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Title: Firth of Wellington
Author: Elliott, James, Sir
Published: Whitcombe & Tombs, Auckland, N.Z., 1937
FIRTH OF WELLINGTON
BY SIR JAMES ELLIOTT.
(Photo by courtesy "Evening Post," Wcllingt, J. P. Firth. C.M.G. Portrait in Oils by Bowrins.
Firth of Wellington
BY SIR JAMES ELLIOTT.
WHITCOMBE & TOMBS LIMITED
AUCKLAND, WELLINGTON, CHRISTCHURCH. DUNEDIN, INVERCARGILL, N.Z
MELBOURNE, SYDNEY Si LONDON
1937
To All Masters and Old Boys of
Wellington College, New Zealand.
5
Preface.
When I was asked by the committee of the Wellington College Old Boys’ Association to write a biography of J. P. Firth, my first impulse was to refuse. I suppose I was honoured with this request because I had been in close contact with the " Boss ” for more than thirty years. As a busy man, of course I was expected to have learnt that time can be found for anything one wants to do. I must confess I did not know then the vast amount of labour involved in even a short and modest biography. He would be a very forward biographer indeed who would submit to being harassed daily by telephones, imperative calls and public and private duties, and devote what should be the early hours of sleep in the silent watches of the night to the driving of a pen.
Firth was not a voluminous writer. He did not preserve the correspondence he received. He did not air his views and he almost entirely restricted his activities to his scholastic work. The records therefore are few. Although the responsibility of writing the life of this great headmaster has fallen upon one person, yet,
6
Preface
it must be understood that generous help has been forthcoming from many others to supply the defects of my memory.
The friends of his early days have nearly all gone. It is no easy task to make him stand in a full and proper light when the candles of memory of almost all who knew him in his youth and early prime have gone out for ever. As far as possible I have tried to make Firth’s own words and deeds speak for him.
There is another difficulty which I need not labour. It is understood by all who lived in the happy years before the Great War and also in the tortured years of the war and the post-war period. For Firth, as for others of his time, the Great War, like a wide and gloomy ravine, cuts across the years before and the years after, and turns a lifetime into two blurred and broken scenes.
This book is intended to be (how far it succeeds I cannot say) a tribute of love and of undying respect to a great man and a great teacher. For myself, I owe more to him than to any other man except my father.
It may also serve in the present day a good purpose to bring to the minds of many, particularly the young, that the path of pleasure is not the only way ; that life is real and earnest, and that there is not, and can never be, any lasting satisfaction except in sound principles and hard work. This, I believe, is the kernel of Firth's philosophy. Strange that such self-evident truth could ever be forgotten, or forsaken.
Preface
7
I have made unsparing use of contributions from Firth's former pupils and assistant masters, and from his relations and friends. Among these, I should like to mention with grateful thanks :
Mrs. Firth and her sister Mrs. W. F. Ward ; the Wellington College Old Boys' Association ; Sir Louis Barnett ; Prof. W. P. Evans ; Drs. Diamond Jenness, Martin Tweed and A. L. Young ; Messrs. W. F. Ward, F. Martyn Renner, James Bee, E. P. Bunny, J. N. Millard, M. C. Barnett, A. R. Meek, Robert and lan Darroch, Laurence Watkins, G. C. P. Tripe, J. W. Trolove, H. Barrett, T. E. Y. Seddon, T. Brodie, T. Jordan, J. W. Barltrop, W. Devenish, and Archdeacon Monaghan.
Wellington, 4th October,
-J. S. E.
1937.
CONTENTS.
Page
Preface 5
Foreword 13
Chapter I. Early Years 17
Chapter 11. Assistant Master 34
Chapter 111. Headmaster 49
... *ry Chapter IV. Fruitful Years 73
..■ .... /j Chapter V. School Life 101
Chapter VI. Later Years p 6
Chapter VII. Outlook on Education 145
Chapter VIII. On Patriotism 160
Chapter IX. Sport 177
Chapter X. Life and Character 19g
Chapter XI. Life's End 216
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
J. P. Firth, c.m.g. Frontispiece
(Photograph of Oil Painting by Bowring )
J. P. Firth at age of twenty-seven,
Assistant Master Facing p. 40
J. P. Firth, Headmaster .... Facing p. 64
Mrs. Firth Facing p. 80
Wellington College, 1874-1931 . . Facing p. 112
Lord Jellicoe and Mr. Firth, 30th Nov..
1923 Facing p. 128
Facsimile Letter (J. P. Firth) . . Facing p. 181
Facsimile Letter (Admiral of The Fleet,
Earl Jellicoe) Facing p. 214
11
Foreword.
By the Rt. Hon. Sir Michael Myers, p.c., g.c.m.g..
Chief Justice of New Zealand.
In every country, if peace and happiness are to endure amongst nations, it is essential that there should be an adequate supply of wise leaders of men. But so much is heard of leadership of men that the importance of leaders of boys is apt to be overlooked. Yet, without such leadership, and unless the boys of the community are trained in the principles of good citizenship and of loyalty to their Sovereign, to their country and to the Empire, unless they are taught to appreciate their duties and obligations to their fellow-men, poor indeed would be the prospects of securing wise leaders of men in the days to come.
Biographies are written of leaders of men —their name is legion —but few of leaders of boys. For the most part it is to the primary and secondary schools that leadership of boys should be looked for, and New Zealand has always been fortunate in the class of men who have held the responsible positions of headmasters
13
14
Foreword
in her schools. It is well therefore that both the present and future generations should know something of the life and work of the late J. P. Firth, for many years the headmaster of Wellington College, than whom this Dominion has never known a more capable and successful leader of boys.
Formation of character, the creation of the highest moral standards, the production of honourable men and good citizens —these were always to him the paramount considerations, to which scholarship, though never ignored, must take second place. No more strict disciplinarian than he—but no boy could ever complain of his lack of justice, and they loved and revered him accordingly. The boys knew him for what he was — and he knew them, not merely in the mass, but each boy individually, both his strength and his weakness of character. His insight was almost uncanny, and each boy he seemed to be able to deal with as a separate study and as a distinct character to develop.
His interest in the boys did not cease when they left school. In each of them, after leaving, he maintained his interest, and to each and every one of them his friendly advice and help were always available, and given whenever sought, as it frequently was.
During the War he made it almost a matter of religion to keep in constant touch with those of his Old Boys —and there were many hundreds of them—who were engaged in that great struggle. Of him, and
15
Foreword
leaders of boys like him, New Zealand has every reason to be proud. So long as our schools are controlled by men of his character there should be little to fear for the future of the Country. His life and work stand out as an inspiration. It is well that his biography should be written, and there could be no more suitable biographer than Sir James Elliott, one of his early pupils and thereafter his intimate and lifelong friend.
26th October, 1937.
17
I!
CHAPTER I.
Early Years.
Joseph Firth was born in Wellington on the 25th March, 1859. Wellington had been founded in the year 1840, and in 1859 was a primitive colonial settlement on the beach at the upper end of a magnificent harbour. Behind the beach settlement rose high bushclad hills.
The Maoris were friendly to the white settlers in Wellington, but troubles with the natives in the surrounding country and in various remote parts of the colony required the presence of British troops. Sections of the 58th Foot and the 65 th Foot (called by the natives "te Hickety-Pif ”) and other soldiers were at various times stationed at Wellington.
The heroic band of early settlers had many troubles to meet, not the least of which were severe earthquakes in 1848 and in 1855.
Sailing ships continued to arrive at irregular intervals, and in one of these ships came Joseph Firth’s parents, but the name of the ship is unknown.
Joseph Firth’s father, a North of England man, was Aaron Firth and the mother’s maiden name was Ann
27
Firth of Wellington.
Priestnell. Aaron Firth was, like Hugh Miller, a stonemason, and no doubt found useful employment in Wellington in those early days when everyone was a worker. He had energy and ambition, and apart from his trade could turn his hand to anything.
At some time during Joseph’s early boyhood, his father, Aaron Firth, caught the prevalent contagion of the gold fever. He, his wife and family, like many others, took ship for the West Coast of the South Island, the El Dorado of New Zealand.
The Firth family settled at Cobden across the river from Greymouth. Greymouth itself could have held a larger population, but Cobden may have been attractive because the land was freehold whereas in Greymouth the tenure was the unsatisfactory Maori lease.
This West Coast or Gold Coast which was young Joe Firth’s early environment, for that reason deserves more than a passing glance. It is a long and narrow strip of more or less level coast-land between the sea and the Southern Alps, that high and icy barrier crowned by Aorangi the Cloud Piercer, commonly known as Mt. Cook. An isolated place this West Coast, but loosely linked to the outer world by several small ships. For these there were no harbours not bar-bound by rivers.
On 22nd July 1864, the first steamer, the Nelson, to cross the Greymouth Bar astonished the natives. The Maori women were alone in the Pah, for the men were away on an expedition seeking greenstone. When these wahines saw the intrepid Nelson make boldly for a channel more suited for a canoe, their cries of
Early Years.
28
amazement could be heard afar. Seventy diggers arrived on the Nelson, landed on the beach where there is now a quay and sought the shelter of one of the few boarding-houses or of the numerous public-houses, where they might deposit their swags, and set out to view the Promised Land.
In 1865 an invasion from Australia began and the population of the Coast rose from 830 souls in 1864 to 50,000 in 1866. The Grey district was then famous for large nuggets from Moonlight Gully. From 1864 to 1865 about six thousand discontented miners left the cold and treeless Central Otago diggings for the West Coast.
Aaron Firth and his young family soon acquired a trim T-shaped cottage in Cobden, and made an attractive flower garden in the front. A nearby neighbour cherished a large aloe plant in lieu of flowers, for the aloe then was considered a sovereign remedy for rheumatism and in great demand. The West Coast might be called the Wet Coast because of its abundant rainfall, and rheumatism was a common complaint. A vainglorious West Coaster is reputed to have said that they had plenty of gold, silver, coal, tin and lumbago (meaning thereby, plumbago).
At one of the larger settlements, one day long ago, a young man with civic spirit called on Mrs. Norah Ryan to ask her to vote for a loan for a water supply.
" An' what's a wather supploy ? " asked Mrs. Ryan.
The young man explained all about a reservoir and pipes so that water could be obtained at any time.
Firth of Wellington.
" Mother iv God ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Ryan —" A wather supploy ! An’ we drownded with wather ! ”
In the time of which we speak the police and officials were busy with the issue of miners’ rights in both Greymouth and Cobden, that is, on each side of the river. On the Cobden side was the territory of the Nelson Province, and on the other, the new Westland Province with its centre at Hokitika. Thus the disgusted miners had to buy two rights where, they thought, one reasonably might have sufficed.
With all this activity, excitement and hopefulness would anyone believe that Aaron Firth did not sometimes leave his hewing and his trimming and try for gold ? It lay to his hand, as we shall see. Here on the spot, would he deny himself the opportunity for which others craved ?
Any able-bodied man in Nelson would gladly pay £5 for a " shake-down ” on a little steamer sailing for the Coast. Such adventurers would just as gladly pay another sovereign apiece to be landed in the ship’s boat on the beach where the fires of a mining camp glowed alluringly through the darkness on the sea.
Prospectors and fossickers were out in the back country working by rivers and creeks. The beaches were worked at suitable times and in suitable weather. All the beaches were good natural highways, and the Three Mile Beach, south of Greymouth, carried a large population. In eight years eleven and a half million pounds worth of gold was won.
On the beach, claims were pegged out just above
29
Early Years.
30
high-water mark. The top sand was stripped for a few feet until a layer of black sand was reached in which was the precious metal. A second lead was made further back and a third parallel to the others. The gold grew coarser the farther the leads went from the sea. Water races or flumes and pipes ran to various points on the beaches, and the black sand was washed for the gold that was much heavier than sand, and sank to the bottom.
The miners were friendly people and would talk freely to a stranger and proudly show him a pannikin with gold in it. The unexpected weight of the pannikin and its contents surprised the stranger. Aaron Firth might occasionally have been seen here winning alluvial gold.
A kindly man he was. One of nature’s gentlemen, it was said. A tall splendid figure of a man. His eyes very blue. His manner of speech refined. Respectable but honest, in Chestertonian phrase.
These West Coasters, although with few exceptions they could drink hard and swear great oaths, for such was the custom of the time, were good-natured and kindly. Gold had not made them hard. They shared what they had to spare with their less fortunate companions. They had their own code of honour, this brotherhood with no distinction of rank or fortune. It was in this community that young Joseph Firth gained his first knowledge of humanity. It gave him early a tolerant outlook.
He was surprisingly tall and had long legs to take
31
Firth of Wellington.
him over the country, which was then a tree-wonderland. How he delighted in the noble bush, and the coolness of the bush-paths where a boy might easily be lost. He heard the flutter of the birds, the fat native pigeons and the kakas. And, don’t tell anyone, but he knew where there were limestone caves, dark and silent, with Maoris’ graves in them ! He loved to walk to Barrytown along the firm sandy beach for three or four miles. Then there was Dick Collins. He was a good chap and was ferryman of the punt that went between Greymouth and Cobden. He helped Joe with his rowing boat that was sheer joy to him after school was out.
There blew soft and warm land and sea breezes all summer, but the draughty Grey Gorge was the place to make a boy hardy. Here in winter there raged an icy blast known as " the barber,” for it was as keen as the sharpest razor. It drove miners off the beach and old people to the hearth, but it made young blood tingle. It helped to make young Joe the hardy man he became.
Why should the miners keep only to the beach and to the rocky creeks ? Look at all the gold in the black sand along the shore. That black sand might run out under the sea for miles and miles, and if the gold could be dredged out of that, why, there might be more gold than the big world could use : A boy’s dream, a fantasy, but a stretching out after something bigger and better beyond.
Young Joe Firth attended the Cobden School, and was diligent as the result will show. The school was small and he profited by individual attention. In those
Early Years.
23
days the schedule of studies was within reasonable bounds. They were strong on the " fundamentals.”
