NEW SCHOOL HYMN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 849, 18 December 1929, Page 6

NEW SCHOOL HYMN

EX-PUPIL’S FAREWELL MESSAGE MUSIC AT MOUNT ALBERT The recently-adopted hymn of the Mount Albert Grammar School was **ung at the annual prize-giving ceremony last evening. A former pupil, Mr. J. A. W. Bennett, ■wrote the verses, intending them to be a farewell message when he left the school last year. Because of their literary worth and their sentiment, the lines were taken as the school hymn. Thanks were returned to Air. Bennett last evening by the chairman of the Board of Governors, Professor A. P. W. Thomas, and the headmaster, Mr. F. W. Gamble. Appreciation of the work of Dr. W. E. Thomas in setting the words to music was expressed. Although there had been a certain amount of criticism of the words because they related to an old boy’s point of view. Mr. Gamble said, there was no drawback as every pupil was a potential old boy. In his report. Air. Gamble stressed the place of music in the cultural education of boys. A high standard had been achieved by the choir, the band and the orchestra of the school. Air. Gamble quoted an opinion in the school magazine, written by a senior I pupil, stating that music revealed in men what nothing else could. In the days of materialism, the necessity for a refining influence was acute. Air. Gamble considered the aesthetic influence of music to be highly necessary in the school life and school singing already, served a need. Li