SCHOOL COOKERY CLASSES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8981, 15 November 1907, Page 5

SCHOOL COOKERY CLASSES.

COMPLIMENTARY DINNER TO THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE. Nothing could have been more illustrative of the progress that the cookery classes at the Masterton District High School have made than the complimentary dinner that was given by the senior girls to the members of the School Committee and male teachers of the school last evening. In all about seventeen guests sat down to dinner, the headmaster (Mr W. H. Jackson) presiding. The classes have only been established within the last two years, and thensuccess has been beyond expectations. The menu included soups, fish, entrees, poultry and joints of various kinds, and also puddings, swetts, salads, tea and coffee. Five mem'bers of the class acted as waitresses. The cooking was excellent, ar,d *.he table decorations formed an attractive feature.

The chairman took the opportunity of explaining to the company that the dinner had been arranged to allow the committee to see what progress the lasses were making and to give the girls a partial opportunity of knowing how to serve a dinner as well as showing what they could do in the kitchen. The selection of the various dishes had baen left to the girls themselves,, and they had arranged the tables under the supervision of the instructress, Miss Talbot, whose work, in instructing the pupils, the speaker characterised as splendid. One of the features of the school was the splendid manner in which the cookery classes had been equipped. This gave the pupils every opportunity of learning all branches of cookery, and it was the rule that every girl, from the Fourth Standard onwards, should learn cooking. The school possessed the largest number of cookery classes of any State school in the dominion. Mr Jackson mentioned that this was only one branch of the special work that was being done at the school. He also instanced the agricultural plot, where the boys were instructed in agricultural and botanical matters, and the school cadets where military instruction and rifle shooting was carried on. He added that the Masterton school also possessed the largest cadet corps of any public school in the dominion.

Short speeches were made by Messrs R. Brown, C. Perry, W. A. Fendall and Rev. J. N. Buttle, who congratulated Miss Talbot and the pupils" on the excellent dinner they had prepared and served, and expressed pleasure at being present at such a gathering. Three cheers were then given for the headmaster, Miss Talbot, and the pupils, and the gathering adjourned.