The senior boy and the senior girl of this school sent a letter of congratulation to its most distinguished pupil when he received from the King the decoration of C.M.G.
It is generally believed that J. P. Firth was the first schoolmaster in active work in the British Empire to he awarded this recognition. However that may be, he was undoubtedly the first schoolmaster to receive this honour in New Zealand. It was characteristic that he did not look upon the honour as a personal one but as a tribute to the profession to which he was proud to belong.
Mr. Firth wrote a cordial reply to the representatives of his first school. He also sent a donation believing that any headmaster could always find good use for a gift of money for his school. With this money a school flag was bought.
Long before the days of " Proficiency ” certificates and Free Places the only chance for a son of poor parents to reach college was by means of competitive scholarships. The Nelson Education Board awarded these annually, but only two for Nelson city schools, two for the Waimea district, and two for " distant schools.” The distant schools were those of the West Coast and Marlborough.
Joseph Firth won one of these latter at the end of 1872 when he was only thirteen years of age, and this provided him with free tuition and board at Nelson College for the years 1873 and 1874. In the same way
24
Firth of Wellington.
Lord Rutherford opened his educational career from the little Havelock school in Marlborough.
Nelson College owes a great deal to the wise policy of the New Zealand Land Company and the Wakefields in making provision for the higher education of the early settlers. Although the Company was unable to meet fully its obligations in Nelson, a sum of £20,199 15s. Od. was paid over to the trustees of the Nelson Trust Fund in 1852. Subsequently a further sum of £20,578 was paid to the trustees, and in 1857 the College was endowed with the sum of £20,000 from the Trust Fund.
In 1861, Nelson College on its present site was opened, although temporary quarters had been used since 1856. In 1861, the number of pupils was only forty-four.
The small city of Nelson was, and is, an ideal situation for a college. It has none of the distractions of a large city or yet the isolation of a rural site. The climate is ideal. The college building was set in beautiful grounds with ample playing-fields, a pleasing picture against a background of shapely hills.
Nelson College was a wooden building and built to look like Eton. Its English architect, Beatson, was wise enough to realise that in a country not always as steady as the British Isles, it is better for boys to have beams than bricks falling on them. The days of steel frames and reinforced concrete had not yet arrived.
There were incidental expenses which the scholarship money could not meet, and the future of young
Early Years.
34
Firth was far from secure. His parents were in doubt how to proceed. However, Bishop Suter had faith in the lad and persuaded his parents to give their promising son his chance, and so the tide was taken at its flood.
His life was now to be far different from going from his home to the school and home again for meals and for the sheltered evening and the night's rest in his own familiar room. A boy who goes away to board is an emigrant, and must become acclimatised to his new surroundings.
So Joseph went into a far country, a timid and quite unsophisticated lad. It was the first break in the family circle. He was the eldest of a family of five, having two brothers and two sisters.
His first night at school was described by himself long afterwards in speaking to the toast of the health of Joseph Mackay who had been headmaster of Nelson and of Wellington.
Firth made a hesitating beginning with his speech, as he always did. His audience felt that he was groping for the best approach to a worth-while conclusion. " Many years ago,” he said, " a boy, a very little boy, came as a boarder to Nelson College from one of the West Coast towns. When the time came to go to bed, the little boy felt very nervous. It was his first night away from home, and he had never slept in such a large room nor in a strange bed. The little boy lay in his bed in the darkness and could not sleep, try how he would. After what seemed an interminable time, the dormitory door slowly opened and a big man with a black beard
26
Firth of Wellington.
appeared, carrying a candle. He passed from bed to bed, viewing the sleepers. To the little boy's astonishment the big man stopped at his bed and said —
" Laddie ! why aren't you asleep ? "
The little boy said that he did not know.
The big man stooped down, patted the little boy on the head, and said : " You go to sleep, laddie." The little boy fell asleep almost immediately.
Firth then paused and without consciously striving for effect, but with natural dramatic power, said :
" I was the little boy, and the big man with the black beard was Joe Mackay ! ”
Joseph Firth soon learned how to accommodate himself to school life among the other fifty-eight boys. An impression of one who knew him then is that he was a tali, thin and ungainly lad, who did not know where to put his feet. This description might well apply to all quickly-growing young animals, both in the higher and in the lower scale of creation. How his physical appearance improved is well known to all who knew him. In later years when required to undergo medical examination, the medical examiner reported him as six feet five inches in height ; weight 15 stone, and " the most perfect physical specimen I have ever seen.”
In his first year at Nelson College Joseph Firth took very little interest in athletics, and concentrated on his studies. He took a high position in his form.
Nelson College, during the years when Firth was a pupil, was fortunate in the possession of two very able scholars, the Rev. F. C. Simmons, Classical master, and
Early Years.
36
Joseph Mackay, Mathematical master. When Mr. Simmons died in 1876, the Rev. J. C. Andrew, a brilliant classical scholar, became headmaster for a decade.
Young Firth, when he went to Nelson in 1873, had for fellow pupils boys who later made their mark in public and in social life. There were the two Campbells, Alick and George ; the former was a leading lawyer and the latter, Auditor-General. Another pupil, Hugh Gully, became Crown Solicitor and one of the foremost New Zealand barristers. James Tressider Barnicoat became a sound scholar and teacher.
Arthur Richmond Atkinson, another fellow-pupil, was the most precocious of scholars and at the age of twelve was in the highest form, and head of the school at the age of fourteen. In 1879, he went to Clifton College and became head of the school. Then there followed a distinguished career at Oxford. He returned to New Zealand and later entered Parliament. Atkinson represented the Round Table in New Zealand and was a brilliant leader-writer and publicist, and a frequent contributor to the Morning Post and The Times.
The chief alumnus of Nelson College is, of course, Lord Rutherford of Nelson, the greatest scientist of the day. He is of a later vintage than Firth and like him won a scholarship. Rutherford was a pupil at Nelson under Littlejohn. The records of the time describe Ernest Rutherford as a bright and vigorous boy. The summary of his first year’s report was " Very good, but should, could and must be better.” Thus to have been
37
Firth of Wellington.
damned with this faint praise was congenial to Rutherford’s natural modesty.
I had the honour, a few years ago, of dining at a small party in Lord Rutherford’s company. A soulful lady on his right asked Rutherford if great scientific men preferred the society of intellectual women.
" Oh, no,” he said, " Not at all, as a general rule. I have enjoyed your society.”
Then he laughed very heartily and showed that the joke had no sting.
Joseph Firth continued as a pupil at Nelson College a third year as the result of an extension of his scholarship. Later in that third year, 1875, he was appointed a junior master, and became a pupil teacher ; that is, he taught the boys and was himself also a student. It was a unique distinction for so young a boy to be promoted, in his own school, to the responsible position of master, enough either to make or mar him.
If his former companions thought that they could take any liberties with him, Joseph Firth with his new status was determined that he would maintain his authority at all costs. This big, bony, overgrown boy, suddenly confronted with the duties and responsibilities of a man, set out to be a stern and unrelenting disciplinarian. He believed then that he could knock Latin into a class with a stick. If chastisement with whips would not suffice to preserve order he, like the Israelitish King, would chastise the young devils with scorpions.
The first thing he had to learn was to curb his temper and his strength, and it was a long and difficult
Early Year s.
38
lesson which he gradually mastered. He had also gradually to exercise himself against any natural proneness to favouritism and against what may easily be a besetting sin of the strong, that is, pleasure in the discomfiture and suffering of the weak. The sadistic tendency in human nature is an insurgent fiend that is not easily exorcised even with prayer and fasting.
There was something else in young Firth’s work in the class-room, as important as discipline, and that was the revelation that he possessed the natural gift of teaching and the love of teaching. Inexperienced as he was, he soon became a highly efficient master in the lower forms.
The rigid and unrelenting disciplinarian with the fiery temper and the strong arm became at once the idol of the boys. He won his triumph out of doors.
He was the leader of all school sports. He trained the cricket and the football teams, and in football he specially emphasised the value of combination and teamplay, which had hitherto been almost unknown. He taught boxing, and also gymnastic work, and was a pupil himself in gymnastics under C. Harling. The smaller boys came into contact with Firth, outside school hours, chiefly in the gymnasium. They began to feel at home with him although they could never forget the power of his arm in school.
At football the young Joseph Firth appeared as a giant fullback. At practice he sent long high kicks over the heads of panting groups of eager forwards. The kicks were returned by C. Richmond from the other end
39
Firth of Wellington.
of the field. The boys certainly did not want for exercise, and were exhorted by Firth to faster and faster action.
They had the pleasure as they ran to and fro, of seeing the ball in its flight in the air overhead, but seldom set hand or foot on it. Sometimes Firth would drop-kick a goal from the centre of the ground.
The giant full-back had grown quickly, for at this period he was only seventeen years of age. There were giants in those days and it was a remarkable coincidence that at Nelson College there were five boys who varied in height from six feet three inches to six feet five and a half inches.
The names of the other four were Alonzo Dwan, James Harkness, Alexander and J. T. Mowat. It is not likely that such a phenomenon existed in any of the other Colleges of New Zealand at that time or since.
The residents of Nelson are now distinguished not for length of inches but for length of days. The little city with its mild climate and drowsy repose has nearly as many citizens, so it is said, over seventy years of age as under seven ; indeed an extreme statement whichever way it’s looked at.
Firth practised running and the boys practised collaring on the gravel terrace to the eastward of the school buildings. The young fellows were literally under him at these practices. He had just learnt the gentle art of side-stepping and fending.
The boys either missed the big runner and were heartily upbraided for their clumsiness, or else some-
Early Years.
40
thing eise happened with unfortunate results. This alternative was flooring the big fellow by collaring low. Then his six feet five and a half inches of weight and momentum became rapidly precipitated and ground the successful " collarer ” and his mates into the gravel. Besides gravel rash they might get a word of praise and a sure place in the team.
Firth played for Nelson College in the two football matches against Wellington College in 1876. In the second of these matches he was captain and his team won. He made the Nelson College Football team so proficient that, youthful as they were, they could hold their own with any adult team in the district.
An illustration of his intense interest in athletics is shown by his habit of writing to outside authorities on various points in games and posting up the replies for the boys to read.
In 1879 Firth was appointed captain of the Nelson College Cadet Corps which he speedily " licked into shape.” His tall and commanding presence, his methods reminiscent of the army sergeant-major, although applied without coarseness or cursing, soon turned sloppiness to smartness. The cadet corps became the joint pride of Nelson College and of visiting inspecting officers.
It was at Nelson where Firth began first to practise singing, but with indifferent success. He appears to have believed at this time that he could do anything to which he set his will and power of concentration. He therefore applied himself to one song and practised it
41
Firth of Wellington.
assiduously, and the boys, at first, liked to hear him exercising his vocal cords.
The song was the well-known melody " My Grandfather’s Clock was too big for the Shelf,” and one reason, perhaps, why the song has become so hackneyed is that Firth, with the best of intentions, sang it at every party in Nelson and in Blenheim. Although the historic clock " was bigger by far than the old man himself ” it was a suitable match in height for the young man himself who chimed its praises.
How came Joseph Firth to be widely known as J. P. Firth ? It happened this way :
Firth was teaching history to his form at Nelson College and the subject was the Spanish Armada. The story in the text-book came to the cutting off of the Spanish fleet so that it could not return to Spain by the English Channel, whence it had come. No doubt, the storm which arose also drove the stricken Spaniards northward. The remnant of the Armada was forced to return round the north of Scotland and through the Pentland Firth into the Atlantic Ocean.
The only way was through the Pentland Firth, and the boys quickly decided that Joseph Firth, the fourth master, should be known as " Pentland Firth.” He adopted the addition to his name, or rather the initial letter of Pentland. From then onwards he always signed his name as J. P. Firth, and used the initials J. P. F. wrought into a very quickly executed monogram. He signed cheques, however, with the signature " Joseph Firth.”
Early Years.
42
In such ways as have been described the wee laddie who could not sleep until he heard, his first night in the school, Joe Mackay’s mesmeric words, had become a great influence himself. He was a tower of strength in the class-room and on the playing-fields.
He had gained the respect of others, both elders and juniors. A Hercules himself, he had taken the classic Hercules’ choice and had chosen toil and duty in preference to ease and pleasure. He was still very much a man in the making, but taking shape in the right way.
In 1881, Mr. Joseph Mackay of Nelson College was appointed Headmaster of Wellington College and Mr. Firth and Mr. Barnicoat were invited by Mr. Mackay to join him, and accepted positions on his staff.
c
CHAPTER 11.
Assistant Master.
Mr. Mackay succeeded Mr. Kenneth Wilson as headmaster of Wellington College. Mr. Wilson was M.A. of Cambridge and a quiet, studious and dignified gentleman. As a teacher he had every qualification, but he was not a strong administrator.
The college had declined, and re-organisation was imperative. Mr. Mackay was a rugged Aberdonian, keen, vigorous and incisive. When he took charge at Wellington there were fifty-eight boys on the roll, including only seven boarders.
Firth learned a great deal from Joe Mackay. The Aberdonian was a hard worker and expected every boy to be the same. Fie helped to the utmost of his powers a willing boy, but a boy who was naturally dull, or disinclined to concentrate, had no share in Mackay's esteem. His rough and ready methods and his belief that everyone should be mathematically inclined reacted adversely on boys afflicted with a sensitive and nervous temperament.
Firth was junior master. His colleagues were W. G. Thistle, an Oxford graduate and a classical scholar.
M
44
Assistant Master.
and J. T. Barnicoat who came with Firth from Nelson College. In personality, Firth overshadowed his colleagues, but he was not superior to them in scholarship.
Under the reconstruction plan in 1881, the dynamic Scottish headmaster had chosen his staff with admirable judgment. At that time young Louis Barnett, afterwards Sir Louis Barnett, Professor of Surgery, was a weekly boarder. In his opinion, the college rose in numbers and in prestige mainly through Firth’s companionship with the boys outside as well as inside the class-rooms.
