STUDENTS’ FAREWELL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20120, 14 December 1939, Page 4

STUDENTS’ FAREWELL

SCHOOLBOY JOINS UP W. TOROA’S DEPARTURE LOYALTY AND DEVOTION Having completed his scholastic career to-day, W. Toroa, head prefect of the Gisborne High School, leaves Gisborne to-morrow for Trentham to enter the school to qualify for noncommissioned rank in • the Maori Battalion. At the school assembly this morning the rector, Mr. J. Hutton, referred to Toroa’s departure, and expressed the good wishes of the school to him. He had been a senior boy for some time and had shown remarkable loyalty and devotion to the school. Although he -had failed to matriculate on one or two occasions, he had shown moral courage by his additional attempts to pass the examination, and Mr. Hutton expressed the hope that Toroa’s name would toe Included this year in the list of successful candidates. He had been a tower of strength on the Rugby and cricket fields when representing the school. Another senior boy and prefect, Arthur Torrie, was called upon to speak on behalf of Toroa’s schoolmates. Torrie commented on the Maori boy’s widespread popularity, and mentioned that that probably had come about through his good sporting instincts on and off the field. He was liked and respected by all his fellows and others he had met on the fields of play. As a token of the esteem in which he was held in the school, Torrie presented Toroa with a leather case and shaving set on behalf of the boys of the school. # Toroa made a suitable reply, saying he would always remember the many pleasant years he had spent as a student at the Gisborne High School.