GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 164, 17 December 1914, Page 7

GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL.

THE PRIXCIPAL'S REPORT. Miss Grant, principal of the Girls' High School, presented a most interesting report at the brcaking-up ceremonv. After enumerating flic successes gained !iy the scholars in public competitive examinations, and giving the prize-list for the year (published in yesterday's issue), the report goes on:— "The work done by the two giris iu our highest form, VI. A, has b;vu of a grade intermediate b"tween the matriculation and .Junior L'nivci>ity s-hoiar-hliip standards, while our lowest form! consists almost entirely of girls who last year passed the sixth standard in the primary schools. The girls of the fourth and third forms, in addition to the ordinary school work, have taken courses of thirty lessons of two hours each in dressmaking and cookery respectively. '"ln our drill and physical culture we still feel the loss of Mr. Lints keenly, the more so as no one has as yet been appointed to supply his place. We have done our best to till the gap, but for this work a specialist is needed. It is a. matter that requires immediate attention. During the last part of the year, however, one of our 'Old Girls,' Miss Andrew, has most kindly come forward and given a course of lessons in physical culture to all of the girls who wished to have them. I am glad to say that the great majority availed themselves of this privilege, and have enjoyed the lessons thoroughly. Miss Andrews has inspired them with her own enthusiasm. We all appreciate her goodness, knowing how little spare time she has. It is, however, only one of many instances of her devotion to her old school. "From physical culture to games the transition is easy and natural. We are fortunate tn again having a tennis court of our own, and the standard of play is, I think, higher than for some years. We should consider ourselves still more fortunate if we had more than one court. One is not enough. Another summer recreation is swimming. Perhaps in the not very distant future the High School will be equipped witli swimming baths, but at present we have to content our. ' selves with visiting the Municipal Baths ' once a week as a school. Our swimming sports on March, the lilth, passed oil' very successfully, thanks in great part to the exertions of Messrs. Whitaher and Paul, who acted as starter and judge respectively. "Hockey is our chief winter game, and in this game also there is an appreciable improvement iu the play, thanks largely to Miss Cross's efficient couching. Two of our teams belong to the Xorth Taranaki Ladies' Hockey Association. In the Association matches our A team scored 44 goals, while 15 were scored against it; and the 1? team scored 23 points t» their opponents' 33. Oji .111110 3rd our A team took part in the Taranaki Ladies' Hockey Tournament at Hawera, but with no very brilliant results. In the first of the two matches against the Stratford District High School girls, our team was successful, winning by 0 to 2. The second match ended in a draw. "A game that we find very desirable for its own sake, on account of the muscles it brings into play, and also useful as a variation from drill, is basketball. It has for us the further recommendation that we can play it at the school.

"I am glad to say that the health of the school has been excellent on the whole, and we, have been free from epidemics. 'Two of our girls, however, have been kept away from us for two terms by illness. They are both, happily,.mak. ing good progress towards recovery. They have been specially missed, as they held rather important positions in the school, one of them being a prefect_

"During the year we liave had various special privileges. One of these a course of lectures by the T!ev. 'Mr. Lewis. The course included lectures on "The Dawn of Literature,' 'Milton,' 'Wordsworth,' 'Sir Walter Scott,' 'Macaulay,' 'Tennyson, 'Tt. L. Stevenson,' and 'George Eliot.' Mr. Lewis is too well known as a lecturer to need any encomium from me. bat I cannot refrain from saying what a great pleasure the lectures were to us all* We enjoyed them so much that we forgot to think that they were also beneficial.

"Mrs. Philip Xatban, of Wellington, when in Xcw Plymouth again this year, pave us another happy and instructive hour. This time she recited to us 'Enoch Arden' and a fairy-tale. In listening to so finished an elocutionist the girls not only receive a lesson in voice-production, hut they must also appreciate more keenly and trulv the beauties of our flexible English language. Visits such as Mrs. Nathan's make a lasting impression, and leave behind happy memories.

