UNVEILING OF TABLET

Southland Times, Issue 24238, 23 September 1940, Page 6

UNVEILING OF TABLET

CEREMONY AT NORTH FOREST HILL PRESERVING MEMORY OF SCHOOL The unveiling of a memorial tablet in the North Forest Hill hall to preserve the memory of the North Forest Hill school, which has gone out of existence, its teachers and pupils was performed on Saturday night by the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. Adam Hamilton). The evening took the form of a dance and there were more than 200 persons present, including many residents associated with the early days of the district. The tablet was unveiled at the supper interval. The North Forest Hill school held its diamond jubilee in 1928, being one of the first schools in New Zealand to do so, and was closed the following year. Not a remnant of the school is left. The school building is doing service as a dwelling for a farmer in the Browns district and the school shed is now the pavilion of the Browns Tennis Club.

The ceremony on Saturday night was arranged by the Jubilee Committee and this was the final act of the committee. The chairman of the committee is Mr W. Kerr, one of the original pupils of the school.

The school memorial tablet is on the side of the hall opposite the tablet in memory of the men of the district who fought in the Great War. The history of the school is written on the tablet and also inscribed are the names of the teachers of the school and the periods in which they served. Two of the most prominent of the teachers were the late Mr T. Horan, who was the first teacher at the school and served for 17 years, and the late Jessie Cameron, a former pupil of the school who taught for a similar period. During the unveiling ceremony Mr Hamilton, who was himself a pupil at the school, described some of the pioneer days of the district. He dealt with the early days when almost the whole of the district was heavily wooded and recalled the time when, as a small boy, he helped to cart the timber from which the hal 1 was constructed.

Mr Hamilton suggested that as the school no longer existed application be made to the Southland Education Board for the setting aside of a small portion of the school site, on which could be erected a cairn commemorating the pioneering school period in the district. Mr W. M. Norman, chairman of the Southland County Council, also an early pupil at the school, spoke of some incidents in the early days. Mr F. J. Ashley, head teacher at Browns, which school now serves the Forest Hill district, also snoke.