YOUTH AND THE EMPIRE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3891, 5 January 1929, Page 4

YOUTH AND THE EMPIRE.

The means by which selected boys and girls in Britain are being given the opportunity 'of gaining direct knowledge of the Dominions were outlined by Mp\ Montague J. , Rendall in..an address at a oneet-i ing of the Royal Empire Society (the Royal Colonial Institute under its new name). He said no amount of books would have half the effect of a voyage across the water. Cecil Rhodes discovered that fact late in Ms short life, and in consequence 100 scholars from the Empire were now spending three or four years at Oxford, while at least 100 more had followed in their wake and settled either at Cambridge or at Oxford. It was a superb scheme, and had been splendidly administered. To enable boys of 17 or 18 from the English public schools to gain firsthand impressions of even one Dominion |was the far-seeing object of Ml* Amery’s scheme. Two years ago lie constituted a comjmittee consisting of representatives of the chief public schools and three Government officers to arrange for tours to different parts of the Empire. The Church of 'England Settlement Association had acted as pioneers and sent a party to Australia the year before, but Mr. Ainery wished to widen the scope and to put it upon a general and national basis. As a result 43 hoys spent 11 weeks in South Africa last year, and this summer 35 spent eight weeks in Canada and New-

foundland. The benefit to the boys had been untold. It had opened new worlds to them. The main obstacle was the expense, and Mr. Rendall said lie pined for a second Rhodes. If only they had, say, 20 travelling scholarships of £IOO each to award they could soon pick hoys from the best schools and send out a select company who would be representative of the best the public schools could produce. That scheme, however, catered only for the public schools and for wealthy boys, hut Mr. Laseot and the group of newsjmpers with which he w;as connected had discovered a new way of supplementing it, by which boys and girls of energy and ability from every part of the country and from every type of school won by hard and successful work a free trip to one of the Dominions. The flireet success of (this enterprise had been remarkable.