"Quite recently we have had a visitor of world-wide fame. It is not often that a man who stands first in any branch of knowledge visits Xew Zealand, still less Xew Plymouth. We were, then, greatly honored when Sir Ernest Rutherford, the leading authority on that marvellous and vital element, radium, and on radioactivity, came to see us, and gave us an address on his own subject, lie spoke for only half-an-hour, and even the least receptive among us was interested, and found something to remember, for he was,'as tlie greatest only are, in his simplicity, sublime.' Tt is a memory that the girls may well be proud of—that they have heard Sir Ernest Rutherford speak on radium. "I have not so far mentioned a matter that is now never far from our minds—the war. A matter so vital to the nation, to humanity, could scarcely fail to affect us as a school. Tt is, I hope, teaching us a broader sympathy, a wider charity. It is making demands on our energies, our time, and onr resources. I think that the girls have not been slow to learn these lessons, to respond to these demands. On the Sth August they began their work by helping to fit out the Taranaki members of the Expeditionary Force with comforts of various kinds/giving of their energy, their time, and their money. As soon as that workwas done, they continued their labor of love by making and mending garments for the poor in Manchester. In this, as in the work for the troopers, they were materially helped by the 'Old Girls.' We vrere able to send away 413 garments, which I hope are by this time in use. It is a privilege to be able to relieve, in ever so small a degree, the privations of those one glimpse of whose sufferings would sadden us for life. One of our 'Old Girls,' Mrs. TTorrnx, has very kindly put us in communication with friends of hers, who will personally attend to the distribution of the clothing. Since then the girls have made up and despatched another parcel for the troopers. "We have with us to-night Mrs. Evans, who was the first 'girl-graduate' in the British Dominions. New Zealand men were the first to open their eves to the fact: that if a woman kept the regulations, and passed the examinations necessarv to obtain a decree, it was foolish not to let her have that degree. There had been learned women throughout the a"cs: there had been advanced thinkers on education. Milton anticipated many of our modern ideas on the subject, but the idea of women studying at a University with men would have been lit-

terly foreign to him. To.day there are women colleges even at Oxford and Cambridge; but though women there may pass the same examination as men, they may not have the title. There had been senior wranglers year after year at Cambridge, but when a woman headed the mathematical list she was not allowed the name—it must go to the highest man on the list. Though beaten, ho was senior wrangler; while Miss l'awcelt had to content herself wil.'i Icing 'above the senior wrangler,' a position much more diilicuit of attainment. The labors of pioiveis are apt to be soon forgotten, ai'd we in these free tim-: in this free land iiml it hard to realise what a price has been paid fur our freedom. We mil.- - , v. nu rnhcr, However, V.y.-t education, vhttiicr o: '.'noun or of hum, is o.ily in it- .iikUKN. There is a :.Lu ■ of uni-ir-t ill the e.Ue-y'zonal world, of gloomy itmodimjs 11 Hie part of noire, of mu.el'ul antir.-'iiiiio.i uii the "part oi most, of our great thinkers that presages changes, perhaps revolutionary changes, but changes that we confidently hope will be for the good of the nice. "And now, as last year, I have to express the gratitude of tiie start to tinprefects for their earnest and untiring Jiolp in all that pertained to the good 0? the school. They have naturally greater facilities than the teachers of knowing ■what goes on among their school-follows, jmd it would be hard to over-estimate the good a school derives from an honorable, loyal band of prefects, such as we have had again this year. Some of them will, I hope, be at school next year to continue their good work there; the others are beginning their independent work in the world. We wish them a career of useful and happy service. As a parting gift they have presented us with thirteen volumes of stand-"" -vorks for our library.

"I should also like to thank >*>■*» Hamilton, the Rev. Mr. Lewis, a*"' U friend 'who prefers to remain anonymous for valuable 'additions to our KLiaiy; and to -Mr. K. H. Drew and .Mr- &*Saoy Paul for a tennis and a swim"' ?ize respectively."