GRAMMAR OLD BOYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19633, 11 May 1927, Page 13

GRAMMAR OLD BOYS.

ANNUAL REUNION IN LONDON SIR J. PARR'S SCHOOL DAYS. THE SIXPENNY HOT LUNCHEONS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] LONDON, April G. The fourth annual dinner in London of Auckland Grammar School old boys attracted the largest attendance that this informal and always pleasant little function has yet known. As in previous years, the dinner was held on "Boat Race night," a date selected because so many Dominion students at the universities come to town on that day to see the famous race between the Oxford and Cambridge eights. The High Commissioner, Sir James Parr, an old boy of the Grammar School, was present. Other old boys present were:—Mr. J. P. Whitelaw (outgoing chairman of the London branch), Major Hely Pounds and Mr. T. B. Ching (exchairmen), Mr. G. W. Mulgan, Major W. Stevens, Dr. A. H. Kirker, Dr. H. R. Segar, Dr. L. Manson, Mr. J. A. Dunning, Mr. J. C. Dickinson. Mr. R. Hill, Mr. H. W- Gaukrodger, Mr. C. R. MeCullough, Mr. S. Wallingford, Mr. R. Firth, Mr. A. S. Rintoul, Mr. L. Comrie, Mr. Ainslie, Mr. ft. H. Munro, Mr. N. Clapham, Mr. «T. N. Peart, and Mr. C. F. Forsdick (secretary). Apologies for absence were received from Dr. C. C. Choyce and from Dr. Bernard Myers. A letter was also received from Mr. Shayle Gardner from Tunis regretting his absence.

The speeches were quite informal. Sir James Parr entertained tho company with reminiscences of his school days in the 'eighties, when, as a scholarship boy, he spent four years at the Grammar School, and lived in Auckland on £SO a year—his scholarship money —paying his landlady 10s a week, with an increase of 2s a week each year as he himself increased in stature and appetite! He recalled the sixpenny , hot luncheons which the school janitor of those d.iys provided, and, amid laughter, told how the janitor in his old age used always to blame the appetites of Sir James Parr and a fellow scholar for the failure of the catering enterprise. Hard work and the simple life—homework by oil lamp or candle light till 11 p.m., long walks to school and back, few relaxations, and those of the simplest —formed the background of those early days. "But thoso f&.ir years," said Sir James, emphatically, "w£yro the most important of my life, for they laid the foundations —without them I would have got nowhere." Mr. Whitelaw proposed the toast of "The Old School," and recalled how it had grown from a muster of about 200 boys in his day to 950 at tho present time. "In fact," ho added, "the Grammar School Board now has five institutions under its control, and J should not bo surprised to hear that the new school on Rangitoto is yet another branch-" Pointing out how secondary education is spreading in England as well as in the Dominion, Mr. Whitelaw mentioned that the secondary schools are beating the old historic public schools in the university scholarships and triposes. Some authorities, indeed, maintained that many of the so-called public schools of England were drifting into a backwater, and that the governing classes of the future would lie drawn from the State-aided schools, lie was glad to think that the old school was developing on its own lines, in keeping with the new spirit in education, and remote from the traditional ideas of class exclusiveness and barrack-room discipline. . On the motion of Mr. Clung, Sir James Parr was elected chairman for the coming year, and Mr. C. F. Forsdick was reelected secretary. It was decided that Sir James should send greetings to the school, accompanied by a menu card of the dinner, signed by al! present.