FOR THE CHILDREN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 8 May 1925, Page 8

FOR THE CHILDREN.

A LABOUR OF LOVE,

OLD MAN’S WISH REALISED

One of the happiest men in the Auckland province oh Monday was A. Mahoney, an old settler of Swanson. He had planted and tended a piece of land for 40 years .in the hope that a school would be built upon it, and at last he had seen his wish' fulfilled. The school i s that at Massey-Birdwood, between Henderson and Swanson, which the Minister .for Education,. the Hon. Sir James Parr, formally opened on Monday. Until a year or so ago the land formed part of a public reserve and was set aside originally as a park. Mr. Mahoney, a pioneer gumdigger, who for nearly half a century had lived in a srnal liut near-by, conceived the idea that a school should one day lie built upon the site. To that end lie fenced it, planted a shelter belt, of pines around the hoilndaries, put in an eleagnus hedge, cleared the land of manuka, and saw it established in rough grass, in spite of old age he continued to tend the property, replacing the- hedge plants when the wind blew them down, and caring for the fence. At length when the pines had become well grown the Education Boar decided to build a school in the district, and Mr Mahoney’s choice of a site was approved. Naturally Mr. Mahoney attended the opening ceremony. The people of the district had subscribed for and purchased a fine rug, which the Minister presented to the school’s old benefactor. Sir James Parr' told the gathering that Mr Mahoney’s work was the finest example of unselfish humble service for the* common good that he had heard of in his term of office. Probably nowhere else in New Zealand had a comparatively poor man undertaken such a work for the benefit of the children of the community. He urged the children to remember what Mr. Mahoney had done for them, and to profit by his example.