1960

In 1960 another new batch of 67 students joined our ranks. Heading the girls were Joan Tze ,Wong Siew Jyu and Chang Chung Jet. These three ladies remain fast friends till today.

The others were Moh Mee Ing,Uteh binti Johari (the sister of Rabiah Johari),Alice Chin and Mary Chapman.

One good thing about having some girls in our midst was the "extra food"we could get from them. Whenever these girls did not have any appetite to eat, they just passed their food to our tables and we would just accept the extra blessing with glee. Eating together in the school dining hall was exceptionally interesting and warm. Our food was good, and we were very well trained by the Principal and the matron. We had good biscuits and drinks during breaks and a special night cap before we went to sleep. But unfortunately, after 1962, the food scenario took a turn for the worse, which perhaps was due to the larger school population or otherwise.

The dining hall scenario did not have any parallelisms with "Oliver!" definitely. Malay , natives and Chinese boys and girls got along well. Whether there was any undercurrent of dissatisfaction, I did not feel it in the first three years of my school life in TLS. So what Mr. McCormick said was true,"TSL was a paradise for learning."

The girls of 1960 also added more spice to our lives. Joan was very motherly from the beginning. Siew Jyu was just so brilliant in her students. Moh Mee Ing was a determined girl who wanted to study and do well. We later learned that her father was an educationist and expected her to do well. Apparently Mr. Moh in Bintulu spear headed a lot of ideas about running schools and getting Chinese school established. He was determined to bring good education to the immigrant Chinese children. Somehow being a hardworking man, he earned a lot of money to help establish the local Chinese primary school.

Thus by 1960, the school had grown to about 300 strong student population with classes from Primary Five to Form Five.

The school was slowly taking shape too. As progress continued we were very proud that the trees we planted were growing bigger. The new buildings were coming up prettily too. The teachers' quarters were on the eastern side, and the hostels in the south. Two fields have been constructed by then, with the help of school children. The boys went further down the bay area to cut turf to surface the football and hockey fields. I continued to water the causaurina trees, especially those around our hostel.

In the 1990's many of our trees were cut down by order of the Principal then for fear they would be uprooted by the strong winds from South China Sea and destroy the buildings under them.

It was very heartbreaking for me to see those trees planted by us,scrawny little native Primary Five or Six boys who were no taller than five feet,cut down. Thus when I saw the tree stumps I was really upset. ..but being me, any rainforest tree that is fallen and is replaced by another acacia or imported palm, I feel a great pain as if I have been stabbed in the heart. I have loved those dear trees all my life!