He really loved the boys, and the boys loved him. He was a hero —so big, handsome and athletic, dignified and yet jolly and friendly, and full of enthusiasm for the welfare of his boys. He had vision and at once set out to improve the playing-fields. He inspired Barnett and the others with his own enthusiasm, and they worked with him like Trojans with picks, shovels, wheelbarrows and rollers.
Firth played cricket with the boys as one of themselves and coached them with untiring patience in batting, bowling and fielding. He was a good and orthodox cricketer and represented Wellington Province with credit, but nowadays his style of play might be thought too defensive, especially for a man of his commanding reach. Barnett, in 1882, was captain of both the football and the cricket teams and in the latter team the maxims that Firth instilled into young Barnett and his men were :
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Firth of Wellington.
1. Keep a straight bat.
2. Try to hit only when the ball is off the wicket.
These admonitions did not make for heavy scoring. Firth liked what may be called the scientific, or highly technical side of cricket. I have seen him watch a dull and inartistic game, unenterprising and monotonous. Before long he exclaimed " This is not worth watching. I’ll go out to Miramar and have a round of golf.”
Firth soon had a gymnasium in full use and taught the boys the rudiments of boxing. Although he towered above an average-sized opponent, his ill-matched antagonist’s face was seldom out of contact with the big man’s gloves. Fiowever, to make a contest more even, Firth would stop occasionally in a bout to give a boy a chance of punching him on the head —if he could.
Louis Barnett’s powers of observation were acute even in those days and when shooting with Firth on the rifle-range he noticed what a toy the Snider carbine looked in those giant arms. Sir Louis can bring to mind striking incidents displaying the many facets of his old headmaster’s sterling character.
Sir Louis has now retired from the activities of a long, useful and varied life. He says "he has been in contact with many sons of Anak. For the most part they have been less intellectual and less successful than the average man ; but Firth stood out as a notable exception. He was not, and never pretended to be, an intellectual genius, but though ultra-big in body, he was also a cleat thinker, an excellent organiser, a wise counsellor, and he
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had a heart of gold." What young man except Firth has won a tribute like this at the age of twenty-three ?
The late Frank M. Leckie, who wrote The Early History of Wellington College, was a pupil in 1882. In his admirable history he states :
" Mr. Firth created a feeling of esprit-de-corps and camaraderie among the boys. He was everywhere ; no movement of boys could take place without either his participating or looking on, not inquisitively, but with real interest. He was a boy's man. Nothing was too unimportant for his notice ; he thought nothing of playing marbles and explaining knuckle-bones to the smaller boys, while of course, he was an expert in teaching cricket, football and boxing to the older ones. Thus it was that when his time came to take over the headmastership of the College from his chief, the boys knew him as a man whose good opinion was worth cultivating. His enormous stature, leonine head, and skill at all kinds of games won from every description of boy an admiration which was little short of hero-worship."
A. R. Meek, one of the ripest scholars the College has produced, first saw Firth in 1881 when, with Joseph Mackay, he came over from Nelson to revitalise Wellington College.
" I was never under him,” says Mr. Meek, " because he took the Third Form and I was then either in the Sixth or hovering on the verge of it. I sometimes heard him teach. It so happened that two or three of us formed a small class in science under W. J. Thistle and were stationed in a window recess of the big schoolroom.
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Firth had his Form at the southern end of the room, and my attention often wandered from Thistle’s Mechanics to listen to the sonorous voice in the distance booming out the mysteries of Cube Root. I think I learned more about it that way than any other, and I don’t suppose his boys ever forgot it either.
" In the fulness of time, I became (much to my surprise) Head of the school, and then was more in contact with J. P. F. who of course controlled our games. Incidently, I was never in the Eleven or the Fifteen, but I had something to do with the school activities. We got on very well, and I never had a word of reproach from him except once, and that was a very mild one.
" Some of the fellows thought it was a glorious afternoon for a game of cricket and induced me to go to the Head and ask for a half-holiday on some pretext or other. It was granted, and we prepared for action. Meeting me on the way to flannels, Firth stopped me in the corridor and said :
" ' This is all very well, but I think you might have asked me about it first.’
" Perhaps I should have done so.”
Mr. E. P. Bunny followed Mr. Mackay from Nelson to Wellington in 1881, and became an assistant master in 1882. He says that Firth had the knack of understanding the difficulties experienced by his pupils in learning the tasks set them. He says further —
" His influence over them was such that he was able to make them concentrate on their work and was very patient in the case of lads who in less capable hands
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might never have acquired this faculty of concentration without which no progress is possible.
" I well remember an example of a lad not in his class who, in the course of conversation with Mr. Firth mentioned the hopelessness he felt in having to pass a Civil Service examination which was being held about two months ahead. Mr. Firth, after thinking the matter over, asked the lad to meet him every morning in his study at seven o’clock. From seven till seven-thirty he carefully coached the boy, beginning with the most elementary work in his various subjects and thus gradually creating that virtue of concentration to which I have referred. The result was that out of a number of eleven who passed the examination the lad held the eleventh position.
" That was not all. He was so encouraged that he took a University course and the degree of B.A. It was this interest in his pupils that evoked corresponding devotion to the master. It is impossible to estimate what an extraordinary influence for good Mr. Firth had over all those with whom he came in contact.
" He took an outstanding interest in the welfare of the scholars in their studies and especially in their recreations, on the importance of which he laid great stress. He himself excelled in cricket, football and boxing and in each of these and in other forms of sport showed a marvellous aptitude in making the boys under his care excellent athletes. Above all, he stressed the necessity of displaying a true spirit of sportsmanship on all occasions.”
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When Firth came over from Nelson with Joseph Mackay in July 1881, a difficult situation fraught with disunion arose in Wellington College. Twelve boys joined the migration, and as they were of a very high type and prominent in study and sport, the Wellington boys feared that they might be reduced to a subordinate position. In fact, they had good ground for jealousy, and it looked as though it would not be " peaceful penetration,” to use a later-coined phrase.
The ex-Nelsonians were boarders and dominated the dormitories, the corridors, the forms and the ceremonies of the school. Here was an opportunity for the tact, generalship and knowledge of boy nature that distinguished the junior master, J. P. Firth. He brought about a complete understanding, and reconciliation. Perhaps, after all, this happy result was not gained by forceful diplomacy so much as by the obvious fairmindedness of a trusted conciliator.
Firth had now found himself, as a good ship " finds ” herself. He had become more mellow, and found less reason to assert himself. There was less education with the big stick. His mode of inflicting the occasional corporal punishment that was necessary was the comparatively mild administration of sharp flicks on the hand with a short light cane.
If a thing had to be done he could be relied upon to do it well. He never descended to flagellation with a straw. Joe Mackay, the headmaster, held office as flagellator-in-chief, or whipper-in to the pack.
Mackay was a man of many parts, scholarly, gruff
J. P. Firth (Assistant Master).
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but kindly. It is certain that his character was closely studied by the young man Firth who came under his influence. A sidelight on Mackay is revealed in the Life of Dr. Littlejohn who became headmaster of Nelson College, and later, of Scots College, Melbourne, a man of fame.
The very youthful Littlejohn arrived in Wellington in 1882 and called on his brother Aberdonian at Wellington College. Littlejohn had the Aberdonian Doric and temporarily revived it in Mackay, who was, in fact, the real McKay.
It did the older man’s heart good, he said, " tae hear a decent Scots tongue brawly maneepulated.” Looking in appraisement at young Littlejohn, the Mackay proceeds —
" An’ were ye thinkin’ aboot teachin’ in New Zealand ? ”
And then very cautiously, " Well, somethin’ micht be done aboot it.”
Littlejohn appears hopefully on a second visit to the influential sage. The young man now has a boil on his neck, but in spite of that, speaks favourably of the land of his adoption. Mackay has again the burr in his throat which is unpleasant but not painful like a boil.
" Ay, mon, that’s the way tae look at the thing. It is so verra much the fashion tae condemn a new place afore even havin’ undertaken a suffeeciently thor-r--rough inspection. I’m glad, ye see, that ye were wise enough tae mak’ an inspection for yerself afore prejudiced folk could try tae warp yer outlook.”
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Firth of Wellington.
They talk of Nelson College where Mackay had been the ablest mathematical master to grace that school. He speaks of his old school with pride and affection, and soon succeeds in having Littlejohn appointed to Nelson as third assistant master in the place of Snowy Martin.
When Firth was an assistant master at Wellington College he was an excellent cricketer. He made all share the enthusiasm which Maclaren’s book had aroused. The College won the championship of Wellington with a team which he led. It comprised one or two assistant masters and the rest were boys. The games were won largely by Firth’s efforts, both with bat and ball, and by his wonderful generalship and strategy.
Mr. W. F. Ward saw Firth when he brought to Christchurch, in 1885, a Wellington College team under Athol Reader to play Christ’s College for the first time. Mr. Ward’s first view of Firth was when he was standing on the steps of Canterbury College, a magnificent specimen of manhood.
Wellington College was beaten by three tries to nil. Firth was greatly disappointed but did not show it. The following night on the steamer, although a bad sailor himself, he gathered the defeated team round him on the deck and kept them bright with song and story.
Firth played football with the Wellington Football Club with which he was associated for many years. In this club he made many life-long friends.
During this period he lived with other masters in a house just outside the school grounds in College Green.
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The house has long since been demolished to make room for the entrance to Government House. Change is to be seen on every side. In 1886, the population of Wellington and suburbs was only 28,000. Now, the population is four times as great.
In 1885 J. P. Firth resigned. His resignation was due to his desire to take a University course at Canterbury College. With that object in view he took a position as gymnastics master at Christ’s College. At that time there was, unfortunately, no University College in Wellington.
At the time of his resignation this was reported of him :
" His pupils would remember him with pride. A strict, but impartial and capable master, his teaching was a source of terror to the boy who shirked his work. Although a strict disciplinarian, he was ever ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in difficulties. An eager enthusiast in all sports, a very prince of athletes himself, he took the greatest trouble to instil into the minds of boys a healthy love of outdoor sports which is essential to a youth’s physical training. The most important feature of all his work, however, was his earnest endeavour to preserve a high moral bearing in all the actions of his boys, an endeavour in which he was eminently successful.”
Firth soon became as adored by the boys of Christ’s College as he had been by those of Wellington. He took great interest in the very small boys of the school, and organised them into a football team known as
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' The Giants." Everyone of that team would willingly have made himself a mat for the feet of the tall master. He never had to punish the boys, except on very rare occasions, but ruled them easily by his magnetic personality.
The gymnastic master one morning received a shock which he never could forget. He went into his gymnasium, but someone was there before him. It was a senior master, A. C. Gifford, a great scholar but not noted for athletics. His usual form of violent exercise was climbing great mountains. However, there he was squatting with one foot on each rail of the parellel bars. He began to advance and retard each foot, alternately, quick as a shuttle, on this insecure foundation. Firth watched this acrobatic performance with admiration and with amazement.
" How did you learn to do that ? " said Firth.
" Out of a book " replied Gifford.
" Can you do any more ? " quoth Firth.
" Only this one," said the scholarly mountaineer with becoming modesty.
He then proceeded to give a demonstration of falling to his knees on the floor and assuming the erect posture in such rapid succession that the sight was dazzling. Like the Young Ruler, Firth went away sorrowful after he was invited to do the Gifford exercises learned out of a book, and failed in the attempt.
Firth took the Arts course at Canterbury University College. The College building is near the beautiful Avon river, fringed with willows on its banks. The
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building itself might have graced the Isis. It has an old-world air with its great dimly-lit hall, its quadrangle and its cloisters. Christchurch is perhaps the most English town outside of England.
One of the Professors was Prof. Haslam, who, if all reports are true had once taught Kipling at Westward Ho. He was a man of strong personality and ripe scholarship.
Prof. John Macmillan Brown, of Balliol College, Oxford, was professor of Classics at Canterbury College at its foundation in 1874. In Firth’s time, Macmillan Brown was professor of English Literature. He wrote in 1894 a Manual of English Literature, and published various studies of great English books, including Shakespeare, Milton, Thackeray, Carlyle and others.
Macmillan Brown made English the most popular subject in the college. His literary enthusiasm was unbounded. In his own apt phrase, he " scarified ” the indolent. This professor made a deep and lasting impression on Firth. He taught him the love of English Literature. He taught him a hatred of indolence. Firth’s literary style was influenced by Macmillan Brown.
Judged by the fashion of the present day, Firth’s sentences are rather long but seldom involved. He could say as forcibly as possible just what he meant. This is the essence of style.
In spare hours between classes at Christ’s College and lectures at Canterbury College, Firth sometimes went to A. R. Meek’s study at College House. Here he
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could go on quietly with his reading. Another place of call was the Cathedral Grammar School to see Laurence Watkins, who was a house tutor. In leisure hours Firth was an excellent entertainer both as a reciter and as a raconteur.
If Firth enjoyed work, he certainly, also, enjoyed leisure. One evening, in 1890, W. F. Ward, a fellow master at Christ’s, and Firth were walking away from the last masters’ meeting of the term. Firth nearly knocked his small but sturdy companion into the gutter with a blow on the back with his great hand as he exclaimed with joy " Off the chain, my boy ; off the chain ! ”
At Canterbury College Firth entered into all the undergraduate social life. On Saturday nights was held the Will o’ the Wisp, an undergraduate club. He met freely with his fellows in sport and in social intercourse. His special friends were O. T. J. Alpers, W. F. Ward, A. R. Meek and Laurence Watkins, all dear and lifelong friends. Firth took an active part in the College Dialectic Society.
Alpers was the leading spirit of the Dramatic Society. In his reminiscences, written on his deathbed and published posthumously, he confesses that he was influenced in selecting plays by finding a part that he desired to act himself. He had an urge to play Bob Acres in Sheridan’s Rivals.
He tells of how he bedaubed his face freely with white grease-paint to show his fear. When he fainted in the arms of Sir Lucius O’Trigger there was a white
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profile clearly marked on the black velvet coat of Sir Lucius O’Trigger. This set the audience into convulsions of laughter which rather marred the play.
