ST. GEORGES SCHOOL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20013, 2 December 1927, Page 5

ST. GEORGES SCHOOL

AIMS OF ITS FOUNDERS SOME PERSONAL TRIBUTES. In the rush of newspaper reporting and in the conditions inevitably imposed by limitations of space, it frequently happens that many speeches at public functions do not receive the notice they deserve because of the unavoidable necessity of compressing their gist within a brief compass. No apology need be offered, therefore, for giving additional notice to a speech made last week at the unveiling of the foundation tablet of St. George’s School, partly because it sets forth the aims which the founders of the school have set before them, and partly because it pays well-deserved tributes to several gentlemen upon whom rests the chief burden of launching the school upon its career. In thanking Archbishop Averill for being present to unveil the tablet, Mr M. Fell, the first headmaster of St. George’s, said that they were particularly glad that his Grace should have performed that ceremony, for the school was not only deliberately named after England’s patron saint, but was a Church school.

“This means a great deal,” Mr Fell went on to say, “for it goes to the very root of education. If a school is to be of true service to itself and to the country, if it is to attain those high ideals without which its word would be barren, it must have a religion! foundation. An educational system, or a life, for that matter, without religion is incomplete, unsound. If we are to fit boys as we hop? to do, to play the game of life as men and Christians, we must see that they have the right foundations of thought and spirit. . Never has this been more necessary than at the present time, when so many children are brought up with no respect for God, or even for their parents, and it is at a preparatory school that this is particularly important. For it is the things which we learn when we are young which stay in our minds, and in our hearts, and if a boy learns between the ages of 7 and 14 to love God and to love his fellows, then he will never forget it. “It is the most Important age. If a boy learns in these years to be truthful, he will remain truthful all his life; if he learns in these years to be unselfish, he will be unselfish all his life; if, before he leaves us, he learns habits of courage, perseverance, industry, courtesy, cleanliness, and all the other good qualities which go to make up character, he will not lose them iu after life, and we—and you parents, who entrust him to our charge—need have no fear for his future.

“So we are glad, your Grace, that you should stand sponsor for us in our baptism to-day. With you as our godfather, with the trustees and old boys of the Collegiate School to support us, and with the very fine buildings which have sprung up, mushroom-like, in the last few months at the waving of Mr Gopperth’s magic wand, we shall, indeed, be well started on our way, and I am confident that the School will always show itself worthy of the honour and forethought, bestowed upon it at its birth. I think the trustees are to be congratulated on their policy, on their choice of a site, and on the liberal and far-seeing way in which they have carried out their scheme, and I myself am personally grateful to them, and to Mr Bignell, the chairman of the trustees, in particular. “Mr Bignell has a set formula—l believe he uses it with Mr Pierce, and I am afraid he is beginning to use it, with me—the question: “And what » you want to-day ’ Somehow or other, I always seem to want something, but, whatever my request is, if it is not impossible, I know that it will meet with friendly and reasonable consideration, and it has been a real pleasure to have so experienced and wise and kindly an arbiter to whom to appeal in all questions affecting the building of the school.

“During the first few months of my life here, I was answering, nearly eve:-, day, in tones varying from cheerful optimism to irate pessimism, the following question: ‘When are-they going to start the new school?’ During tbo last few months, the question has bet a: ‘Will the now school soon be ready?’ Of course it will! No one who has seen the wonderfully efficient organisation of Mr Gopperth could doubt it for a moment. Rome was not built in a day, and, in building a school like this, which is to be for all time, there, arc a thousand and one things to be taken into consideration, a thousand and one errors to avoid— for a mistake in building, once made, is often hard to rectify. So, although the preliminaries have taken a long time, yet I am sure it was worth it, and I really believe that uow, thanks to the patient care of the architect, Mr Taiboys, it will ho .is nearly perfect as a school can be. “Mr Taiboys, I may say is the most patient man in the world. He is a very busy man, and for the last nine months I have been pestering him continually, on matters great and small, and showering upon him questions, criticisms, suggestions, and even abuse, and, although he must often have longed to throw a St. George’s brick at my head, he has always been courtesy and patience itself, and I am glad to be able to make acknowledgement of it here.

“I had hoped that our Warden, Mr Pierce, would be present at our prizegiving, when 1 was proposing to shower bouquets upon him, but, as he will then be on his way to England, I must do so now, and thank him for all he has done for us. Not only has «ie put us up —which means also put up with us —at the Collegiate School all this year, but, with his genial tact ana wisdom, he has smoothed our path for us in a hundred ways, and I personally am very grateful to him indeeed for his sympathetic help throughout this year. We are very proud of our Warden. I don’t believe there is any other preparatory school that has a Warden —not a Warden of its own — and all St. George’s boys will join me, I know, in wishing him a very happy and healthful holiday, and will look forward to welcoming him here on his return.

“Once more, I thank your Grace for the honour and service you have done us. We hope that this, visit will be a forerunner of many others; whenever you care, you can be sure that you will find a warm welcome at St. George’s. At present we are not looking our best but, in a few years’ time, when this sand heap on which we stand is a firm quadrangle, when trees and shrubs have begun to beautify our grounds, these buildings will have an ever-increasing charm, and, although in our day, per-

haps, they will not attain that mellowness which is the charm of old buildings, we can look with prophetic vision to the far future, when oth.r schools, less stoutly built, will have crumble! to dust, but St. George’s will still be standing /-oudly erect, with many years—shall I say centuries?—of honourable service to its credit.”