ADVICE TO BOYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 December 1922, Page 4

ADVICE TO BOYS.

LESSONS FOR SCHOOL-LIFE. ADDRESS BY JUDGE CHAPMAN. Some excellent and practical advice was tendered to the pupils of the New Plymouth Boys’ High School last night by Mr. Justice Chapman, who was the principal speaker at the ceremony which marked the end of the school year. “To the parents and near relatives of the boys of the school I offer iny congratulations,” said His Honor. “A glance round this hall shows the healthy and cheerful condition of the boys, and I am sure they will be a great element in the future of this town and province.” A GLANCE BACKWARDS. “On such an occasion as this I recall the difference between a school like this and my own, a big school in Australia, though not so very big when I first attended it,” proceeded the judge, who stated that he and three of his brothers attended the Melbourne Grammar School on the first year it opened—“and that ie some time ago,’ he added with a smile as he stated that two years ago one of his brothers attended the sixtieth anniversary of that school. When he recalled the memory of his school-days he recalled a very different picture from what ho then saw before him. They had no uniforms, practically no organisation, and old-fashioned parents allowed the .boys’ hair to grow in long curia, making no attempt to control it (laughter). In those days Melbourne had no water supply, “and you may imagine the consequences” (renewed laughter) e “I mention these facts,” said the judge, “in order that I may congratulate this school on its general tone.” One thing, he considered, made for the present good organisation and that was the close contact between masters and boys. In his day the boys knew the masters as enemies, but now boys and masters were friends, though he believed discipline was just as good and, maybe, just as strict. IDEAS ON EDUCATION. “I cannot address you as an authority on education,” raid His Honor, “but I have some ideas of my own as to how boys should tackle certain subjects. He thought they should always take into consideration the fact that their chosen career might fail them and they might have to take to something else, so he suggested that while educa A tion should tend to specialise in some things, there should be generalisation to a certain extent, for a man might start out in life to be a doctor, for instance, and end up as an editor. “I like boys and men to keep a little out of the groove,” stated the speaker. “I believe I tried to do so myself but I have never had need to resort to any other profession. I believe I could edit a newspaper, but did you ever meet a man who ever admitted that he could not ?” He could sympathise with the backward boy, but if that boy once realised he was backward, he bad got half-way towards remedying the defect. Masters in these days recognised this, and in an unobtrusive way put the boy right, not from without but from within. “if you have anything to do, think it out and do it ’ thoroughly, ’ urged the speaker. “Do not do it in a mechanical manner.” He would say, too, “Look forward, not merely to your own career, hut to the great things that are going on around you.” “STICK TO YOUR JOB!” “Never say die,” urged His Honor. Many men had been ruined in health and in worth, but, by struggling on, they had managed to arrive at something and to re-establish themselves. “Stick to your job!” That was what marked out the Englishman above the people of other nations and, by the term “Englishmen” he meant it in the sense of all those who had sprung from the northern isles and had spread all over the world. There was nothing in a battle, there was something in a campaign, but there was more in seeing it out to the end. That was the English spirit. “If I have spoken one word or one sentence that has been of interest to you, anything that has struck youi young minds as worth remembering or recalling,” concluded His Honor, “then I shall feel fully rewarded. I can assure you it has been a real pleasure for me to address such a healthy lot of schoolboys, "who, if not listening, looked as if they were!” (laughter and applause). . Later in the evening the chairman ot the board of governors (Mr. J. S. Fox) thanked Mr. Justice Chapman for the excellent and interesting address he had given.