given six years ago, that the grounds would be fully restored immediately the exhibition was closed down. The Parents' Association, he said, was most emphatic that another generation of boys must not pass through the college without the playing facilities to which they were entitled. Mr. Blake paid a tribute to the principal and his staff and to the loyal and efficient manner in which they had carried out their duties under, conditions unparalleled anywhere in New Zealand. "The magnificent and patriotic gesture of lending the college playing fields to the Centennial Exhibition has been used as an instrument of hardship," he said. "We are not unmindful of the fact that our country is still at war. Our college roll of 860 names in the Forces is a daily reminder of the contribution this school is making. It is in their name and those who haye made the supreme sacrifice; it is in . the name of 580 scholars, as well as in the name of our Parents' Association, that I ask that some immediate action be taken to restore the grounds." IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL. TRAINING. Mr. -M. F. Renner, after referring to the appeal to Mr. Semple, who had always been a good friend to the school, said the excuse that the promised' reconstruction was dependent on the future resiling of the school (because of the development of the airport) was not a valid one. j Such removal could not become effective for a. matter of years. In the meantime, were they to be expected to carry on without adequate facilities for physical training or for the development of the spirit of teamwork and co-operation, so necessary as a part of organised games, and thereafter as a part of adult life? The petition signed by many hundreds of people who were friends of the school, Mr. Renner concluded, i indicated the desire not only of the staff, but of the members of the community, to see justice done to Rongotai College, and that the boys of the war period should not be deprived of the amenities enjoyed by their predecessors. . ■ . MINISTER PROMISES ACTION. Mr. Semple said he was aware of the magnificent record of Rongotai College; he had done, and would continue to do, all he could for the college. He was determined that, as far as he was concerned, whatever was j done about the airport, the college should not be removed from the Wellington East district. Referring to the need for adequate playing fields, and stressing the importance of physical training as being necessary to a healthy mind, Mr. Semple said he was greatly worried about the state of the - grounds. If the Wellington City Council would grant the use of Kilbirnie Reserve, he would see that, the stadium ground was put in order immediately and to compensate the council for granting the use of Kilbirnie ground the Government would put in order two of the council parks that had been taken over for defence purposes. He also! stated that the grounds immediately adjacent to the college would be put In reasonable order. j