Old Girls' Conference at the Jubilee Reunion, June, 1953. Photo: Sparrow In the laboratory; Toi Te Rito (at microscope) and the head girl, Grace Henare, of Makatau. Both are Form VI students. Photo: J. Ashton Queen Victoria School Jubilee by Mel Taylor The Queen Victoria Maori Girls' School Golden Jubilee celebrations attracted the most interest, from a national point of view, of any Maori gathering held in Auckland so far this year. Guests and old girls from most parts of the North Island and some from the South came to honour the 50-year-old school. Though the week-end programme was mainly social, the old girls had got together primarily to revive their association. To them this was serious business, and they met twice to discuss it. The result is that the Old Girls' Association is functioning again. But, apart from the Old Girls' Association revival conferences, there was little conference-style business done during the celebrations, though there were many serious and thoughtful speeches and many informal discussions. More than 150 old girls gathered in Auckland to mark the Jubilee, celebrations of which carried through from Friday, June 12, to Sunday, June 14. The old girls present represented every decade in the history of the school, through which 1,156 pupils have passed. On Friday night the celebrations got under way with an informal reception for old girls. The following morning the Bishop of Aotearoa, the Rt. Rev. W. N. Panapa, was the preacher at a Service of Thanksgiving and Commemoration of Founders. After this there was an official welcome, at which the speakers were the Bishop of Auckland, the Rt. Rev. W. J. Simkin, the Mayor of Auckland, Sir John Allum, the Secretary for Maori Affairs, Mr T. T. Ropiha, the Chairman of the General Trust Board of the Diocese of Auckland, Mr A. N. Seaman, the Senior Inspector of Maori Schools, Mr W. Parsonage; the Headmistress, Miss A. R. Berridge: Mrs B. Taua, President of the Old Girls' Jubilee Reunion Organising Committee: the Rev. Mutu Kapa, who spoke for the tangata whenua: and