OLD BOYS AND THE ALMA MATER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 15, 12 October 1907, Page 4

OLD BOYS AND THE ALMA MATER.

By the interesting resolution," which it adopted last night, the Wellington College Old Boys' Association demonstrated that its members retain an interest in their old school far more real and living than the formal allegiance and languid patronage that so ofterL make similar associations rather pathetic failures of ment. No doubt conservative people may shake their heads oyer the proposal that the Association should have direct representation on the College governing body, but every friend of the College should recognise at any rate the very wholesome spirit which is disclosed by the Association's activity. The proposition is a novel one, but there is in our opinion overwhelming reasons' why its novelty should not weigh against its adoption. A constant grief of headmasters is the difficulty of keeping, active the memories and the affections of the boys who pass from their schools into the big world.' They recognise the value to the boys of an Old Boys' Association waiting, to receive them, and to . use them as bricks in the building up of a. school tradition. Here' we have an .Association so much alive, and. so full"of- interest in "the old "shop," that it desires to draw the bonds closer still. That, surely, is. a desire, which the College authorities should leap to meet. If it is good for a school that the esprit de corps of'its pupils should continue to find exercise after they have gone from under its roof, it is good to encourage the connection between the school and the! association of ex-pupils. This is exactly what will be achieved by admitting the Wellington College Old Boys' Association to a share of the school government. The active members of the Association will always be near enough to their schooL memories to be able to s 'apply with_ the best effect :the judgment, which- they have " matured in their adult years.They are more closely in touch with their school's needs than other people, and their ideas will not be stereotyped. One of last night's resolutions of the Association illustrates this point very . well—that one in which a'protest is entered against tlie really vicious idea that the College atli-

letic .teams should be kept from contact with" outside" athletes. The present constitution of the governing tody is very far from the perfection that forbids even the most alluring variation. Nobody will ask that the .weight of parents' representation should be decreased, but /t seems to us that the Old Boys 'of Wellington College have at least shown that they have a concern in the old school not greatly inferior to that of the parent of the present boy, and certainly far greater than that of a Government nominee. Many of

tlie Old Boys are really justifying their title in another sense tlian that of association with the College, and there is no occasion to fear that the innovation asked for would lead-to a parcel of juveniles being added to the Board. The present chairman is an Old Boy, and, unless we are mistaken, he is not the first ex-pupil of the College to fill that place of distinction. The proposal seems to us an excellent one, and, without reflecting at all on the existing Board, wc certainly, think its adoption by the Government would be likely to have a beneficial effect on the future of the College.