In this play Firth took the part of Anthony Absolute. It was in 1887, and one of the audience was Jimmy Bee who had come with a team of footballers from Dunedin. He wondered who the very tall player was, and was told that his name was J. P. Firth. A. R. Meek also had a part in this play. Firth played in the Scrap of Paper, and in various smaller plays.
The Christ’s College authorities soon recognised that Firth was too valuable to be kept as gymnastic master only. The double work of in-school and outschool control gave him that definite grip on himself which was evident in his later years as headmaster. Only on rare occasions when his boys lost a game did the earlier man come out, and that only for an instant.
Firth took his degree in 1889. He took something infinitely better, to wit, a wife. In the same year in which he graduated he married Miss Janet Mcßae, second daughter of the late Nehemiah Mcßae of Wild’s Hill and Blairich, Marlborough. This fortunate marriage was the result of a friendship of early Nelson College days. It was not until Firth’s University course was complete that the attachment became known.
The popular young Mcßae sisters had been in demand for dances and entertainments at Nelson College. In this way young Firth first met them. Later, he sometimes stayed in his holidays at their homestead. Mrs. Mcßae lost her husband early and the wise but
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modest counsel of Joe Firth, with his old head on young shoulders, often proved helpful to the family. He was regarded as one of themselves.
There were no children of the Firth-Mcßae marriage. This was not a great loss for both husband and wife " lived in the lives of the young.” This is an expression which I heard from Mrs. Firth.
Dr. W. P. Evans, to whom I am indebted for a great deal of information, says of Firth —
" His stay in Christchurch made him.” His teaching experiences, his university training, contact with friends and the general stimulation of his mind in Christchurch —and his marriage—made him, without a doubt.
CHAPTER 111.
Headmaster.
In 1891, Mr. Joseph Mackay offered his resignation to the Board of Governors, to take effect in six months. He had resuscitated the College ten years before, and now again it was in a state of suspended animation.
The Board knew something of Mr. Firth until he left in 1886. He had been a popular and efficient assistant master. Could he succeed as well, or nearly as well, in the difficult and more responsible duties of a headmaster ? Perhaps the members of the Board were familiar with the lines :
" Uneasy lie the heads of all that rule ;
His worst of all whose kingdom is a school."
After prolonged and careful consideration, the Board of Governors decided to offer the appointment to J. P. Firth. In doing this they made only one error. They thought they were risking an experiment. Not very sure of their wisdom, they made further enquiries, discreetly, from Christchurch, where Mr. Firth was employed.
Professor Brown of Canterbury College replied in a comforting way : ' You cannot go wrong with
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Mr. FirtK ; energetic, judicious, and now scholarly.” " Now ” may be a nasty little word. What a word is scholarly ” !
" Mrs. Firth is young, untried but likely to succeed, ladylike, gentle yet vigorous ” ! ! ! These notes of exclamation are a poor tribute to this epitome of the higher virtues. " Ladylike ” —O, my Victorian Aunt! " Gentle yet vigorous ” ! A Mr. Webster sent a reply completely lacking in unconscious humour, merely : " All opinions decidedly favourable.”
The upshot of the whole business was that Mr. J. P. Firth was appointed resident and boarding master and interim headmaster at Wellington College.
Fie was to be rewarded with a salary of £350, the appointment to commence on Ist February, 1892, and to be terminated by three months’ notice on either side. The Board reserved to itself the right of the future appointment of Mr. Firth, or of anyone else, as headmaster. It looked almost like an experiment for the Board, with a double-headed penny.
Let us see what happened in Christchurch. The story was told by Mr. O. T. J. Alpers (later, Mr. Justice Alpers) at a farewell meeting for Mr. and Mrs. Firth in the Town Hall of Wellington on the 30th November, 1930. Mr. Alpers, a life-long friend of J. P., and Mrs. Firth, said that twenty-nine years before, on a Saturday afternoon in Christchurch, Mr. Firth had sent for two of his friends, Mr. W. F. Ward and Mr. Alpers himself. Firth wished to take counsel with them respecting a letter he had received from the
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Governors of Wellington College who offered him the headmastership. Really Firth did not want their advice ; he wanted them only to confirm the resolution he and Mrs. Firth had already made.
J. P. Firth never regarded that letter as the offer of a job ; he regarded it, to borrow a good Presbyterian phrase, as a " call ” to a great career. Alpers said then, in 1930, that the career had been an amazing success, and its historical culmination was the great gathering in the Town Hall to honour the man and the woman who had heard and answered the " call.”
Let us glance briefly at the history of Wellington College as it is set out in the " College Record." The College is a Secondary School, and has the spirit of an English Public School. It is not maintained by the revenue of a Foundation, but is supported from Government endowments of lands, by Government grants and subsidies, and, in relatively small part, by the fees of pupils. The English Public School spirit, about which a great deal has been written and spoken, is not so much the spirit fostered by education given in a Public School. It is the spirit which is innate, and that with opportunity finds expression in every boy of the British breed whether he be in the Homeland or in the outer Empire.
In the early days of the Colony, education in New Zealand was adapted not only to the needs but to the means of the settlers. In 1853, Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand affixed his seal to a Crown grant for the promotion of grammar schools or colleges. The trustees of this grant remained inactive until 1867
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when the Rev. H. E. Tuckey and Mr. W. S. Hamilton opened a Grammar School in Woodward Street. Pending the erection of a more suitable building, the classes were held in the old Military Barracks on the Thorndon Reserve, and then at the end of 1868, moved into a new building on Clifton Terrace. In 1872, Wellington College was affiliated to the University of New Zealand.
In 1874 the first portion of the College building was erected, towards the cost of which £1,500 was collected by public subscription. Mr. Wilson, the headmaster, applied to his University, the University of Cambridge, to make Wellington a centre for their local examinations. There was no matriculation examination then in vogue in New Zealand. As an indication of the high standard of Wellington College, out of a total of twenty-four candidates from the whole of the British Colonies who passed the Cambridge Local Examination in one year, six were students of Wellington College.
Then soon came re-organisation of the College because of grave financial difficulties from which it was not free for fifty years. In 1881, the whole staff was given six months’ notice, and, as we have seen, Mr. Mackay was appointed headmaster. Mr. Firth came also, as an assistant master, and resigned in 1886 to go to Christ’s College.
Mr. and Mrs. Firth commenced duty on the Bth February, 1892, when the first term opened. He was then only thirty-three years of age, and full of mental and bodily vigour.
He was allowed £5O for a janitor. The Board
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bought the cottage hospital from Mr. Mackay, but the cowsheds, the pigsty and the fowl-houses became the property of the new headmaster. He was to become something of a small farmer, with livestock to sustain the boarders. The roll had stood at sixty but with Firth’s arrival came fifty new boys, and with those who left subtracted, a net increase of thirty boys. His teaching staff numbered five. When he left the school the roil was 650, and the staff numbered thirty.
Mr. Evans, later Professor Evans of Canterbury College, was appointed science master. He did not stay long and small blame to him, for his salary was meagre. In those days a highly educated University man, with the responsible duties of assistant master at Wellington College, was paid less than the wages, at the present time, of a carpenter or a bricklayer. Firth arranged for the appointment of Mr. W. F. Ward, M.A., from Christ’s College ; and of a junior master, Mr. H. S. Cocks, 8.A., passing rich on a salary of £lOO a year. Mr. Heine and Mr. Bee were senior assistants, and Mr. Naverne taught Modern Languages. Before long a teacher of drawing was appointed, and lessons also were given in shorthand, for the new Head had modern ideas.
A junta of big boys in the school decided that it was right and proper that all the masters should have nicknames. At an informal meeting attended by Frank McGovern, Hamilton Gilmer, Jimmy Owen and Tiwi Tripe, the burning question was what to call the Headmaster.
There was no doubt that he was the Head, the
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ruling spirit that all worshipped and obeyed, and McGovern said, " We’ll call him the ' Boss’.” He is still called affectionately the " Boss ” in fond memory.
" Boss ” is a colonial word and means master or overseer. It is not unlike the Dutch word " Baas ” used in South Africa and with the same meaning. Heine was already known as " Kaiser ” and Mr. Bee as " Jimmy ” and those names were confirmed and, so to say, legalised. " Harry ” would suit Harry Somers Cocks. Mr. W. F. Ward was genial and friendly, so he was nicknamed " Chummy.”
In that first year the boys were rather unruly. The " Boss ” suspected that they smoked, especially in the train on the way to Petone to play football. They were taxed with this offence (which in those days they had not learnt from their mothers). The extent of the practice was revealed by the large number who pleaded guilty. The Boss said they could either take a whacking or, in the alternative, work on four Saturday mornings. All but four selected corporal punishment. These four got Saturday morning work, and, in addition an unauthorised whacking from the prefects who had the democratic notion that the majority should rule.
Another unfortunate early incident related to the pigs. These animals got loose from their styes. A squad of boys was sent to chase them and bring them back to their proper quarters. The pigs, strange to say, were rounded up in a parlour. It was the parlour of a tuckshop down at the Ellice Street corner. This incident also had a painful sequel.
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The Boss himself was not free from occasional error. A prefect handicapped the boys for the swimming sports. The day for the sports turned out very cold, and the Boss shortened the distances, but forgot to alter the handicaps. Thus the fifty yards swim became a twentyfive yards dash. A boy with the longest handicap won. Freyberg, on scratch, should have won but he was denied the opportunity, for the race was won before he started ! This was Oscar Freyberg, killed on Gallipoli. Paul Freyberg met a soldier’s death in France. Eight or more wounds did not kill Tiny.
The Boss was almost quixotically correct in relation to another incident in his early days of headmastership. One of his boarders was in the bath in the early morning. The bathroom door was, of course, locked. There was a knocking on the door.
" Who's there ?" called out the boarder. No reply.
Again a sharp knocking, and again " Who's there ?" and no reply.
" Well, go to hell!" rapped out the boarder. There came an immediate reply.
:t You will meet me in my study at seven-thirty !"
The fat was in the fire. The youth appeared in fear and trembling to keep the tryst.
The Boss looked hard at the boy, and the boy's eyes went down.
' You have come for a severe thrashing," said the big man quietly.
'' Yes, Sir," said the guilty youth.
" Well, you won't get one. I'm not free from blame
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myself. I should have answered you when you asked ' Who’s there’.”
The delinquent stood spellbound.
" You may go, but don’t ever use language like that again in our school.”
Thus the Boss revealed the dauntless temper of his mind, generous and fair, and rose high in the estimation of the boys.
By the middle of the first year the pupils had increased to 119, including 21 boarders. Their comfort was increased. An old workshop was turned into a recreation room. The prefects were given a room of their own. Bare walls in common-rooms and corridors were hung with pictures. Music classes were commenced. Concerts and Christy Minstrel shows brightened an occasional evening. For these purposes the big schoolroom was transformed. A large stage was erected at the northern end, scenes painted and a drop-curtain provided.
The Scholarship Board was taken from its inappropriate setting in a dormitory and erected at the southern end of the big schoolroom. This roll of honour was thus daily in view of the boys and an incentive to effort.
Mr. Ward was a great success. In addition to his classical attainments he had been captain of the Canterbury College Football Club, and a crack half-back representative of Canterbury Province. Mr. Cocks had charm, and also vigour, for he was the three-mile walking champion of New Zealand.
Mrs. Firth’s influence radiated from the boarding
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establishment through the whole school and provided many of its new amenities. She was an exceedingly handsome woman, and the boys were proud of her. Mr. and Mrs. Firth were a singularly striking pair. He, an Adonis of six and a half feet of perfect physical development, and she, close on six feet and graceful and trim withal. Where could be found husband and wife to match in appearance these two ?
The grounds were rough and almost contemptible in appearance. The boys had to travel to Newtown Park to play a regular game of football. The Boss began to level and enlarge the playing-fields and inspired the Board of Governors and the masters and the boys with his own enthusiasm. The experiment of appointing the Boss as headmaster was bright with promise and radiant with hope. It seemed almost too good to be true.
At the beginning of the second year of the Firth regime, that is, in 1893,1 came to the College as a pupil. I was one of " ye smalle boys ” and not very strong, an insignificant pygmy among the bigger boys who were really young men of eighteen and nineteen, like University under-graduates. The prospect rather appalled me.
We boys gather on my first morning. The old pupils have their friendly greetings for one another. Some arrive on their ponies, Kirkcaldie, Duthie, Barron and the Gale brothers. The ponies are tethered to the rail at the edge of the terrace. The Gale’s pony is a gray and looks to have Arab blood.
The bell rings, and we pass through a long corridor
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and into the big school. The tide of boys flows in. The prefects marshal the new boys in their places. I am to be Elliott Secundus. It is too dignified, although I had not yet heard of nulli secundus. " Minor ” would have produced the opposite effect.
This seems a great school and it is something of which to be proud—proud to be only the smallest part.
More pride to come. The masters in their academic gowns take seats at the back of the stage. Then appears a heroic figure to the front of the stage. He reads two prayers and his voice is compelling and his utterance sincere.
" Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour,” and so on to the end. And then,
" O, God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom ; defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies ; that we, surely trusting in thy defence may not fear the power of ANY adversaries ; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Then follows the Lord’s Prayer. Then a few terse and dignified general comments. Then " I want to see ” so and so, and so and so. We disperse. Truly a fitting beginning in the right atmosphere for the day’s work.
In my First Year Form, the Boss himself was the teacher in the subjects of English and French, in both of which he was an expert. That day and for very many days I studied him as much as the subjects he taught.
