“LABOUR OF LOVE"

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 88, 14 April 1938, Page 6

“LABOUR OF LOVE"

SCHOOL COMMITTEE’S WORK ARAMOHO ACTIVITIES At the biennial meeting of householders at which the election of the Aramoho School Committee was held last night, Mr A. E. Halligan (retiring chairman) and Mr A. Pepper did not seek re-election. The former was first elected to the school committee in 1919 and Mr Pepper took office in 1921. Mr Pepper has given seventeen years’ continuous service on the committee, and Mr Halligan has been on the committee for a like period, an absence of two years being accounted for by a trip to the United Kingdom, during which time he did not seek office. Several other members of the committee who had been some years on the committee likewise were not offering themselves for re-election. When asked by the “Chronicle” if he would like to give some details of the work which had been carried out during his term of office, Mr Halligan paid a tribute to the loyal assistance and co-operation of fellow-mem-bers of the committee over a lengthy period. Without that assistance, he remarked, little could have been accomplished. So many had helped but it would be invidious to mention names, stated Mr Halligan, but ah connected with the school and the community of Aramoho would agree that to the late Mr P. H. Smith a deep debt of gratitude was owed. The school grounds at Aramoho extend over four and a-half acres, and the outgoing committee recommended that an extension be made to the grounds by the purchase of a section, continued Mr Halligan. Over £B3OO had been handled by the various committees in the nineteen years since he had first been elected to the committee, in addition to which there was unemployed labour to the value of over £lOOO and voluntary labour estimated - at more than £6OO. Working bees of parents, committee members and other local residents had done much to make the grounds an outstanding example of community effort. Swimming baths had been improved, asphalt tennis courts laid down, a croquet green set out, rough portions of the ground levelled, lawns sown, and garden plots and shrubberies planted. The result could be seen in the grounds as they stand today. The bricks for the Somme Parade fence had been given by th> late Mr J. Aiderton, and the fence was built by voluntary labour, a pergola 60ft. long and 12ft. wide presented a blaze of colour when thousands of rose blooms covered the arbour. This had been built by «. large working bee. In numerous other directions assistance had been furnished, and Mr Pepper had grown in his own garden thousands of plants and shrubs for the grounds. In Mr W. Firmin they had a baths custodian who had been a tower of strength to the committee.

“It has been a labour of love for us all,” concluded Mr Halligan, “and I feel sure that the incoming committee will appreciate that only by continuing and extending the policy pursued in the past can the Aramoho School and grounds maintain its present high standard.”