TECHNICAL COLLEGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27567, 8 December 1950, Page 8

TECHNICAL COLLEGE

Breaking-up Ceremony ADDRESS BY DR BEEBY For the first time, the annual breakup ceremony of the King Edward Technical College was held last night in the Dunedin Town Hall. The stage, half the gallery, and the main body of the hall were occupied by uniformed students. During the first half of the evening, the school massed choir, massed orchestras, symphony orchestra and the evening girls’ choral group gave an hour’s musical entertainment. The chairman of the -Board of Managers, Mr J. M. Patrick, extended a welcome to parents, the Deputy Mayor, Cr D. G. McMillan, and the guest speaker, the Director of Education, Dr C. E. Beeby. Mr Patrick said he hoped Dr Beeby would not think music was the only subject taught in ■ the school—there were 42 full-time teachers, more than 60 part-time teachers, and with other workers, the total staff was 117. ~ , , .. Dr McMillan congratulated the school on a successful concert and an equally successful academic year. Mrs McMillan presented the school awards to the winning pupils. Dire Results It was natural that he should talk about education, said Dr Beeby. it had occurred to him to wonder what would happen if it was decided that education was too expensive and it was given up altogether. For one thing, there would be plenty of labour released from the closed schools for woolsheds, shops, offices and factories. Eventually, however, all Dunedin would have to go down to the Leith with buckets for water when there was no one left with the knowledge to carry on the waterworks. Dr Beeby said this might sound ridiculous, but it was not. He had seen results like it In the middle of the jungle in Mexico were the remnants of once thriving cities—ruins of enormous buildings. In Syria, the Crusaders built a fortress 800 years ago above what was then described as a beautiful green fertile valley. When he saw the same valley recently, it was an arid desert. Perhaps the climate had changed, but more probably the people had forgotten to educate their children. Forgotten to teach them how to plant their corn, how to irrigate, and how to live. To show how quickly education could slip, he said, one could remember the mobs of vagabond children who roamed Europe during the war years, almost savages because they had lost their education. It was not things like roads, buildings and bridges that lasted, Dr Beeby said, but ideas in the minds and hearts of people if handed on from generation to generation. If these were handed on. other things would follow. That was education, and it could not all be learned in the schools. x A . .. . , Dr Beeby congratulated the school on the success of the concert —it measured up to everything he had been told about the school’s musical activities. Otago had defended the traditions of education, but also led experiments in new phases. The* results achieved in the Technical College were known overseas as well as in New Zealand. School Awards Awards for 1950 were:— Burt Trade Scholarships.—David Ashton, Douglas Macdonald, lan Wyllie. Callander Scholarships.—Art: Leonore Thomson. Domestic: Irene Angell, Joan Cheyne, Jennifer Galt, Laura Hill, Patricia Letts, Ruth McLean. Trades: Russell Bromwell, Robert Duncan, David Johnston, Thomas Kearney, Norman Ledgerwood, Robert Mclntosh, Lance McKechie, lan Marett. Alfred Crawford Scholarship.—John Kennedy. __ , . Chamber of Commerce Bursary.—Kelvin M Kempthorne Scholarship.—Betty Payton. _ , Commercial Scholarships. Jocelyn Boxall, Dulcie Bremnsr. Vere , Chalmers, Peggy Congalton, Grace Culbert, . Joan Daniels. Helen Gray, Catherine lies, Joan Leckie, Margaret Leckie. Audrey Pedofski, Margaret Wilson. Instrumental Music Scholarships.— Violin: Ngaire Cunninghame, Valerie Hedges, Muriel Lindsay, William Parsons, Bettv Ralston, Robin Ritchie, Lorraine Turner. Viola: Elizabeth Corley. ’Cello: Robert Chalmers, Betty Lee, Alison McDonald, Joan Mclver. Special Music Awards.—Ruth Cochran, Joan Geddes, Myrna Gray, Lenore Kewish. Brian Nelson. Yvonne Reilly. Award for Leadership In Music. —Shirley Wentworth. _ „ . Art Society Awards. —William Scott 1, William Barron 2, Jill Hormann 3. James Macdougall Memorial Prize.— Duncan McFarlane. Domestic Bursaries.—Helen Morgan, Shirley Wells. Dunedin Repertory Society Award.— Hazel Little. Staff Prizes.—Domestic: Shirley Lewis. Dorothv Williamson. Commercial: Fourth year, Shirley Payton; third year, Helen Schriffer; second year, Catherine lies; first year, Doreen Hellyer. Outstanding Progress In First Year.— Yvonne Reilly. Chinese Association Prizes—Progress in shorthand: Fourth year, Shirley Payton; third year, Betty Paton; second year, Beverley Carey; first year. Yvonne Reilly. Athenaeum Prizes. —David Ashton, Mavis Blackley, Jocelyn Boxall, Dulcie Bremner, Noelene Caddie, Peggy Congalton, Leonard Davies, Lance McKechie. Jsttigs Trotter. Alfred and Mary Crawford Athenaeum Prize. —Douglas Macdonald. Evening School Awards.—University prize, Accountancy, David J. Caradus. Master Builders’ Bursary: Walter Bourke. Master Plumbers’ Award: John Browett Gall Memorial Plumbing Bursary: Murray Owen.