His appearance, without any exaggeration was
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superb. He was several inches over six feet in height and well-proportioned. He possessed great natural dignity. He had a wealth of brown hair, well dressed, and a full beard, closely clipped. His forehead was high and square and well-defined. His eyes were penetrating, but very kindly. When roused, they had the glint of fighting steel. His countenance was ruddy, his nose straight and rather short ; his ears large but shapely. His head was erect, and his body that of an athlete, with grace and strength in his movements ; in form and poise not unlike Kitchener. His voice was gentle. Evidently behind this magnificent facade was mental strength, and magnetic power. His hands were expressive and his nails well cared for. He wore a dark suit with the jacket buttoned at the top. His linen was starched and spotless, and his boots neat and shining. Nothing of a dandy, he was well-groomed. In general a boy’s man ; a boy’s hero !
This was my first glimpse of this mighty man, and I soon learned that he was not only my teacher, but my friend. Years later, when I read General Sir William Napier’s description of Sir John Moore, I thought how well it applied to the Boss.
" Tall he was and vigorous of person, and of a very comely noble aspect, indicating penetration which no sublety could deceive, valour which no danger could appal, and withal a dignity of mind which awed while it attracted admiration and confidence. With him indeed, all commanding qualities seemed to be united to, and inseparable from estimable sentiments. Integrity, honour, generosity, patriotism, adorned the whole course
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of his existence.” When the British Army in Spain under Crauford was caught in the pincers of a superior force, " a phantom from Corunna saved them.” Sir John Moore became a tradition ; so also did J. P. Firth in a smaller sphere.
Fritz Renner has painted a word-picture of the Boss as he appeared when Fritz entered the College as a new pupil in February, 1892. His viewpoint and mine of first impressions may have a stereoscopic effect.
On his first fateful morning young Renner was gazing rather forlornly from the passage into Room K (at first the gym. and later a science room). He saw speeding down to the old Big School a giant form draped in a flowing gown —the Boss. As he passed, he called out cheerfully, " Well young man ! It vas a fine morning.” The Breitmann ballads were then popular, and the Boss was fond of them.
As the youngsters saw him he was very tall, fullbearded and blue-eyed, and the eyes could twinkle merrily or be bleak and stern. He gave the impression of massive strength, something that could be feared and yet affectionately admired. From the beginning his word was law ; hence the apt soubriquet, " The Boss."
His great physical strength was proverbial. Young Renner and his friends had heard that their great headmaster had been a hefty punter. He played one day for a Nelson side against Blenheim, and the enemy realised how much the big man's foot would make itself felt in the game, and so they resorted to a stratagem.
They supplied a heavy ball for the first spell when
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Nelson was playing with the wind, and a light ball when the Nelson team had the wind against them. These tactics did not succeed. Virtue was triumphant. Those were the days when there was no Rugby Union.
We soon learned in the English class that the Boss would allow no slovenly speech. He loved the colour, the form, and the movement of words. Slovenly speech is but a form of lip and tongue laziness, vexing the educated ears of the hearer. Language is a vital thing and to be treated as affectionately as if it were alive. The Boss stressed the necessity for enunciation, that is, according to its derivation, the sending out of words as messengers. He did not want a race of mumblers.
Some of the boys had a bad accent of the Cockney type. They were no more aware of this defect than many people are of their colour-blindness. A boy was told to pronounce the word " Maori ” properly, and not say Mowee. He replied to the amazement of the Boss — " I did not say Mowee. I said Mowee.”
To call cake "koike " made the Boss grit his teeth, and clench his head with his hands. Often when pronunciation was astray he recited a verse of Macaulay's as a lesson, or rather, as a warning.
Attend all ye oo list to hea' eower nowble England's prise ;
Oi tell of the throice-fymous deeds she wrought in ine-cient dyes,
Wen that grite fleet invincibul agynst her baw in vine
The richest speoils of Mexicow, the steoutest haates of Spine.
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To try to get rid of the " Colownial accent ” was a passion with Firth. It is a complaint of early childhood, and sufferers often grow out of it. A common symptom of this disorder is the belief that the intonation is never heard in New Zealand and is purely " Aus-try-lian.”
Firth devised many sentences to test the accent of his boys. One of these sentences is—" As it is a fine day today shall we go for a sail in a whaleboat round the harbour ? Ow now, not to die.”
" Can I leave the room, Sir ?" a boy would ask, and the Boss would reply " Well, you ought to know." He then explained that " Can I leave " means " am I able to leave," and that the proper word for permission is " may."
" I will bring it to-morrow " might force the reply ' You seem very determined," and thus the boy would learn that " I shall " is different from " I will."
To a boy on the back bench, a mumbler, the Boss would say pleasantly but all too apologetically, " pray excuse me if I seem too bold, but would you mind speaking up ;" or he might say " Roydhouse, come down here and recite the ' Burial of Sir John Moore,' and show these fellows how to speak their own language. " Smink " would not do for " some ink."
In essay writing and composition, a very involved sentence after the German style, might meet with a mild rebuke. With evident enjoyment, the Boss would make up a similar sentence. " I veel Engleesh very indostrious learn ven I to Vellington get."
I shall always bless the Boss’s memory for making
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us learn by heart Gray's Elegy, the Ancient Mariner, and Keat’s Ode to a Nightingale. We studied Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Richard 11, and many another play and book. All this give us a taste and relish for the light and comfort of good books. If it did not, it was not his fault. He made us feel good literature, and begin to see that many books are only synthetic drugs for unhealthy and idle minds. When a youth begins to realise the beauty of good literature he feels " like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken.”
As for the French class, the Boss must have thought I was hopeless. I loathed the French pronunciation, and every effort he made on my behalf was a dismal failure. It is said that the French language is very refined. It is. " Put your lips in shape as if you were going to whistle, and say " une.” I tried in vain, even to the verge of facial paralysis. Fortunately, most educated Frenchmen speak English. We can surely practise self-denial in verbal intercourse with ignorant Frenchmen. As for reading French, that is easy for anyone who has studied Latin.
The Head did not teach me Latin in my first year, but later. He considered that at least an elementary knowledge of Latin is valuable for understanding our mother tongue. The study of Latin, also, is mental discipline. One cannot trifle with a Latin sentence, and a half-lucky guess at one word will not succeed with the next. To translate from Latin to English needs a sound
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knowledge of English, and is a lesson in English composition.
As usual, in the Latin class, the Boss gave us the impression that he too was learning with us. He was one of us, and when he addressed us as " you fellows ” he used the words in their literal sense. I can well believe that in the eyes of some masters a class of boys may be what the police call suspicious characters. Our imposing figurehead was in close union with his boys.
We are struggling with the /Eneid, that great national epic of the Romans. Troy is afire. Helen is left behind in the city by the voyagers. Aeneas knows what a raging woman may do. Notamque furens quid femina possit. His state of mind is described as " worried ” by one of the class. " Pray excuse me if I seem too bold ” says the Boss, " but did you say ' worried ?’ You mean his mind is filled with dark forebodings.”
Similarly, " defeated ” was not the right word for the state of a barbarian tribe that had braved Caesar in the field. " Crushed ” was the word. We learned the difference between homo, one of the human race ; and yir, a man among men, a hero. He was before our eyes : in the words of Horace — Integer vitae scelerisque purus —a man of upright life and free from guile.
The Latin class was irradiated occasionally by a flash of humour. A youth was translating the sentence, Puer tcetrum morbum habet. He said, " the boy has the chickenpox.”
" What do you mean ?" exclaimed the master.
Photo by courtesy S. P. Andrew Studio, A'./. J. P. Firth (Headmaster i .
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" Please, Sir, ' taetrum morbum ’ means a foul disease.”
Mittit sub jugum, as every schoolboy ought to know, means " passed under the yoke.” However, one of them did not know, and was prompted by his neighbour on the bench. Not hearing distinctly, the poor scholar horrified the Boss with the translation : " passed along the joke.”
" What are the principal parts of cano ?” asked the Boss of a bright boy in his class.
The boy gave the parts correctly but pronounced the infinitive to sound like " canary ” instead of like " cannery.” Gargantuan laughter, and the poor boy was known as " dicky-bird ” for years afterwards.
The members of IVA and IVB will remember Firth’s scorn of the new Latin pronunciation then coming into vogue. He had a story of a bashful curate who fled from his class of girls because one of them pronounced vicissim as " we kiss ’im.”
Firth was conservative enough not to scorn the old rhyme that fixed the present indicative of Amo in the minds of many a youth—
Amo, Amas,
I loved a lass,
And she was tall and slender,
Amas, amat
She knocked me flat,
And that was the feminine gender !
His dog-Latin never failed to amuse when he quoted
E
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—Mus cucurrit. The mouse ran plenum sed full butt contra togam pax against the mantelpiece.
The Boss never went to any classroom without having prepared his lesson thoroughly beforehand. If he was stumped, if he was not quite certain, he would ask a member of his staff to help him. This was a remarkable trait in his character.
He was grateful for information. If he did not know, he told his class, but he took mighty good care to find out before the next lesson. If he made a mistake he promptly acknowledged it, either to boy or man.
The school building itself was even in my time completely out of date. The walls were sombre ; the fireplaces and the windows in the wrong place. The forms were massive and contained four lockers, one for each boy. Under the lid of each locker were stuffed books not in use. The bench was a hard board without a back ; it was a long stretch to the ink-well. Thus the boys did not sit up erect but leaned with their right shoulders forward and their faces towards the east, like Mohammedans at prayer. There were one or two classrooms, however, that because of their orientation gave scholars a chance to unwind themselves towards the direction of the westering sun.
The building from the outside had a noble and dignified appearance with its central tower, its Gothic finials and windows. It had an old-world appearance. It was fit for an old-world legend. Even now it makes a venerable memory, as it is comes forth into the vision of the mind out of those days so long ago, so far away.
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The old building stood on a terrace with a wide prospect all round. To the east was a hill rampart, shining under a summer sky, gloomy in the shadows of driving clouds, or else half-hidden in wintry mist. Sometimes the ridges would rise up suddenly through a rift. In the front was a sward where the playing fields were being made, but around its further borders only rough bare soil and clay.
The far hills, at the back of the town, for many months of the year were on fire with gorse blossom. A soft and mellowing haze hung over the town.
" Here where the blue air fills
The great cup of the hills."
Behind the old college building was a pine wood and through the tops of the pines the wind murmured. This pine wood was forbidden ground but sometimes we ventured in. A wandering boy might smoke a cigarette and listen to the twittering of his companions, the sparrows. Occasionally, there came here a native tui or parsonbird. He wore a clerical garb of black, shading into green in places, and white feathers at his throat like bands. He would practise bell notes and gong notes and get well into his upper register, singing like an angel. At the end, he might forget his dignity and decorum and chuckle deep in his throat, and fly away.
It was easy in the class-room, when my thoughts wandered from my books, to feel the golden warmth of the sunshine outside, and the fellowship of the hills and fields. Here was I tied to my book as a galley-slave to his bench. What a whole world of pathos is in the
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inscription cut on his oar by the Greek slave—" Oft was I weary as I toiled at thee ! ”
Like all the other scholars, I was proud of the school. We felt it a privilege to be Wellington College boys and under the Boss. We tried to make a good appearance. Our clothes might have shown signs of wear, but they were kept clean and tidy. The biggest boys wore long-trousered suits and all the others knickerbocker suits. These knickerbockers may have been the lean and stunted progenitors of plus-fours. No slouching about, or hands in pockets outside on the streets or in the trams ; the Boss would not like it.
It was at the morning assembly of the school where the Boss chiefly gave his lessons on politeness. He was known occasionally to don the school cap and give an illustration of how to lift it in respectful salutation. No curt nod from a boy to his elders when he met them in the street, if they were within his circle of acquaintances.
" Say ' Sir ’ when you address your superiors. Talk like an educated person, and don’t murder your vowels. Pray excuse me if I seem too bold—Would some of you object to having your long greasy locks shorn ? ”
The Boss varied little through the succeeding years. He became more mellow, but his enthusiasm never waned ; it was imparted to his boys and to his staff. No master ever objected to work over-time in school or on the field. Sometimes during the long May holidays boys preparing for the University examinations worked every morning with masters to speed on their work.
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He was known throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand as a disciplinarian. There was one final authority and only one, the Boss, so named from the beginning and to the end by boys who are quick to seize on a man’s personality. He wielded his supreme power with judgment and restraint. To the evil-doer, punishment swift and severe ; to the well-doer, a meed of praise. Thus he welded Wellington College into a harmonious state.
He had different ways of dealing with boys, according to their nature. On one occasion he opened the door of a class-room when there was no master in the room. A boy had just hurled an orange at another boy. The orange missed its legitimate mark, and would have struck the Boss in the face had he not jerked his head sideways. A dead silence followed. The Boss walked quietly into the room and took up the lesson without a remark. He had the gift of silence.
He once lost his temper completely with a boy whom we may call Brown, who frankly admitted that he had not prepared his Latin home-work.
" You are a good-for-nothing loafer,” the Boss roared at him. Brown rose to his feet, his face flushed with indignation.
" I am not a good-for-nothing loafer. I could explain, sir. You must apologise to me.”
The Boss glared at the boy for a moment, then the suspicion of a smile crept into his eyes. He said " I apologise, Brown.” Who could not admire both the boy and the man ?
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He knew at once how to distinguish a genuine complaint from a grumble. He could see through a boy from the moment he began a feeble excuse to the time he finished it. Very few boys ever tried to brazen out their faults.
The Boss had a cool and calm system of logic that immediately had the culprit hopelessly entangled. Clearness of reasoning was one of his strong points. Sometimes he would cut short a speech for the defence, and the game was up : " Snooks, do you think I’m an old woman ? ”
A boy, generally of good intention, had been more than a little indiscreet. He was summoned to report at 4 p.m., and had a miserable afternoon. On reporting, he was asked to sit down. The Boss was drinking a cup of tea. A second cup of tea for the boy was ordered from the maid. Then said the Boss, " How long have you been at school ? "
:t Three and a half years, sir."
" Then don't you think it is time you arrived at years of discretion ? Finish your tea, and go and amuse yourself."
To his masters, while exacting full toll of work and effort, he was a help in time of trouble. If any master found difficulty in governing his unruly subjects he never appealed for help to headquarters in vain.
