HIGH SCHOOL OLD BOYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 October 1920, Page 7

HIGH SCHOOL OLD BOYS.

WORK OP THE ASSOCIATION. WAR MEMORIAL QUESTION. The fourth annual report of the New Plymouth High School Old Boys' Association will be submitted .to the annual meeting of members to be held in the sohool hall on Thursday night, commenting nt seven o'clock. The meeting will be followed by a re-union dinner.

The annual report states, inter alia: "Since the annual meeting in October last the subject which has acquired most of the activities of the Association has been the question of a memorial to those 44 old boys who fell in the war. At that meeting the matter was left in the hands of the executive with a recommendation that the memorial should take the form of a school chapel. Your executive immediately took this matter in hand and early in November circulars were (sent (to all old "boys soliciting donations to the fund; The response to this circular was not as good as might have been expected, and the sum of £277 5s 9d was received and a further £75 5s 6d promised. The headmaster (Mr. Moyes) very kindly undertook to write to all those old boys who passed through the school in his !! ■. and this no doubt accounts for the i. that the amounts received have largely come from the younger generation o"f Old. boys. The members of the executive have, since the end of the financial year, made a canvass of those old boys resident in New Plymouth, and the result has been that a further £l5O has either been received or promised. The present boys at 'the school 'have contributed a sum of £SO 5s to the fund, and the thanks of the Association are due to them for this contribution. An amount of £2O 10s 6d, the surplus of the proceeds of the citizens' ball held at the opening of the new school in 1919, has also come to this fund. With the amount transferred from the baith fund, the total amount received and promised to date is in the vicinity of £7OO. Owing to the prohibitive cost of building at the present time it has been decided not to close 'the fund till the end of 1921, when the Association will decide on which of the two forms proposed at the last annual meeting the memorial is to take. Parents of old boys are to be circularised, and from ths opinions expressed by some of them a good sum should come from this source. The question of obtaining a Government subsidy on the amounts collected has been discussed by the executive, but it is felt that, if this is to be a fitting memorial to those old boys of the school who gave their lives for the Empire* it should come entirely from those interested in the school and not partly from the Government. This matter will, however, be dealt with at the meeting of the Association which will be called to decide upon the form of the memorial. It is hoped that those old beys present at this meeting who have not already done so, will lose no time in contributing to this fund. The money re- I eeived for the fund has been invested in the New Plymoutli Savings Bank arid the Taranaki Building Society." Other matters dealt with by the report are the question of a badge for the Association, the annual re-union, which has been fixed for the evening of sports day each year, and the annual ball for July of each year. In connection with sports the report touches on the activities of the Old Boys' Football and Cricket Clubs, and remarks that these tend to keep up the interest in the Association Accounts showed a credit balance of £lB 17s.

The thanks of the Association are expressed to Mrs. Moyes and the ladies' committee who assisted with the annual bail: to Mr. Bradbury for designs of the Old Boys' Badge; to the president (Mr. E. P. Webster) for use of office; and to the principal (Mr. W. H Moyes) and his staff for the ready' assistance given to the executive at all times. "It is indeed gratifying," the report concludes, "to find that the, relations between the school and the Association are so intimate, as this condition is essential to the effective working of the Association.