GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22136, 14 December 1933, Page 6

GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL

ANNUAL MOTHERS’ DAY ADDRESS BY PRINCIPAL There was a large attendance of parents at the Girls’ High School yesterday afternoon when the annual Mothers’ Day was held. The sports trophies won during the year were presented by the principal (Miss M. H. M. King), after which the pupils of the school rendered a short programme of vdcal and elocutionary items. Miss King then addressed the gathering in the Assembly Hall.' Afternoon tea was served and the parents took the opportunity of inspecting an exhibition of work done by the girls during the year. ’ ’The concert programme included a French action song by Forms 3 A.C. and 4 8.L., two scenes from “King John,” by Form 4 A.L., a song by Form 4 A.C., and a French play, “Red Ridinghood,” by Form 3 S. Miss Edna Lungley, winner of the French Government’s prize for oral French, gave two recitations—“ In School Days” (Whittier) and “L’Art d’Etne Grand-pere” (Victor Hugo). The exhibition of work comprised exhibits in the commercial and domestic sections and some very good needlework. The whole reflected the care with which the girls had been taught during the year. SPORTS TROPHIES.

The following sports trophies were presented:— Interschools Life Saving Shield. —Won by the school life-saving team: B. Juriss, S, Wren, M. Wood, M. Johnston. Shacklock Cup.—Won by the school tennis’team: M. Jolly, M. Broadbent, J. Manson, J. Hamer. Interschools Hockey Cup.—Won by the school A team. B Grade Netball Cup.—Won by the school B team. Junior Lawn Tennis Association trophies.—M. Jolly, M. Broadbent. J. Hamer, J. Manson, J. Clayton, A. Manson. Swimming Prizes.—S. Wren, B. Juriss, K. Kerr, J,- Eastgate, I. Linkston, J. Ramsay, M. Wood, J. Clayton, J. Wilson, P. Laurenson, J. Walker, B. Cameron, E. M'Dougall, E. Whiteside. Third Form Drill Championship,—M. Morrison. Fourth Form Drill Championship.—V. Hcrbison. \ RIGHT THINKING NEEDED. In her address Miss King stated that she felt seriously discontented with the prospects before the girls when they left school. In the course of the year she had ’met many of the parents, and their greatest care had been what was to become of their children afterwards. A school for girls to-day was a different thing from what .it was 100 years ago. To-day they thought that, if a girl was to receive a liberal education, then she had to be taught more than a little Latin and mathematics: she had to be developed in many other ways, The question regarding what the girls were going to get at the school was determined by what they were going to get when they left. . The early efforts to secure for girls and women the benefits of higher education had met with very strenuous opposition. The pioneers had been apt to go to extremes. She now regretted to hear, not only in New Zealand but also by reports from other countries, that an attempt was being made to put the clock back. It was an endeavour to put thegirls and women back, in the home. She fully recognised that for the' vast majority of women the home was the sphere for which they were born. That was their career, but they were being shut out from it, for there were not the homes for them to go to. It was hard_ to gee where the girls would find positions or homes. ’ They could not give the girls too liberal an education for home making. A- high development of character and mind was necessary here. Instancing the tragedy of Marcus Brutus and Julius Caesar, the speaker said that it was possibly not sufficiently realised that more harm was done in the world by bad thinking than by bad intentions; At the present lime nobody could be dead to the necessity for right thinking. The old order was changing and it was necessary that they should face life with intelligence. In conclusion the principal expressed the hope that not only the girls who were present at the school but their daughters and grand-daughters who would attend the school would be enabled to live the free, whole, henlthw and joyous life, which was their birthright.