OLD SCHOOLBOYS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4963, 17 February 1877, Page 3

OLD SCHOOLBOYS.

TO THE EDITOR OP THB-NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —I was as sorry as I was surprised to see that anyone who professes to have enjoyed a public school education should be the author of a composition in which I can find no trace of that gentlemanly feeling and true manliness which are generally the result of such a training. The “Old Schoolboy” appears to Have written, the letter in’ question with, the object of impressing upon his friends and the public at large the fact that he really was once at “one of England’s largest public schools,” and yet the tone and wording of his production go far to make such a fact incredible. Having enjoyed fourteen years of public school life in England, I am glad to state that according to my experience there was amongst the boys invariably a feeling of the greatest respect and affection for their masters. Never have I known, aud never before have I heard of any large school in which there was such entire absence of all esprit de corps as. there appears to have been at the place of education of your unfortunate “ Old Schoolboy.” It is not unworthy of notice that your correspondent wrote as he did without waiting to ■ hear the evidence which he knew'jwould be forthcoming at the meeting of the College Governors. If, indeed, there were any who feared there might have been cruelty in the case of the young Turnbulls, the decision of the Board, published in yesterday's paper, was well adapted to set their minds at ease. . “ Like father like son ” is a saying as true as it is old and hackneyed, and all who have any interest in the wellbeing of the College have great reason to hope that its present high tone will long continue, when such a father expresses his determination to send his son to schools better suited to his temperament and training. —I am, &0., Tom Brown, Oxon. February Iff