He taught his assistants to be always on the job. Wellington College is a big place, but no day went by without the Boss visiting the class-rooms. It might have been only to sharpen his pencil into the rubbish box.
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It was always a friendly appearance, and a tonic to the staff and to the pupils.
He had his own little ways of keeping everything up to the mark. A master who had charge of the Sixth for two hours every morning was devoted to My Lady Nicotine. He used to dawdle at the interval for a few extra whiffs because he did not have to hurry to the senior form to suppress incipient riots. However, one morning, when a few minutes overdue, he was confronted by the Boss, who looked displeased, but did not say a word. The assistant was never late again.
A keen man on his job was the Boss. He was a stickler for punctuality, and sometimes carried it to an extreme, for in his earlier days he would frequently go right on past the time to stop. He was cured of this by Jock M .
One day, ten minutes after 12 o’clock, the Boss suddenly asked in a very surprised voice " What’s the time ? ” To everyone’s amazement, including the Boss, Jock pulled out a large alarm-clock fastened to a dogchain, and solemnly announced the time :
" Ten minutes late ! ”
The next day the Boss put the responsibility of ringing the school bell on George, the handyman. The boys got full measure but no more.
An assistant master was an excellent fellow and a good scholar. He lacked one thing essential for a schoolmaster, the power to maintain discipline. One day the pandemonium in this master’s class-room reached the ears of the headmaster. He advanced to the door
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and knocked. He received a raucous invitation from thirty young throats to " come in.” He complied without hesitation. There was a silence that could be felt. The silence was soon broken when the Boss proceeded to hand out punishment in full measure to every one of the noisy crew.
There was, moreover, a junior master whose ruling passion was rifle shooting. He would spend the whole of his lunch hour coaching lads on the rifle range. One day, the subject being History and Henry VIII in particular, a bright lad made bold to ask a question about the rifle. The master, not being himself particularly interested in the monotonous cruelty of Henry VIII, complied and history was laid aside. The Boss appeared. It was an unwritten law that no notice should be taken of his entry or presence or departure.
The spell was nearing its completion and the rifle was still under discussion when the master perceived the fateful door open and the tall form in the room. With presence of mind worthier of a better cause the musketry expert closed his book with a snap, and said " And that boys was the sort of man Henry VIII was ! ” The bell rang, and he was saved.
Hard work was the motto for the Boss. If this young master had been caught, sudden and swift retribution would have followed. When Labour Day first made its appearance there were high hopes of a holiday. These were quickly dispelled when after prayers the headmaster announced that the school would celebrate Labour Day in the proper manner, namely, by working.
CHAPTER IV.
Fruitful Years.
In 1893, the Boss finished his probationary period and was definitely appointed headmaster. He was still busy with reorganisation. The sanitary arrangements of the school had been primitive and were altered. He gave £lOO himself, personally raised another £lOO in a week, and incurred an expense of £5OO to remove the clay bank in the front of the building and tip the spoil into the deep gully at the side.
Sixteen boys out of eighteen passed either the Junior Scholarship or the Matriculation examination. The boarders had risen from seven to thirty-three, and the roll was a hundred and forty compared with seventy five. The Boss in his report at the end of the year said that to obtain the proper school spirit it was necessary to have a high standard for the upper boys. The masters must regard themselves as but a circumstance in the life of the school.
" We masters must feel that we are to help the school we love, to give each year a better, a fuller education to its boys. We are to strive to add our pebbles to the pile that shall one day be the pile of great-
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ness, so that when the time comes for us to leave the scene of our labours we shall do so with the satisfaction that comes from the consciousness of noble effort to noble ends.”
In 1894, the Head met with a rather serious accident. When stepping off a tramcar, a passing vehicle knocked him down. He suffered external injuries and minor internal bruising, but in several weeks completely recovered.
A new master was appointed at least once a year.
In 1895, Mr. A. C. Gifford from Christ’s College, accepted an appointment at Wellington College. He had been a Wrangler at Cambridge and had high attainments in mathematics and in science. He was called affectionately " Uncle Charlie.” Anyone who has read Good-bye Mr. Chips will know Mr. Gifford.
By 1895, the roll number reached two hundred and fifty, the largest but one of any secondary school in New Zealand. The Boss now perceives ample evidence of a school spirit, and the beginning of a tradition. He regards scholastic success, he says, as only one part of the important work they had to do in the school. They wished to turn out good men, good in the wisest sense, men of principle and honour. Their games and school institutions were important aids to this end. They had won twelve consecutive matches against all the leading secondary schools, except two, whose position prevented their meeting.
The Boss was delighted with the testimony of the coach of a rival team —" Your boys play what I call an
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honourable game.” Nothing on earth could have given Firth more satisfaction that this unsolicited tribute to the success of his great aim.
The work of making sufficient playing-grounds never ceased. The Boss was in it heart and soul. Money had to be obtained to pay for labour. The Board of Governors was desperately poor. Money was found somehow. It had to be, under Firth’s impelling enthusiasm. The masters were paid miserable pittances. The head every year without exception pressed for little increases to the assistant masters’ salaries, £lO here, £l5 there. He never asked for an extra penny for himself.
I am not writing the history of Wellington College, and it would be tedious to record events in their proper sequence every year. It is sufficient to present a general outline of the setting of Firth’s life, and his reactions to his environment. In a true sense he was the school.
This man of large ideals had often to stoop to the most petty affairs. The school grounds were situated within a closely populated district. Short lanes with cottages on each side led from Adelaide Road right up to the school boundary which was not securely fenced. Unwarranted visitors came by night as well as by day. The College was exposed to vandalism and various offences within its grounds.
Firth wants proper enclosure. The Board has no money for the purpose. Fences are patched temporarily. Women from adjoining backyards use step-ladders to lean against the fence, and so make stiles. They came
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over these into the College ground to use it as a dryinggreen for their washing.
Mr. Cocks died in 1897. The sudden cutting off of this charming young man, with, as it seemed, a long and useful life before him, produced a profound effect on the boys.
The miserable salaries of the masters forced many of them to make the College an abiding place only until they could find some other remunerative work. Mr. Tripe left to take up the practice of Law. Mr. G. G. S. Robison, Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Carter, and Mr. Jordan, were appointed assistant masters ; also Mr. Brodie.
The boarders increased in numbers so much that a new boarding establishment was taken in Brougham Street. It was called College House and put under the capable control of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Ward. Mr. Ward had married Mrs. Firth’s sister in 1895.
A swimming-bath is needed, and the occasion brings forth the man. Mr. H. D. Bell, later the Right Honourable Sir Francis Bell, Prime Minister and AttorneyGeneral, presented a swimming-bath in memory of his deceased son, formally a pupil at the College.
In 1900, Mr. Seddon, the Prime Minister, proposed to take away ten acres from the Wellington College Reserve for the purpose of providing a site for a new University College. The Board of Governors went to protest to Mr. Seddon. Mr. Seddon inveighed against the want of foresight of Wellington municipal authorities, and against lack of generosity in the rich. These sentiments, no doubt, pleased his Lib. Lab. followers,
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but the man was much bigger than his party. Of course, he had to use political weapons. Finally, largely through the foresight and the generosity of the Governors of Wellington College, a suitable site was found for the University in the suburb of Kelbum.
In this same year, Mr. Firth, perhaps because he was greatly impressed by the high sense of duty actuating volunteers for the Boer War, had a conviction that too many of the boys at the College were failing in their duty. He scourged them with words at the break-up. He hoped they would return after the holidays in full realisation that the future of the school was in their hands.
All boys had equal opportunities. The editors of the school magazine, The Wellingtonian, about this time wrote their impressions of the school. It was their last term. They stated that they had never found that a boy was either admired or despised for the position held by his father. There was no tyranny of big boys over little boys. There was a spirit of school honour inspired by Mr. Firth and also pride in the College, and the fostering of all this by every legitimate means.
Early in 1900, a new tradition was established. Thirty-seven Old Boys of the school volunteered for the South African War. It was the first war overseas in which units of Colonial troops were engaged. The boys at the College raised money to provide comforts for the soldiers. In this year, Mr. F. M. Renner came as a master to the school. He had been a former pupil, and
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his career as a master was distinguished by force of character and sense of duty.
During the Boer War period the College Cadets were inspected by Mr. Seddon. He was very pleased and urged the boys to practise shooting as a national duty. His Excellency the Governor and Major-General Hector Macdonald also inspected the cadets. " Fighting Mac ” said that detail, although unimportant in itself, was of the utmost importance as a training in prompt and rigid obedience. He did not like pot-hunting in shooting competitions. What was wanted for defence was a large number of good shots, not a few excellent ones.
The College each year progressed against almost insuperable difficulties. This progress was due to Firth’s energy and his magnetic influence over the boys, assisted by Mrs. Firth’s unvarying kindness.
At the end of a decade, Mr. and Mrs. Firth were given leave of absence to enable them to visit important schools in England, and obtain rest after their active labours. Mr. Heine was left in charge of the school and Mr. and Mrs. Gilford in charge of the boarders.
The travellers went first to London and were present at many receptions before the Coronation, and greatly disappointed at the postponement of that great event. Firth visited Harrow, Winchester, Eton and University College School, and others. He was greatly impressed with the playing-fields of Harrow and of Winchester, but although they were larger than at Wellington, he thought the Wellington turf superior. He attended
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cricket matches at Lord's and at other grounds. Wet weather robbed the games of much of their interest. He looked forward to comparing on his way home, the schools of the United States with those of England.
Mr. and Mrs. Firth went to Switzerland and enjoyed the scenery and the invigorating air of that country.
His descriptions are well worth recording as an example of good English prose :
" Leaving our hotel at Miirren we started off for a walk in the Blumenthal, a valley behind the village and just under a snowy peak. You go up steep rocky paths through the village and come out at last into a great mossy expanse of flower-gemmed turf, strewn with pieces of rock of all shapes and sizes, in the little holes and crevices of which grow all sorts of alpine flowers, in distinct clumps as if planted by a cunning gardener — blue, red, yellow, violet. Great white and yellowcoloured anemones grow at the foot of the rocks and the turf is full of gentians and scyllas with their wonderful blue. Snow patches appear bordered even now in July with crocusses. There is the alpine primula, a lovely little lavender tinted flower, which peeps up out of the very snow itself, and, above all, the rocks and snow where the vegetation ceases. As you get higher, the season goes further back, and in one place where the snow had been, we found a number of small brilliant flowers peeping out of the mossy turf and in a hurry to flower before the snow should come again."
What of the waterfalls ?
:< They are very beautiful, but, take a good umbrella
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and waterproof cloak, don’t mind a deafening racket, and prepare yourself to walk in running water ; then you may enjoy yourself with impunity.”
He writes of the Trimmelbach and of the Reichenbach Falls, and proceeds :
" Now the Giesbach Fall is quite different from these. In seven lovely leaps it descends a wooded mountain, and brings with it quantities of logs cut above. They come down leaping and turning, sometimes even suspended in the air outside the fringe of foam, and it is beautiful to watch them. Moreover, this fall is a dry one. Turn after turn, and bridge after bridge, it allows you to approach and admire it, and almost to get behind it, and yet does not splash or foam much or wet you all over.”
In this year the Boss and I and all who knew George McFarland were saddened to hear of his death. He came to Wellington College with a scholarship in 1893. He played front forward in the team during the years in which the College first began to win matches and he was the best front forward the College had produced. I travelled to Edinburgh with George and we lodged together. After graduating he became house-surgeon at the Sheffield Royal Infirmary. Here he contracted severe scarlet fever, and when convalescent gave himself no rest in his overwhelming sense of duty. He got meningitis and died. I have never met his equal for comradeship, manliness and sterling character. I pay him this faltering tribute because he was, I think, the
Photo by courtesy S. P. Andrew Studio, N.Z. Mrs. Firth.
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first close disciple of the Boss to pass into the Great Beyond.
The year, 1903, the eleventh of Firth’s headmastership, was significant because it brought forth a proposal from the Education Department for a system of socalled " Free Places.” The Board of Governors declared itself not unsympathetic to the proposal, but pleaded insufficiency of accommodation and of funds. A very liberal system of scholarships would have been better, and would have proved a boy’s suitability to profit by the course of instruction he proposed to pursue.
This free place system would have the effect of bringing the school, and Mr. Firth and his assistants, more under the direct control of the Government. It would, also, greatly augment the roll of scholars, and provide better security and higher salaries for the teachers, and increase the number of teachers in employment.
The commonsense and worldly wisdom of schoolmasters is held in disrepute by politicians. Therefore schoolmasters are the last persons to be consulted on educational matters. The professional in education must surrender to the amateur. Firth’s mind was concerned always with quality rather than with quantity, but he refrained from criticising the Government’s policy.
There is such a thing as educational politics. Like a good military officer, Firth thought it his duty to carry out the orders of the Government. Here, once again, he
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showed his wisdom. He would do his best to help to create a new democracy based, if possible, on popular education.
This instalment of tax-supported social reform came too suddenly, without preparation. Almost universal secondary education arrived before the schools were ready. It drove a wedge into the old system. Therefore it took years to rectify this mistake, and adjust the schools and the system to the needs of a host of new pupils. The church schools were unaffected. It was at first a patchwork scheme, and many of the pupils were quite unfitted to profit by it. Later, many diverted themselves into free places in technical schools more fitted for various forms of vocational training.
At the prize-giving a report was read from Professor Brown, an examiner, in which he stated that secondary education would become a farce and a sham. He held the opinion that a year or two at a secondary school was insufficient to prepare pupils for University entrance. Mr. Seddon, who heard this report read, said that free places at technical schools were provided, and as for accommodation, since 1900, district high schools had increased from thirteen to forty-four. It was not until 1908 that a new additional building was provided to receive the influx of new pupils at Wellington College.
