BHS Prefects 1945

Since writing for the "Kingia" appears to be the age old custom of Prefects, handed down through countless years, the Prefects of 1945 are now taking up the pen. Now do not allow yourselves to be misled by misapprehending our meaning, for we have all been working consistently with our pens throughout the year, even though some may have only been chewing the ends. Nevertheless we are actually going to give you a small idea of how Prefects occupy their spare time. Of course as you all know, for want of something better to do, we pounce on evildoers and ring bells, but this is not all by any means. However, we will return to this matter later.

As you all must have noticed we have "taken up the torch," in fact we took it up many months ago, in February, but unofficially we started much earlier while last year's Prefects were preoccupied with the Leaving Examination. Happily, however, as yet we have managed to escape from scorching our hand, but one never can tell what lies in the near future. Now, when we mention the passing of the torch we do-not necessarily infer that it was passed from failing hands indeed, we feel that last year's Prefects did quite a good job. But we must not break faith with those who are gone, so we will strive to hold it high.

We feel that a suitable way to begin Our business is by welcoming to the school those members of the staff who have arrived since the "Kingia" was last published. Mr. Downing, as you probably all know, was teaching here several years ago, so we cannot altogether include him as a newcomer. But we hope that he has a happy stay at Bunbury High and that he remains here for years to come. Another of the Staff, Mr. Potts, has only been with us this year, and the Prefects take pleasure in welcoming him to the school. But we feel sure that by the time the "Kingia" is published Mr. Potts will have established himself well with the students. Mr. Davies, who has only been with us for a short period, arrived to fill Mr. Everingham's position, and his coming was greatly welcomed by the boys, many of whom had been deprived of manual shed subjects. We also wish to extend a warm welcome to Miss Judge who has taken such a keen interest in the sporting and social side of the school. In conclusion we should like also to extend a word of welcome to Miss Payne, who has arrived at the school only recently.

The school is also glad to see back again with us Mr. Horne, who had been serving with the forces, but has taken on caretaking duties again.

Mention has been made already of new members of the staff, but we must not forget those who have left. I think you will all agree that Mr, Everingham was not only a special friend and a valuable asset to the school but also to the Prefects. He was always ready with his help or suggestion, and spent many hours of his time in setting up or repairing the amplifier so that the school dances would be a bigger success. Even though Mr. Everingham only taught the boys, he was very popular amongst the girls, and the school was sorry to lose him. We wish Mr. Everingham every success in his new position.

We were also very sorry to lose the first master, Mr. Johnson, while he was very reluctant to leave, but we feel that he has by leaving achieved something better, for Mr. Johnson is now Head Master at the Eastern Goldfields High School.

The school owes quite a debt to Mrs. Kenrick, who many of you will remember departed hurriedly from one of the school dances in the first term to catch her train. The Prefects are especially indebted to Mrs. Kenrick for her valued assistance at the school dancing practices. in showing the students the correct methods and steps. We sincerely hope that Mrs. Kenrick is having success wherever she may be now.

Getting down to business, however, we wish to inform you that the Prefects hold their meetings once a fortnight, these meetings being presided over by Mr. Davies-Moore. Naturally enough we cannot disclose all our secrets, but we can tell you a little of what ensues at these meetings. At the beginning of the year, certain duties were imposed. Adrien Poole was elected treasurer, Ron Yates, secretary, while Sheila Crozier and John Leece were made Pound Prefects. Also while we think of it, we would like to remind all the students to leave their books lying around, for the pound has been a steady source of income all the year. We also discuss various other ways and means of punishing evil-doers, at these meetings, while discussions about various dances, socials and practises take a great deal of our time.

We have during the last term written letters to, and received letters from, other State High Schools. The idea was to receive information from other schools as to their activities, but as yet we have not heard from all the schools to which we have written.

Already this year we have held four school dances and two school socials, but by the time the "Kingia" is issued we will have had another dance, while the lower school may have had another social, organised by the fourth year. All these dances, we feel were quite successful and everyone attending had enjoyable evenings. Mr. Clifton with his drums, accompanied by Miss Ellis were good enough to attend several dances, helping to brighten up the programme, while at the end of the second term arrangements were made for procuring a band.

Dancing practises have been carried on with, even though they have not been as frequent as everyone would have liked. At these practises we were very glad of the help rendered by Miss Judge and Mr. Wheeler, while Mr. Clifton was often present to assist us.

The Prefect's funds have been holding out fairly well all the year, but suffered a little lately, since the photos had to be paid for, and also the hiring of the band was no small matter. Luckily, however, Mr. Downing very kindly presented to the Prefects quite a large number of books which had evidently congregated in the lost property office, a large number of which have already been sold. This has naturally helped the fund, and we would like to thank Mr. Downing.

We now come to the most pleasing aspect of a Prefect's life—the Prefects' Tea. So far we have had four Prefects' Teas and each one has been an improvement on the preceding one. Generally these functions are held up at the school in room K one Friday night every month, but the last tea was held at Mr. Davies- Moore's home. This was a great success, and after the tea we had a card evening, followed by supper. At the time Peter Davies-Moore, who was school Captain in 1942, was home, affording us good company. It was very kind of Mr. and Mrs. Moore to invite the Prefects to their home, for which we would like to thank them both. With regard to these teas, however, we have a sad tale to relate, for we very much fear that we have a second Doug. in our midst. It is hardly fair to mention any names, as we are not yet quite certain, but this person seems to hove an enormous capacity for storing food; for whenever there is any food to be disposed of after the meal, this person is quickly sought after, and he seldom disappoints us. We have noticed him to be much worse of late, and can hardly think that this reflects upon his boarding house, or is due to the approach of the Leaving, you know gathering up energy or something. Nevertheless we would rather see the food eaten than thrown away.

Well, this time next year will find another group of Prefects attempting as we are doing to fill a few columns of our "Kingia" magazine. By that time we will have been "thrust upon the world" as you might say, or should we say the world will be "thrust upon us." But never mind, we wish the Prefects of 1946 every success, in fact we wish success to all those Prefects who will come to follow after we have gone. We would like also to be remembered by the school after we have gone, as we will remember the school in later years.

In concluding, we would like to thank all those members of the staff who have been such a big help to us. We would like especially to thank Mr. Bradshaw and Miss Stevens for their co-operation and advice, while Mr. Davies-Moore who has been untiring in his efforts to help the Prefects in every possible way, is to be thanked most of all. We can honestly say he has lived up to his name "The Father of Prefects" in every possible way. In a last word to the school and its inmates, we wish them every success in the coming years, and we hope that they may live up to the name of the school, forever preserving its motto "En Avant."

'Prefect Notes' from the 1945 edition of the Kingia magazine.