Manchester Street School

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 297, 16 December 1939, Page 3

Manchester Street School

ANNUAL BREAKING-UP CEREMONY The singing of a verse of “Forty Years On,” cheers for the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, M.P. (for many years chairman of the school committee), for the Mayor (Mr. T. L. Seddon) who was educated at the school and for “Mothers” were features of the breaking-up ceremony at the Manchester School, Feilding, yesterday when proceedings were in charge of Mr. J. O. Fitzpatrick, chairman, of the school committee. Supporting the chairman on the platform were the Mayor and the Hon. J. G. Cobbe. In the course of his address to the children,'Mr. Seddon reminded them of the importance of the Centennial celebrations and spoke of the pioneering days and of the hardships the early settlers endured. In those daj's the people worked hard and with a spirit of independence and he went on to emphasise the danger in having too much done for us. To forget how to help yourself was a bad thing for a people. He hoped the children would learn all they could of the past 109 years of the country’s settlement and progress for he believed that it would give them encouragement to follow in the steps of the pioneers.

Mr. Seddon went on to refer to the war. He could not expect his audience to understand so very much about what was going on. They would know, however, that the Empire to which they belonged was engaged in a great conflict in order to preserve all that was best in our civilisation. War, he said, destroyed much of what had taken years to build up and after war it all had to be gone over again. Nations quarrelled and it was necessary to protect ourselves and the smaller nations from the bully nations. “You young people when you grow up will help to govern this country. We want 30U to be proud of your country but not so proud as to become jealous of other countries for that is the way war starts. We want you to bo afraid of nothing but evil, anxious for nothing but good. So will you servo your country; so will you serve and honour God. So, too, will you firing nearer the day when war shall be no more and peace shall reigu upon this earth,” ho concluded. (Applause.) The leaving certificates were then presented to the successful pupils and the Hon. Air. Cobbe presented the dux gold medal to Edna Anderson who was roundly applauded and dickered on re-

ceiving the honour. The singing of the National Anthem concluded the proceedings, the chairman wishing the children the Merriest of Merry Christmases and the brightest of New Years.