A Special Appeal

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 144, 3 June 1936, Page 9

A Special Appeal

HIGH SCHOOL FUND .

Old Pupils’ Association’s Own Objectives PRESIDENT’S STATEMENT Of th« sooo ex-puplla who have passed through the partings High School, 2000 have had circulars sent to them by the Old Pupils' Association in connection with the appeal now being made for contributions to the fund for paying off the assembly hall debt and for the purchase of furniture and equipment. In making a statement to that effect to a “Tribune” reporter to-day Mr K. A. Coxon, president of tho Old Pupils’ Association, said that circulars had been sent to pupils in many parts of the world, including Australia and England among the bigger countries, and smaller places such as Fiji end Samoa. The envelopes were addreaaed by the children at the school, and the circulars were lent out to addresses on a list of between 2000 : ad 9000 prepared by members o' me association. So far a sum of over £6 had been sent in, although the appeal had only just been launched.

Mr Coxon expressed the hope that any ex-pupils knowing of others living elsewhere would notify the association ao that it may be sure of not missing anyone from its list. “HERE IS THEIR CHANCE” "If old pupils are really interested iu their school, uiid grateful for what it has done for them, and if they are keen, as they should be, that it should keep progressing, her® is their chance to give us their assistance. Great things have been done by associations of old pupils for other schools iu the Dominion, and w@ hope that a similar spirit will move the old pupils to do something for their old school.”

After going on to say that no one more than the old pupils know* how great is the need for a properly equipped and furnished assembly hall, Mr Coxon said that it was the hope ot the association, as its share iu the appeal, to raise enough money to provide all the seating, a memorial tablet iu honour of old boys who were killed in the Great War, and a lectern. The association had accumulated a furnishing fund of over £5O, said Mr Coxon, us a nucleus of the larger amount that it is hoped to raise through the present appeal. THE FIRST APPEAL "As has been pointed out in our circular to ex-pupils,” he added, "we are co-operating with the High School Board and with the High School League in this appeal, and we wish to make that point clear. Nevertheless, w u felt that it was desirable that the association, since it consists wholly of men and women who have been through the school, should take upon itself some special activity, and so we have decided to make our part of the task an appeal for the purposes especially mentioned. The board’s appeal is to the general public, the league’s appeal to parents, and ours js an appeal fo ex-pupik only. “We have not previously made a direct appeal to old pupils,” Mr Coxon concluded, "and therefore we feel the more confident that we shall not find them unwilling to make some little sacrifice to provide for their old school the means of making it possible to remove what are very real disadvantages in tho efficient carrying out of education. Also, as Mr Penlington has pointed out, the school lacks, through not having a properly furnished assembly hall, the only effectual means of establishing a corporate spirit among tho pupils That is a particularly important consideration.”