OHAUPO JUBILEE

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20887, 19 August 1939, Page 9

OHAUPO JUBILEE

SOUVENIR BOOKLET SEVENTY YEARS REVIEWED Seventy years of educational progress from typically humble pioneer beginnings are reviewed in an attractive souvenir booklet- published by the Ohaupo School Jubilee Committee as part of the school celebrations taking place at Ohaupo to-day. Opening with an account of the origin of the school as a private institution for the benefit of soldier settlers in the later stages of the Maori Wars, the booklet goes on to describe the absorption of the school into the State system of primary education in the seventies, and unfolds a record of steady progress and expansion up to the present year. Distinguished Soldiers Illustrations and brief biographical sketches of ex-pupils who have been prominent in after-life include Ser-geant-Major John G. Grant V.C., one of the few New Zealanders to gain the coveted honour. Mr Grant, who is at present farming in the Hawke’s Bay district, was personally decorated by

King George V. for “conspicous gallantry in the field,” in other words Gallipoli Peninsula. Other ex-pupils of the school who distinguished themselves in the Great War and whose records appear in the souvenir booklet are the late SquadronLeader Malcolm McGregor, M.C., D.F.C. (with bar), Lieutenant James N. Baxter. M.C., and Private George’ Bartels M.M. School Records I Photographs of the old school, - which was destroyed by fire in 1915, j and of the present buildings, as well as | several school groups taken during past i decades are distributed through the ] j pages, and appendices include the per- j j sonnet of the various school commit- < I tees in days gone by and a complete | list of the teachers associated with the school from its inception in 1869. The Roll of Honour of those who j made the supreme sacrifice in the f Great War is a prominent feature. j Considering that a large quantity of the school records were destroyed in j the fire of 1915 the booklet, as a hisJ tory of one of the oldest schools in j the Waikato, is very comprehensive and reflects great credit on tlie author, J Mr A. Fletcher, the present headmaster c lof the school. It will he sure to com- 1 mand a ready sale among old pupils 1 and well-wishers at to-day's function. 6 Jj