THE OLD SCHOOL "TREE"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23857, 11 July 1939, Page 14

THE OLD SCHOOL "TREE"

CENTENNIAL PLANTING PLAN APPROVED BY MINISTER (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, July 10. A suggestion made by a deputation which waited on the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. E. Parry) today aimed at the planting of native trees by old boys in the grounds of the schools they had attended. These trees would serve, it was stated as centennial memorials, and would express a fitting recognition of what the schools had done for the old boys in their early training. It was pointed out that an excellent example for the old boys and old girls of other schools was the gift of a cherry drive by the Timaru High School Old Boys' Association as a sign of gratitude for the education received at the school. The Minister said he viewed the suggestion as being one of the best yet submitted. The cherry trees in the grounds of the Timaru High School could only be characterised as admirable. The idea was not directly linked up with the centennial of New Zealand, but it had come appropriately in the centennial period, a fact which should help to stimulate other associations of old boys and girls into taking similar action. In some localities where the present pupils were actively interested in centennial tree-planting projects, the old students might see a desirable opportunity for co-operation in a manner which would allow their plantation to be a distinct part of the whole scheme.