MEMORIAL HALL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2943, 1 December 1916, Page 5

MEMORIAL HALL

FOR COLLEGE "OLD BOYS" WHO HAVE DONE THEIR DUTY. On Saturday, afternoon' at 3 o'clock a memorial service is to be held in honour of tho old bsj;6 of the Wellington Collego who havo fallen in this war. Tho speakers will be tho Hon. J. G. W. Aitken, M.L.0., tho Hon> A. M. Myers, Acting-Minister of Finance} and Mr. J. P. Firth. All the Old Boys of tho Collego have been circularised asking for help in raising a memorial in memory of their comrades who havo served King and country in tho present struggle,-and it has been decided by tho committee of tho Old Boys' Association that tho best -form for a memorial for those who havo served would bo a great Memorial Assembly Hall at tho collego grounds. In it the school will meet every day. Thore the boys will bo surrounded by the photographs of tho old boys, and there they will be able to see tho records of the sacrifice and heroism of their predecessors. For the school this marks so far tho greatest event in its life—its share in the, greatest event in the life of the nation. Hundreds of the old boys have looked death between tho eyes and havo spent long months of strain and hardship on behalf of their country and on behalf of the school. "At the noblest pitch of life, the pitch of facing death," those who the school had lost have died, and after the war is over it has been decided_ that there must bo a College Memorial to stand in years to come, a record of the gratitude and honour felt for them, and a memorial to those who have served their country without having been called upon .to make the supremo sacrifice. The committee has recognised tho difficulty thero may be in collecting sufficient money at the present time for such a memorial building, but they consider there is a strong reason why now is the opportune time, and that is that next year, 1917, is the college jubileo year, and how can it ho better celebrated than by establishing the memorial proposed? For this hall £5000 is wanted, and the school confidently looks to the old boys, to take a share in establishing a- lasting memorial: of the boys of Wellington Collego who have done their all for the safety of their country.