TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 7th JUNE, 1939. THE SPAN OF YEARS.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4193, 7 June 1939, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 7th JUNE, 1939. THE SPAN OF YEARS.

DURING the week-end at Hairini and at Te Awamutu we have celebrated an event which links the past with the present and, in a fitting way, there has been fully revealed the value of reunion. The occasion marked the jubilee of two schools from which there came the men and women who have shared so worthily in the development of this neighbourhood, and in the making of a social structure which to-day yields so much enjoyment and contentment for everybody. The celebration of the jubilee, therefore, was all-important, and it afforded an opportunity to survey all that has happened with the span of years. There, gathered together last Friday and Saturday in the very buildings which revived so many cherished childhood memories, were the men and women whose tasks are now nearing a close. For them it can be said they paved the way and laid the foundations of the progress and prosperity that abounds. Both schools had been the starting point of year by year, had become the greatest of all community assets—good citizenship. But, and there might have been regret, jubilee witnessed the greatest change Te Awamutu has known in its educational status. It marked the closing of the Hairini School; at Te Awamutu the old school gives place to a new. Thus is the sentimental association largely destroyed. But these are practical days, and in the new school there arises enlarged opportunities for the better equipping of the children who have soon to take up the tasks of citizenship, and, under the changed economic conditions, not only keep alive the sentiment of the past but the forward development 'of our bountious district. The passing of the old is therefore merely a stage in the revolutionary process which with change registers -progress. In enables us to respect the past and to step boldly toward the future. The value of reunion and the wealth of inspiration which can be gathered from a personal survey of the past gives prominence to the urgent need for more earnest contemplation of the Centennial Celebrations next year. All that happened last Friday and Saturday is—or rather should be — merely a forerunner of a much more, important celebation of this district's part in a National Centennial. Te Awamutu—its wide countryside—has an important historic background which can well be given a worthy place in the celebration of the Centennial. The Government has proffered help, and from that point it is for the community to provide the effort and enthusiasm necessary to mark the occasion. Already a committee is formulating plans, and although its recommendations may be overdue there is, nevertheless, every warrant for public interest and cooperative endeavour. All that happened during the week-end in relation to our schools can be regarded merely as a forerunner of what must happen when the time arrives, a few months hence, to commemorate in a wider (jpgree all that has resulted in today’s economic progress and community content.