WELLINGTON COLLEGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18861, 8 November 1924, Page 13

WELLINGTON COLLEGE.

A JUBILEE CELEBRATION.

THE TWO FERGUSSONS.

Fifty years ago Sir James Fergusson, Governor of the Colony of New Zealand, presided at a. banquet to celebrate the removal of Wellington College to its present site. That was on October 5, 1874. In a few weeks the college will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the occasion. Shortly afterwards Sir Charles Fergusson will be British YiceRegal representative in New Zealand. ' It would have marked the occasion admirably if the new GovernorGeneral had been present to preside at the college in the place which his father occupied 50 years ago; but this could not be arranged without postponing the celebrations unduly. The circumstances of the opening ceremony are refeixed to in a letter received by the secretary of the Old Boys' Association from Mr. F. J. Johns, of London, an old boy who was present: "I | well remember that day," he writes, | "when some &4 boys who had attended the old Grammar School on the Terrace /on the site, I think, where the Central School now stands) became the first pupils of the old school, and that day was celebrated with sports, and also a banquet, at which the Governor, Sir •James Fergusson, presided. "How one's mind goes back to those days, and soon after, when the first football match was played between Wellington and Nelson Colleges. One of the members of the latter team was your esteemed ex-headmaster, J. P. Firth, C.M.G., and it is quite probable that he was the cause of our downfall."