JUBILEE BANQUET.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20556, 6 March 1935, Page 2

JUBILEE BANQUET.

Anniversary of Ashburton Club. (Special to *the “ Star.”) ASHBURTON, March 5. The fiftieth anniversary of the Ashburton Club and M.S.A. was fittingly celebrated with a complimentary banquet in the Drill Hall to-night. There was an attendance of about 500. including visitors from several outside clubs. The interior of the building was decorated with foliage, and enlargements of past presidents of the club, numbering 32, were hung round the walls. The president (Mr M. MacMillan) presided. The toast list was as follows: “ The King,” proposed by the president; “ Foundation Members,” proposed by Mr A. A. Fooks and responded to by Messrs R. Lechner, T. Hayes and J. W. Ollivier; “Kindred Affiliated Clubs,” the Mayor (Mr W. H. Woods)—Messrs H. Francis, J. Tennent, Mann and G. E. King; “The Ashburton Club and M.5.A.,” Sir William Nosworthy—Mr M. MacMillan; “ The Ladies,” Mr V. W. Russell—Mr C. Moller. The Ashburton Club and M.S.A. was formed in March, ISBS, and occupied rooms in a building owned by Mr Fowler in Tancred Street opposite the Arcade. The first officers were elected at a meeting on March 11 of that year. At the half-yearly meeting on October 29 Mr T. Hayes was elected a member of the committee, and he is the only surviving member of that period. In proposing the toast of “Foundation Members,” Mr A. A. Fookes said that the club had many difficult problems to solve, but the exercise of tact and firmness had been responsible for the present high standard in the conduct of the club. The Mayor (Mr Woods) congratulated the club on behalf of a large section of the community on the attainment of its jubilee. Sir William Nosworthy congratulated the club on its present position after its big fight for the retention of its charter and the rights of its members. The club had won a great victory, and the attendance at its jubilee, he said, was a token of the good a chartered club could be to a community.