PUKEATUA NOTES

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1574, 15 November 1924, Page 5

PUKEATUA NOTES

SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL .CONCEBT. A DISTINCT TREAT. After many weeks of preparation the pupils of the Pukeatua public school presented their annual concert in the Public Hall on Friday evening last to an audience that taxed the capacity of the building to the utmost. Mr A. J. Healy, chairman of the School Committee, presided, and introduced the 'individual performers. The programme opened with a chorus "Floating," well rendered, followed by an exhibition by the boys drill squad. A dozen little tots from the primer classes next sang a num-. ber of nursery rhymes, and then Frank McGrath was heard to advantage In a recitation. One of the prettiest and most effective items of the programme followed. It was the Sir Roger de Coverley dance by eight girls, and their graceful movements and precision of action earned for them a well merited encore—in fact, the audience wanted a, double encore. The first portion of the programme was .completed with the song "Bubbles," a hidden chorus participating while eight boys before the footlights blew, or essayed to blow bubbles. After the interval, proceedings opened with a dialogue, The Ghost in the Kitchen," 'in which threes girls and two boys took part, each being almost letter perfect, while as a combination they evoked laughter and applause. Nine girls from the mfant department, each holding a doll, sang in unison Dolly's Lullaby, and after the inevitable encore an exhibition of club drill by a squad of girls was given so effectively that an encore had also to be acceded to. Little Doreen Weal contributed a nursery recitation, and for an encore presented one of a higher standard quite effectively. One of the most popular items of

the whole programme was the song, "The Irish Girl," in character, by girls, Jean Andrews and Mary Weai. jfe was a very clever characterisation byjuveniles, while the were sweet. A recitation, "Miss Milligan'a School," fey a party o£ girls, was cleverly presented, as also was the concluatftg itsm of a very entertaining; programme, "Good Night,." by a leshorus of practicaly the whole of the performers during the evtuinf. At the conclusion of the concert, and before the floor was cleared for dancing, Cheers were lustily given for the children and for the popular lady teachsr, Miss Harper, *cr her arduous task in preparing the children to do their part of the concert so successfully. Light refreshments were then handed round, and dancing indulged in for a couple of hours. . Efforts are being made . to raise sufficient funds to permit ;,of extending the hall building so asi:to provide for a supper room. Judging by the attendance at last night's concert and at other functions held in Pukeatua, the present building is nowadays proving all too small, and enlargement is essential; .. , , The settlers here are keenly interested in the recent announcement that the Public Works Department has.offered a subsidy of £750 at 'the rate of £3 for £1 contributed by the Waipa County Council for .improving (imetalling) the main road from the Pukeatua post office to the corner that we know so well as Ferguson's, where the turn-off to Arahena and other districts is located. Metalling would be a Godsend. Visitors were present at the school concert from Arapuni, Te Awamutu*. Kihikihi, Parawera and Arahena, and this 'is further evidence of the need for enlarging the hall. Social functions here have proved so singularly, successful that the present hall is all toosmall. .