The Daily News. THERSDAY. FEBRUARY 20, 1913. THE HIGH SCHOOL GYMNASIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 233, 20 February 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. THERSDAY. FEBRUARY 20, 1913. THE HIGH SCHOOL GYMNASIUM.

I' 1- appeal of til" hcadina-t.c:- of the !''."'' Sl 'l 1 I'm' ;i lii-tn-r gymnasium for the boys wii.-N incontinently (.limed down yesterday I,y the High School JSoard. though no very delinite reason appears to have been given for their refusal to accede to Air. Moye-/s rcpie-,! beyond the vague and intangible -fatemetit Unit, ""Hie old boy, have the matter in hand. I'robably 11 hi hoy- have undertaken .-onie responsibility in the matter, out of that line spirit of camaraderie thai makes vxvry "old boy - ' turn all his life with appreciation and loyalty to the school Unit breil him. lint that is not the point. Wc-do not want to go throwing around the hackneyed truism thai "the liattle of Waterloo w;h won on the playing liehls of Kton." but everybody knows nowadays that no modern school L- eoni|dete without a thorough equipment for the physical training- of the pupils a- well a- their mental development. The average father ami mother, in this ileeadenl age. where pedantry iconcerned, would ju-t its soon that their sons and daughters were taught to swim and to ride and to develop their bodies a- that they -hoiihl con-true fireek or d> moustialo lo the n-t]i decree the nebulosity of ili,. moon- of j'npiter—not in vulgar fraction, but in -iriMc-cratif loga-

iit Inn-. We want our children to have the best possible education to lit them j for tlit' requirements of the maturcr life } they will have shortly to assume, and that life in only a small proportion of cases is likely to be a professioal one. Aristides probably did not know anything about milking cows, and it is very doubtful if even Homer could have held his owe in a land deal with a. back-block settler. As for Diogenes, his prolonged sojourn in a tub must have left him in such a condition .tliat he could not even have won a hack race at Opuwike. Jesting apart, wliile probably most of the members of the High School Hoard could not cut a very dignified figure, on the Roman rings or the horizontal bar, they should remember that the sound body is the lirst essential for the sane mind. Kvcry public school of any class in the Dominion has its proper gymnasium and \i> swimming bath, and these accessories are quite a- necessary as class-rooms and playgrounds. '.I be High School now has an excellent stall' and a. live and enthusiastic headmaster. It has a larger list of pupils than it has ever had before, and ils early extension promises to be imperative. In the in can time, the boys attending the school have just as much right to have their physical requirements attended to as they have to be taught tl at twice two amounts to just what the Hoard declares it shall amount to. There, in no reason whatever why this obligation should be shouldered on to the ever-willing old boys. The Hoard has rich endowments, and is in no sense a poor administrative, body, and it is its obvious duty to see that the school is ; pioperly equipped for the physical train- ! ing of the boys without further delay.