WAITAKI OLD BOYS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26542, 18 August 1947, Page 7

WAITAKI OLD BOYS

ANNUAL MEETING OF ASSOCIATION Special to the Daily Times OAMARU, Aug. 16. Mr A. W. Grant (president), who was in the chair at the annual meeting of the Waitaki Old Boys’ Association tonight gave a welcome to the 50 delegates’ attending from the Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, and South Otago branches. The financial statement showed a credit balance of £35 9s lid compared with £46 last year, and the balances in the various accounts were as follows:—Milner Memorial Scholarship £348 18s sd, McCulloch Memorial £95 Life Membership Reserve Trust Fund £459 19s 7d, war memorial £1073 13s Bd, branches fund £217. The annual report and balance sheet were adopted. The following officers were elected:— Patron Mr J. T. Burrows; president, Mr A. W. Grant; vice-presidents—Messrs C. Zimmerman (Oamaru), J. Ringland (Dunedin), and C. J. Kerr (Timaru); secretary, Mr H. P. Kent; honorary auditors Messrs W. Giffin and J. D. McLeod The remit from the executive council to increase the annual subscription from 5s to 10s to be in conformity with the rules, was carried without disserit. War Memorial Mr Grant stated that so far £1279 had been subscribed by 382 old boys to the war memorial fund, and £SOO was to come from the school. They had set out with an objective of £IO,OOO, but some objections had been raised to such an ambitious objective. There were, however, 6000 old 'boys, and £IO,OOO should riot be too much. The secretary read correspondence in connection with the proposal for a war memorial magazine, Oamaru and Auckland branches being not in favour, Christchurch non-committal, and South Otago in favour of publishing the magazine for- sale, the profits to go to the War Memorial Fund. Mr Grant drew attention to the numbei of incomplete projects .on hand, mentioning the Endowment Fund, the McCulloch Memorial, the Milner Memorial, and the War Memorial. He said the publication of such a magazine was a major problem, and he was against going to the old boys again for subscriptions until the other projects w'ere cleared up. There was a long discussion on the subject, and finally it was referred back to branches for immediate and definite instructions as to what the executive should do. It was agreed to resume the competition between branches for the Golf Cup. A suggestion from a Dunedin delegate that a remit should go forward for the reduction of the annual subscription from 10s to 5s reopened the question of membership subscription, and resulted in a long debate on the subject. Finally it was decided that the executive should be recommended to submit to branches for their views, a proposal that boys on leaving Waitaki be granted free membership for the first year, the subscription to be 5s in the second year, and thereafter 10s. After a very lengthy discussion it was agreed that the list of contributors to rhe War Memorial Fund to date be supplied to branch secretaries, who were empowered to approach contributors to ascertain whether they objected to the amounts being published, the future lists to be in the hands of branches to deal with as they decided! It was reported that Miss Mary Counihan who had been at Waitaki since 1906, was’ to retire shortly, and it was decided that a suggestion that a token of appreciation be made to Miss Counilian from the old boys, be circulated to branches. A comprehensive vote of thanks was proposed by Mr Grant, especially to branch secretaries for their services. On behalf of the Oamaru branch Mr Zimmermann gave a welcome to the visiting delegates and members of J Force, who were guests of the branch at a social hour following the meeting.