Tony Friend writes:

"Thanks for bringing this up. You have really helped me understand something that has puzzled me for forty years. I can't remember the story as well as you can, for reasons that will become obvious.

The elephant was manned by Hansen Yee and myself. Hansen was in the front, and presumably could see what was happening. I was the back legs, and recall virtually nothing except how bloody uncomfortable it is to try to walk while bent at 90 degrees encircled by a cage of chicken wire wrapped in grey cloth. Where the chicken wire has been cut, without any attention to blunting the ends, it sticks into body parts, aggravated enormously by attempts to move. Not being able to see doesn't hlp, either.

From your description, I now understand why the reaction to he elephant was so extreme. Hansen and I were banned from the shool, and especially the whole afternoon's planned official festivities. This was to be some sort of send-off function. Mothers had made sandwiches, that sort of thing. I remember there were parents hanging around, probably invited by Tom Mason.

We waited forlornly out in Falcon Street, contemplating our fate. If I remember correctly, the whole of the fifth year threatened to boycott the event if we weren't reinstated. Eventually, probably after Mason and Carnegie realized that a boycott would be more embarrassing that backing down, we were allowed in, although I'm not sure we were much loved at the time by the authorities. One minor point - I think the elephant event was actually in the late morning,before lunch, and that the whole festivity thing was a lunch. At least, that's the way I remember it"

Bill Scott writes:

"I have just heard the sad news that Bob Blyton passed away two years ago after a heart attack. A good bloke gone far too soon. I was talking to Denis O'Sullivan (Headmaster 1977-1987) last week and he informed me that the new Principal at NSBHS is (gasp! shock! horror!) a woman. What is the world coming to?"

Marc Thompson writes:

"Rod Wise's methods work. I went to the State Library and looked up Trevor Sams' parents in the 1958 NSW Electoral Roll then looked him up in the Feb 2001 NSW alphabetical list. In the process I think I discovered that both his parents are probably deceased now so that would have been a dead end. However Trevor is listed in the white pages as T Sams not T W Sams which would have made it harder but not impossible to find him. Trevor W. Sams lives at 11/524 Mowbray Road, Lane Cove 2066 ph (02)9428 4172 e-mail samstw@ozemail.com.au"