THE TWO METHVENS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22631, 24 July 1935, Page 16

THE TWO METHVENS

EXCHANGE OF FLAGS (From Oor Own Correspondent.) (By Air Mail) LONDON, June 29. Mr James Campbell, of Methven, Canterbury, handed over to Mr J. B. Anderson, headmaster of the Public School, Methven, Perthshire, a flag from the scholars of the Methven School in New Zealand. There was an impressive ceremony outside the village school. The pupils were congregated round the flag-pole in_ the playground, and various local educational officials were present at the ceremony. There was also a large attendance of the public who were admitted to the ground during the ceremony. In making the presentation, Mr Campbell said that the New Zealand Methven had been lirst inhabited by a man from Methven, Perthshire. His name was Patton, and from two or three shacks the village had grown into. a sizeable township) witJh a population of over 900. It was a thriving district, anjl had every appearance of increasing its importance as time went on. The flag had been given to the school children of the old Methven through the work and efforts of the pupils ot the new Methven School entirely. They had been asked to subscribe, and that they did with a will It had all been voluntary and was solely the work of the pupils themselves. He had very great pleasure in presenting this flag to Mr Anderson, and hoped that it would be a symbol of the feeling which existed between the dominions and the Home Countiy. A FLAG FOR NEW ZEALAND.

The Union Jack, said Mr Anderson, was the most inspiring flag in the world, so many had fought and died under it. The pupils were not to think of the flag as a very nine piece of coloured cloth. That was reducing poetry to prose, and when that was done, all the beauty and reverence was lost. He was very proud and appreciative of the gesture of the scholars of that Methven School far away in New Zealand. It would remain in the school as long as it possibly could, and the pupils would be taught its meaning and what it stood for in G.eat Britain. An unexpected presentation was made by Mrs M'Laggan, of Williamson, an educational official, when she presented Mr Campbell with a flag to take back to the Methven scholars in New Zealand, on behalf of their fellow scholars iu the Old Country.

A quietly impressive scene was witnessed when, at a given signal from Mr Anderson, all the pupils pave the new flag which was fluttering from its new pole, a real military salute.