Mr. Brandon, Chairman of the Board of Governors, was opposed to the free place system. His views are clearly expressed in his own words. " There are insufficient funds and inadequate fees with which to pay masters reasonable salaries. The situation is com-
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promised by the new building, the West School ; the position will soon arise that the College will contain practically nothing but free-place pupils. Free, secular and compulsory education is at once the boast of, and a menace to, democracy. The College will become part of a machine controlled and worked by central authority, with no elasticity and with no ready power of adjustment to meet local circumstances.” Firth’s wisdom and powers of administration did a great deal to falsify, in part, this gloomy prophesy of the chairman of the Board.
In the few years during which this re-organisation was pending, Firth laboured to build up the school. He obtained new and adjustable desks, he struggled to obtain equipment for the science laboratories, he made new playing-fields, he introduced new subjects into the curriculum, and on speech days, when he had to speak, he preached his gospel of hard work and earnest endeavour. His old friend and coadjutor, Mr. Bee, left to take up the headmastership of one of the most important schools at Melbourne. Later Mr. W. F. Ward resigned to enter legal practice, and Mr. Jordan did likewise.
The Boss was troubled with petty ills as well as with the larger woes. Here is a letter he sent to the Secretary of the Board :
" The nuisance caused by amorous couples, small boys, and hoodlums is becoming worse and worse, especially on Sundays and holidays. I have written to the police ; but an acknowledgment of my letter and an occasional visit from a constable is the most that has
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resulted from that. Last holidays when I was away, apparently respectable citizens treated the grounds as if they were a public park—indeed worse —for they picked and pulled up the flowers, and were insolent when spoken to. The pavilion is a regular rendezvous for the class of lovers who consort after dark. The hairpin nuisance is a source of danger to our mowing machines. Time after time I turn people off ; but I know that they come back again at once. If there is to be arrest and prosecution, I don’t think I should have to do the police work. P.S. Enclosed is the cheque for £2O for gorse. When will the ten years be up ? ”
The gorse grew on the hills where the headmaster’s cows were pastured and he had to pay the Board of Governors for ten years the cost of its eradication. After that it was assumed that there would be no more latent gorse-seed in the soil —a sanguine expectation for those who know how this noxious weed grows in New Zealand. As regards the principal work of the school, the headmaster gave clear evidence of the faith that was in him :
" The year now closed has been one of hard work, without which, in spite of new-fangled notions to the contrary, I do not believe much real good can be done. There were new schemes for this, and new schemes for that —of the making of new schemes there was no end —and in a year or two they were condemned, and thrown aside. In dealing with new schemes of education it was well to hasten slowly. Nearly all of them failed to do what they claimed. I have a brand new scheme,
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and it is that earnest, intelligent and interesting teaching, backed up with hard work on the part of the boys, is worth a great many fads and patents. If we get that, and in Wellington College we do our utmost to obtain it, even if we succeed only in a small degree, we feel that in spite of disappointment, we have our reward. When I mention the extra time demanded from masters by : The special work in the Barnicoat Memorial, the Cocks Memorial, Bethune Natural History, Liverton Science, Liverton History, and Navy League Essay prize competitions ; the drill of the three companies of Cadets, the training in shooting, the Wellington Camera Club, the teaching of swimming, the theoretical and practical work in life-saving under the Royal Humane Society of Australasia, the St. John Ambulance classes; the cricket, the football, the cross-country runs, and the sports —it is clear the ppare time of the masters must be very spare."
A member of the Board desired to make education at Wellington College more vocational and the headmaster was asked for a report, the gist of which is as follows :
" (a) Confining the Latin classes to approved pupils: The parents’ wishes and the object aimed at deserve consideration : though a boy may be very dull, yet his father may wish him to have every opportunity of entering a profession for which Latin is compulsory.
" (b) Boys remaining long enough to gain a really useful knowledge of the language : Parents frequently change their minds, perhaps after a boy has been two
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years at school, perhaps after two-thirds of a term. Even a little knowledge of the rudiments of Latin is of value in the matter of exact use of English. The same objection, that the knowledge gained does not reach ' the paying-point ’ may be urged against any other subjects.
" (c) Under present conditions, no boy is compelled to take Latin (book-keeping is the alternative subject) ; and boys are strongly advised not to begin the language unless they are to remain at least two years.”
Firth’s gospel cannot be better expressed than in his own words spoken at a Speech-Day in those important years just before the Great War. It needs preaching and practising even more in these post-war years. He said—
" As in former years, our Old Boys in New Zealand and in distant places have won many distinctions ; and we have representatives at Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Philadelphia. London and at the Royal Military College in Australia. Year after year, fresh, new and royal roads in education are made for us. The old new-roads that were to lead by easy and pleasant grades to the summit of the mountain were soon torn and broken with chasms made by the storm-torrent of experience. The travellers who arrive at the top are still those who, with the expenditure of much energy, pick their way carefully and toilfully from crag to crag.
: ' The guides of these successful ones tread the rough sides of the mountain year after year in charge of everchanging parties of travellers. The planners of the
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smooth roads (who have never guided new-comers up the mountain, or have failed to do so over the rough crags) still confidently assert that their way is the best ; and still, year after year, their smooth roads are washed away or crossed by impassable ravines.
" Not long ago it was discovered that the upright style was to banish bad handwriting. It was solemnly declared that the reason why people wrote badly, and had done so for generations, was that they had not adopted the upright style. Anon it was discovered that there could be bad upright writers as well as bad sloping writers, good sloping writers as well as good upright writers, and that care and effort were required either way.
" We are told by some that there should be more teaching on the part of the teacher, less learning on the part of the pupil. But, it is being re-discovered that the old proverb is true when applied to education —' you may lead a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink ! ' Still less can you drink for him. You can supply the water and see that its quality is good —he must do the drinking. The doctrine that everything should be made easy for the boy is evil morally. If followed, it leads to softness, weakness, neglect of duty, selfishness, disrespect for authority and law, in which last too many of our New Zealand boys are sadly at fault.
" It teaches that everything in the nature of work and duty must be put aside in favour of pleasure. The boy must not be left to worry out a problem. AH obstacles
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must be smoothed away, and the path made clear for him to walk straight forward. And, not only must the path be smooth and easy, but it must also be made attractive. As soon as he finds fag in his work, he must cease effort and turn to some distraction. He must not will his mind to continue at what is unattractive, and thus leam self-control and strength of purpose. His whole school life must be made a kindergarten.
" Will this sort of treatment make a good citizen of the boy ? Will he thus gain the hardness and toughness of fibre necessary to bear out against the coming storms ? (No! and again, No! He will be only a unit in a race of neurasthenics and leaners who rely on those industrious enough to pay rates and taxes and supply donations for the support of non-triers to give them their ease).
" This making everything easy and pleasant, this putting pleasure first and duty out of sight, is not what gave to the nation the men who built up its greatness, is not what will enable the nation of the future to hold the greatness nobly won for it.
'' The craving of modern life for the easy, comfortable and pleasant is the very thing the schoolmaster should set himself to avoid. It is good that a boy should have difficulties to meet. It is good that he should feel that he is not playing but really working. It is good for him to find that the joy of effort, the joy of successful effort, is worth more than all the pleasures he hopes to find, and never does really find, along the easy road.
" In Christ's Parable of the Talents, he that had
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received but two taients and gained other two talents was commended and rewarded just as highly as he that had received five. Each had done his best. He that had received but one was punished, not because he had not gained as much as he that had five, but because he had not tried. He had not done his best. That is the true test of merit, and that alone —doing his best.
" Not long ago one who, whenever he speaks, utters what is the result of careful and original thought, said to me ' Is it not about time that the pendulum should swing back to the idea not of cramming boys with a number of scientific facts, but of teaching them how to learn ? ’ I think he is certainly right; but we shall not succeed in doing this so long as the boy is not expected, is not encouraged, is not, if necessary, compelled to think and to think hard for himself. Yet, we are told that boys should be set no work at all to be done by themselves, that five hours a day is quite enough for mental effort. I am reminded of the plea of some of those who advocate the addition of handwork to the school course.
" If you give half your time to hand and eyework (say they) you will do twice as much in your ordinary school work. But why stop at half ? An Irishman, the story goes, once undertook to buy a stove for his home.
" ' This kind,’ said the salesman, ' is remarkably good. It saves half the fuel.’
" ' Faith ! ’ was the reply, ' I’ll take two and save it all!’
" The right training for citizenship, and that is surely
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what we want, is not to be found in encouraging, or even allowing, the boy always to take the easiest and pleasantest course. If a plant is reared in a hothouse, and then moved to a cold and wind-swept spot, that plant will not flourish. The sudden shock will ruin it. Your young plant that is destined to rough weather must be reared hardily. Of course, it must be sheltered while tender ; but it must have training in hardness. There must be reason in all things. If you give it no care at all, it will be stunted; mayhap, it will die. If you coddle it, it will shrivel when it meets the outer storm.
" The advocates of everything made easy, of no home-work, of smoothing away all difficulties, of ceasing to work the moment there is disinclination, are as far from the actual truth as the German educationist who declared that seven hours of home-work are not too much.
" There is far too much talk about ' the poor fellow being overworked and run-down.’ On rare occasions it it necessary to interfere with boys who are overworking. But in nearly all cases encouragement to further effort is required ; and if more than encouragement is necessary, then compulsion.
" Compulsion—compulsory—hateful words to free, free and easy Colonials ! Some of us have objections (are they conscientious, too ?) to compulsory honesty.
" This is the attitude taken up : The State should protect us, shall protect us ; but we have conscientious objections to doing our share towards the preservation of the State. We have no objection to waxing rich
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under the protection of the British Flag ; but we have conscientious objections to doing our share towards the support of the prestige of that flag.
" I once asked a man to give me five shillings to a certain fund. He replied ' No, I object on principle ! ’ On enquiry, I found later that he was right. His principle was to give nothing to anything.
" I am glad to be able to say that although amongst the parents of boys we have at least one conscientious objector to military training, the work of our five cadet companies this year would have been creditable (I am sure I am not overstating the case) to any school in the Empire. Though I am sure that the members of my staff do not expect thanks for carrying out their duties to the very best of their powers, yet I feel bound to express my very heartfelt appreciation of their loyalty to me, and of their readiness to undertake extra work of all kinds outside of what can be fairly demanded of them. On the whole, as a body, masters and boys, we have tried to do our best. We are conscious of failure to secure the high standard at which we have aimed ; but we have the consolation of knowing that we have aimed high and striven hard, and that, after all, often in failure we succeed.”
In this address Firth’s reference to the gentleman whose principle was to give nothing to anything reminds me of a later incident. I went with the Boss to call on the father of an Old Boy to ask the old man for a donation for the College War Memorial Hall. He was
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a very wealthy merchant, and a war profiteer. Said he to Firth,
" Why should I give anything to this Memorial ? "
" Well, you know, others gave much, gave their youth, gave their lives, while you and many more prospered in security."
" But, Mr. Firth, that's all very well. I'm a business man, and there's no sentiment in business. You must tell me what return I shall get if I give you a donation." Firth's eyes glowed, as Scott says the eyes of Robert Burns could glow. He replied :
" I'm afraid I cannot make you see my point of view. Good morning."
As for his reference in the address to the protection of the British Flag, Firth shortly before he closed his career showed me a letter he had received from the father of one of the boys. It read —" Mr. Firth, you teach my boy to respect the Union Jack. It is the flag of capitalism. I want my boy to respect the Red Flag of the worker and of freedom.” My comment was short; and, I hope, to the point. "We shall never be short of fools.”
In 1912, Mr. and Mrs. Firth took a second long holiday abroad. On their way to England they spent ten days in Egypt in the glitter and glamour of the East. They then went to Marseilles and Genoa and Rome, and spent a week in Venice. They took the train for Vienna, and visited the Austrian Tyrol, and then passed leisurely through Switzerland and France, and so to England.
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In the boat-train from Paris to Calais, the engine at full speed jumped the rails and took several carriages with it in its mad flight. Mrs. Firth was cut by fragments of glass from a broken window. In England Mr. Firth’s turn for an accident came, and he broke a bone in his leg when motoring in Cornwall. Nevertheless, he completed the trip.
During the absence of the Boss, Mr. Heine was in charge of the College. The year was significant for the completion of an observatory to house a five and a half inch telescope under the charge of Mr. Gifford, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Mr. Heine, in his address at the prize-giving, did not shirk the free-place problem. He said —All would agree that the object of the free-place system was a good and laudable one —to afford children of more than average ability whose parents could not afford it, the means of securing secondary education, and possibly, University education. The object was not, he presumed, to give all and sundry who could pass a very easy examination facilities to attend a secondary school for two years, or less, to study subjects for which they had neither the ability nor the taste. As far as able pupils were concerned the system had certainly been a great success. But many pupils were only of moderate ability, and the results did not justify the outlay. Of course, those who initiated the system would strain every nerve to justify it, but had they the means of judging which the teachers had ? In his experience of thirty years, he would say the system had not been a success. The
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present standards of proficiency were too low. Having the system, they should make the best of it. Parents should make up their minds whether they intended their boys to proceed to the university or follow a commercial career after having spent, say, four years at a secondary school. The school and the home should work in harmony.
In 1913, Old Boys’ Day was initiated. On one day of each year, usually St. Andrew’s Day, Old Boys came back again to school to lunch with the pupils, and engage with them in cricket, tennis, swimming and shooting competitions. Mr. M. Barnett deserves great credit for the establishment of Old Boys’ Day. Mr. Firth said it was a day of great value, and believed that it would tend to bind still more closely in affection the former pupils to their school.
It is a day on which to meet old friends. The companions of our boyhood are resurrected for us. Someone asks " How is old Bill getting on ? ” —and, lo and behold, there is old Bill in the throng to answer for himself.
In the second term of 1914 the College Cadets were inspected by Sir lan Hamilton and were complimented by him on their appearance and precision. Towards the end of this year, as the world can never forget, began the fateful war years. They were the testing-time for the school, past and present.
