Workshops Apprentices’ Club

The social side of railway life at the Department's new workshops in the Hutt Valley has been advanced a further step by the formation of an Apprentices’ Club at the workshops. The club, the management of which has been placed in the hands of an enthusiastic committee of apprentices, with the apprentice instructor, Mr. G. Carter, as chairman, has been established to promote the educational and recreational interests of the apprentices, and to foster good fellowship amongst them. This is a splendid objective.

By way of launching the club officially, the committee recently arranged a most successful dance function, which was held in the commodious Social Hall at the workshops. This gathering was presided over by Mr. Walworth (Workshops Manager), who, in an appropriate speech of welcome to members and their friends, outlined the aims and purposes of the club and expressed the hope that it would long continue as a constructive social influence in the workshops. He read apologies for the unavoidable absence of Mr. G. S. Lynde (Chief Mechanical Engineer) and Mr. E. T. Spidy (Superintendent of Workshops),

Hutt Valley Workshops Apprentices' Club Committee.
Back row (left to right): R. W. Cartmell, H. G. MacAulay, E. G. Hancox, R. J. Feeney, L. S. C. Benge. Front row: B. R. Ross (Hon. Sec.), G. Carter (Instructor), and A. G. T. Jamieson (Hon. Treas.).

both of whom welcomed the formation of the club and expressed confidence that its educational and social activities would benefit the boys individually and collectively.

The Social Hall presented a pleasing spectacle. Beautifully decorated with coloured lights, flags, pot plants and flowers (with an added touch of colour provided by the pretty frocks of the ladies) and comfortably heated by means of electric radiators, the setting for the inaugural function was all that could be desired.

The musical side of the arrangements was another feature that enhanced the interest and pleasure of the evening, the vocal items rendered by Messrs. Christensen and De Faur, and the instrumental music provided by the orchestra formed of members of the workshop's staff, under the leadership of Mr. A. E. Clark, being distinctly creditable. Mention must be made, too, of the excellent supper served most efficiently by members of the workshops dining room staff, and to the able manner in which Mr. McFarlane carried out the duties of Master of Ceremonies at this the first social gathering of the club.