“MY BABY”

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12423, 17 April 1926, Page 4

“MY BABY”

RECEPTION TO SIR JAMES PARR Per Press Association.- * AUCKLAND,, April 16i “I feel more touched by this little ceremony than any of the forty odd receptions I have had from one end of New Zealand to the other during the past month or so,” said Sir James Parr, High Commissioner-elect for New Zealand, at Point Chevalier School, in expressing .the thanks of himself and Lady Parr for the presentations made to them by the children of the school. “Point Chevalier, in a sense, is my baby, because 'it has grown during my term of office from an allotment to a school. One in which you icbildren "are getting as fine an education as. is possible in any school in New Zealand. Next Tuesday or Wednesday I will hand in fny ticket as Minister for Education, and on Saturday Lady Parr and myself will go oh board tho steamer that is to take us, on our journey to England. Now, before 1 go 1 air.-going to- do an unconstitutional thing. X am going to ask your chairman to allow me to let you have a half-holidav.” <

Prior to this pleasant announcement being communicated to the children, the retiring Minister had been welcomed by the phairman of the school committee and , headmaster. Then Harold Agnew (senior boy) stepped briskly up to the platform and presented Sir James Parr with a travel-lmg-rug, followed by one of the tiny tots of the school, Enid Crookbane, with a bouquet, and Aimie Alderton with a cushion, both for Lady Parr. The singing of “Auld Lang Syne” brought the gathering to a close. Sir James Parr also laid the founda-tion-stone of the new Grammar School at North Shore, and was tendered a farewell by his former constituents at Mount Albert.