AWAHURI SCHOOL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 179, 30 June 1937, Page 10

AWAHURI SCHOOL

DIAMOND JUBILEE. CELEBRATION TO-DAY. Though the sky was overcast, fine weather prevailed at Awahuri today for the diamond jubilee of the scliool. The celebrations had drawn a very large attendance, and when the initial gathering was held in the schoolroom it was completely filled with, old- pupils, despite its "commodious dimensions. In commencing a short religious service. Rev. J. Hubba.rd said it was fitting that the jubilee should open with a recognition of God, Who had been the mainspring of the inspiration of the- early pioneers. The assembly sang the Old Hundredth Psalm and Mr Hubbard led those present in prayer and read a portion of the Scriptures. In the course of a short address, the minister rec.alled to mind the ideals and aspirations of the early pioneers, saying that it was because of their devotion and sacrifices that the settlers of the district had entered into their great inheritance to-day. The pioneers had had a vision of the country developed into lovely and smiling farms, .and they had built so nobly and so gra.ndly that that vision had eventually come true. The pioneers had striven for the highest and the best, and it was because of their labours that the district was celebrating the jubilee .amid the beauty and the dignity of tli© district to-day. By hard work had that been built out of the difficulties of the early days. The speaker, who had attended a jubilee celebration in the Awahuri Presbyterian Church a short time ago. believed that the early pioneers had been devoted to the purposes of God and they had thought first of a church a.nd a school where might he taught those things of faith and character that made for a secure and enduring civilisation. The only fitting and worthy remembrance of those men and women was that we should carry into our lives the things for which they had stood, that we should do our work in the same noble and self-sacrificing way as had those earlier people. If there were missing to-day some of those things, those great moral pillars without which no nation was secure, it was not the fault of the foundations laid by the early pioneers, blit of the superstructure which had been built on it. The roll was then called by the present teacher, Miss F. A. G. Rolling, and a daughter of the first teacher (Mr E. M. Menzies), Mrs W. H. Booth, of Kimbolton Road, Feilding, was introduced to the gathering. A minute’s silence was then observed in riiemory of the pioneers, old pupils, and teachers who had lived their lives and passed on. The assembly then repaired to the area outside the school, where photographs were taken. An article describing the early days of the school appears on page 11.