The Boss says the boys will give £250 for relief of the Belgians. Prizes are given up and certificates taken instead, proudly known as " scraps of paper.” £3OO is
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raised before the term is ended. By 1918, they have raised in various ways £2,945 for patriotic funds. In 1915, the Boss reports, "Hundreds of our old boys have joined the colours, and we hope to have a complete list of their names. Meantime, we hold them, known or unknown, in affectionate remembrance, and we shall gladly welcome any opportunity of giving needful help to them and theirs, if and when the occasion arises.”
In 1916, the boys were told a great story of heroism in civil life in an address by Captain Worsley and Lieutenant Stenhouse of the Shackleton Polar Expedition. They paid a glowing tribute to Shackleton. Stenhouse delighted the boys with a humorous description of the ending of the Antarctic night and the killing of the fatted seal on the return of the prodigal Sun.
A memorial service was held on Old Boys’ Day. The Honourable A. M. Myers, Minister of Munitions, and an Old Boy of the school spoke. It was decided to raise money to build a great Memorial Hall. The Boss spoke with great solemnity. He said—" Some of the salt of the earth have gone and to them the debt cannot be fully repaid. It has been suggested that this is not a time to call for aid for such a memorial. ' I can’t afford ’ is a fine thing when used in restraint of personal desires ; it is anything but fine when applied to calls for assistance so that one may devote all to personal gratifications.” He and his wife gave anonymously for the Memorial Hall £5OO. No one will ever know the large amount they gave to patriotic funds.
In 1918, came the great influenza epidemic and the
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College was closed for a long time. There was no public prize-giving. In the headmaster's report, he had something to say about democracy—" Democracy for its own good must have education ; but more knowledge will not give it stability. To secure that there must permeate all parts of the body of society a sense of the necessity of law and order, and the compulsion of the wish for right. This is the discipline that is so desirable." It is a pity (or is it ?) that he was not a statesman instead of a great headmaster.
In 1919, General Birdwood, who had come to New Zealand to meet the Anzacs, addressed Wellington College. He congratulated the school on its amazing contribution to defence of the Empire. The Prince of Wales was also a visitor.
The Boss sent in his resignation to take effect in the following year, 1920. It caused great grief and disappointment, but the reason of it will appear later in this book. He received many tributes of admiration and affection.
Lest it may be said that I am carried away with enthusiasm, let me quote the opinion of a leading newspaper in the Dominion :
" A MAN AND A MEMORIAL.
" The excellent record of Wellington College in war service has been noted from time to time in the columns of the Post. It is a record in every way worthy of comparison with those of the old public schools of England. The Old Boys’ Association decided some time ago that
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it should be fittingly commemorated, and the most appropriate form of memorial, it was thought, was one which would bring the record before the present and future students of the College. A Memorial Hall to contain the names of all old boys who served at the front, and to serve as an Assembly Hall for the school, was decided upon, and to erect it a sum of £5,000 was arrived at. Some £3,400 including generous donations by Mr. and Mrs. Firth and weekly donations by College boys, has been collected, and the Association is now setting itself to collect the balance.
" Mr. Firth will retire from the headmastership of the College at the end of the year, and the Association is greatly desirous of completing the collection before that time. There is little need to draw attention here to the work performed by Mr. Firth for the school and for the nation —a work ranking with that of Dr. Arnold for Rugby, and of double importance in a young country.
" In the thirty years that the College has been under Mr. Firth's guidance he has made it an institution possessing and exercising great influence in the development of character. Boys who have passed through the school have had ever before them an ideal of citizenship, and in their headmaster a striking example. They have been taught to work hard and to play manfully, neither losing sight of manly sport in the pursuit of scholarship nor subordinating work to games. And at all times the precept and practice of their headmaster has led them to seek truth and honour."
Though Mr. Firth himself would be the last to claim
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it, the excellent record of Wellington College is indeed the enduring memorial to his leadership, for most of the boys who served in the Great War had their characters moulded under his guidance. What more fitting, then, than that the memorial to that war service should be closely associated with the man who made it possible for such a record to be attained ? ”
On Old Boys’ Day, 30th November, 1920, the Wellington Town Hall was packed to the doors to do honour to Mr. and Mrs. Firth. When they appeared on the platform there was a storm of applause. He was presented with his portrait painted by Bowring. The Mayor spoke, and Mr. W. F. Ward at that time Chairman of the Board of Governors of the College. Mr. Ward said that at one time the Board was not sure that salaries would be forthcoming, but Mr. Firth’s success had solved their troubles. His importunities were constant requests for increases in his assistants’ salaries. His last official communication was an appeal for higher salaries for his staff. No master had ever been dismissed, nor had any serious difference ever arisen during Mr. Firth’s time.
The Minister of Education, the Honourable C. J. Parr, said that one of the most important people in the scheme of life is the headmaster of a great school.
The Right Honourable Sir Francis Bell spoke for parents. He was a member of the Board which decided Mr. Firth’s appointment. How they were baited for having selected a Saul, the son of Kish, because he was head and shoulders above the rest of the people ! Sir
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Francis spoke of that " strange and elusive quality which meant immediate obedience and respect in boys, and an enduring reward of affectionate regard long after leaving school. Part of it comes by nature, the rest by patient and intelligent work and observation.”
Mr. Firth said in reply that his friends had beggared him of thanks. As to his wife, of any credit he may have gained for wisdom in the affairs of the school, much the larger share was due to her. For coolness, promptness, and soundness in an emergency, he had never seen her equal. They were doing what they were doing for the same reason which had influenced them to come to Wellington —for the good of the school. They believed that the school wanted a change. They had to do some tearing up of roots in life’s garden, but there was one plant too deep to be rooted out —the plant of memory. That plant would always live.
One of his favourite songs, Land of Hope and Glory, was sung and also the Old Harrow song, Forty Years On.
At the last Prize-giving, the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable W. F. Massey, spoke. He said he would like to see all professors and teachers show their pupils the path of duty as Mr. Firth had done ; teach them pride of race, pride of country, and pride of everything that the Union Jack signified on land and the White Ensign at sea. Men like Firth were pillars of the Empire which would never go down as long as they had such men.
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The last words of the Boss (he became known on his retirement as the " dear old Boss ”) in his last report were the words of his own Great Headmaster—
" He that will be great among you, let him be the servant of all.”
CHAPTER V.
School Life.
A school is a little world of its own, bearing a resemblance to the great outer world. It presents, however, many points of contrast.
Professor J. J. Findlay has written illuminating chapters about school life. He says that the adult always tends to exaggerate the importance of adult life, but to the youth himself, his life affords a sufficiently varied scene. The period of youth is not merely a preparation. It is itself a life. If it ends there, it has issued not only in promise, but in fulfilment.
School life is life at its freshest, bravest and most responsive period. It is difficult, thrilling, adventurous, dangerous. A healthy-minded boy has the zest for it.
' Youth, that pursuest with such eager face Thy even way,
Thou pantest on to win a mournful race ;
Then stay ! Oh, stay !
Pause and luxuriate in thy sunny plain :
Loiter, enjoy :
Once past, thou never wilt come back again,
A second Boy."
The philosopher will say that each period of life
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should be the best for those who live in it. Yet a normal man will ever look back on his youth as a pleasing romance. It grows softer in the distance.
Boys as well as men, sanguine or disillusioned, unless in an agony of body or mind, join in the appeal :
" Time, you old gipsy man,
Will you not stay,
Put up your caravan
Just for one day ? ”
A boy may think at school that his richly endowed boyhood will, like a field of amaranth, last long without withering. It is a happy illusion which no one should disturb.
Wellington College is not as conventional as an English Public school. It has less adherence to what is called good form. It cherishes colonial freedom. The New Zealand boys, however, and English boys have no essential difference. They are bound by a stronger discipline at school than is to be found in a university, or in the world at large. Schoolboys are all subject to the same tribal taboos and conventions. They submit readily to authority, even to the authority of their fellows, the prefects. The appointment of prefects is constitutional. It fits into that great spirit of our race which animates respect for law and order.
Without a good background in the home, the school has little chance of influencing the individual. Parents cannot delegate all their responsibilities to the schoolmaster. They should not expect too much, much less everything, from a teacher.
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A. J. Balfour declared that education can never produce equality, but brings to light profound inequalities. The whole basis of progress is the tendency to variation. We over-estimate the power of education, especially when we divorce it from culture. Education, of itself, will not prevent wrong-doing.
Balfour goes on to say, in his whimsical way, that " true dullness is not acquired. It is a natural grace ! Fill a dull person to the brim with knowledge and he will not become less dull. Dullness which left to itself was merely vacuous, can be made pretentious and pedantic." A little knowledge is a humorous thing.
Wellington College is mainly a day school, but the day boys and the boarders take part in common in a corporate life. The boys have a profound influence on one another. They learn not only from masters but from themselves.
Every class in the school is in itself a community, or a team. The team spirit results from the interchange between teacher and scholars, and between the scholars themselves. They are not strangers one to another. They have the same enthusiasm. They are not divided but joined by friendly rivalry.
The boys at the College, as at other schools, begin life as individualists. They differ profoundly from one another, but youth is adaptable, and before long, new boys conform freely to the habits of life and thought imposed upon them by their school. They learn its statutes and its judgments. Yet, many a man at the age of forty cannot adapt himself to new surroundings.
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What strange and complex raw material is provided for the schoolmaster! There are exceptionally clever boys, those who slowly develop, and subnormal boys. They need to be graded in some way. To keep a class back to help dull boys is to suppress those of outstanding power. To foster individual talent is thought by certain people to be undemocratic. If this is correct, a quick-witted lad may be forced into idle habits. If clever boys are segregated into special forms, the stimulus for the lower grades is lacking.
Wellington College, like all Secondary schools, confronts the problem of the adolescent boy. With the growth of his body has come the growth of his passions and emotions. He has sudden awakenings. He is irritable and restless. He is more remote than the masters from the little boys. He is a problem to himself, here at the parting of the ways. Such a youth needs a headmaster like the Boss to lead him, and not drive him ; to let him learn from his mistakes. It is at this stormy period of life when the style, the standards and the ideals are fixed for a lifetime.
The boarders were more fortunate in my time than the day boys. The former were the family of their foster-parents, Mr. and Mrs. Firth. The headmaster and his wife understood boys better, in many ways, because they had no children of their own, and could take a dispassionate and unbiassed view.
The Boss gave all his spare time to the boarders. He had no house-master, no steward, no clerk, to help him because the boarders were his own special care. He
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helped them individually. He gave up all his evenings to supervise their work at Preparation. He wrote letters to parents, and cast up accounts till midnight. Occasionally, exhausted, he dozed in his chair for a few minutes in snatches of dreamy, unrefreshing slumber. Before seeking, too late, the balm of sleep he would go into the dormitories to see that all was well with his boys. If there was a noise in a dormitory he was known to kick imaginary objects out of his way in the passages, or tread heavily, to give warning of his coming. There was nothing he hated more than sneaking. There was nothing the boys admired more than his hatred of sneaking.
His interest in the school and in the welfare of the school was a consuming fire. Every morning he woke up to a new world as fresh and full of interest as ever, as full of opportunity for effort. His love of teaching was an expulsive force.
He rejoiced to throw a white light on a dark passage in a text-book, to help a lad struggling out of a difficult place. Above all, he longed to teach his boys to be conscientious, industrious, never underhand, never tyrannical. To bring sweetness and light into a dull mind or a stubborn will was his chief joy.
Mrs. Firth, his loyal and courageous helper, was at her husband’s side in every success or sorrow and in every difficulty. She was the firm but kind mother of the boarders, and their nurse, as well, when they were ill. She arranged school entertainments, plays and concerts.
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She was very near to new home-sick boys when they first arrived.
The outside, as well as the inside of the boarders’ quarters, was kept bright by Mrs. Firth. She had a croquet-lawn with flower-beds round it. In these beds grew marigolds, and eschscholtzias and Iceland poppies showing the school colour. Marigold is a beautiful old name now changed to calendula. Why did not someone change the name of eschscholtzia into something easier to spell and more pleasing to the ear, and let the marigold alone ? —Names such as rosemary and rue and sweet marjoram.
The Boss had for sanctum a room lined with books, to suit his taste, classics of English literature ; also pugiliana. He had a keen eye for pictures, and owned four or five especially good oils, one by a local painter, Nairn, who graduated in the Glasgow school. The Boss smoked a pipe occasionally in this study of his ; it was a peculiar trait in his character that he did not smoke in front of boys. It was a snug room, not much devoted to leisure.
The majority of the boarders were sons of sheepfarmers, or run-holders. Many of these run-holders had at one time been Scottish shepherds or small farmers and like all their race had succeeded in life. The sons were not studiously inclined, and had little incentive to study, with country life in view. Boys for whom their fathers could make little future provision suffered no real handicap. The best scholars were the sons of professional men, or sons of intelligent working-men.
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The day boys and the boarders were on good terms, although the one group called the other " scabs ; ” thus this opprobrious name could be used indiscriminately for all. There were boarders who went home for weekends, and also day-boys from a distance who dined with the boarders.
The word " scab ” was not a weighty word of reproach, but " swot ” stood for all that was vile in the eyes of the schoolboy. " Swot ” of course, means study, and " a swot ” signifies a plodder, a fellow who has the bad manners to put the grindstone to his nose.
According to the philosophy of boys, a scholar should have natural gifts. At least, he should never appear to study. A swot is an inferior being because he cannot do without sustained and conscious effort. He is subject to the antipathy and scorn of his brethren. He puts them in a bad light, for the school trade union favours a restricted output.
To be bottom of the form and win an athletic championship is something to admire ; to give the appearance of having done no work for a scholarship and then to win it —that is dazzling! The admiring throng is too simple to realise that study for the scholarship must have been done craftily in secret.
Cleverness is distrusted. Strength and fleetness of foot are the admiration of boys. It is strange that probably Scottish boys, and certainly American boys, may be bigoted swots, and yet admired.
To hope to succeed without effort is obviously a
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delusion. How can people reap where they sowed not and gather where they have not strawed ?
The boys had a horror of " showing off.” They must practise repression. " Showing off ” is a form of presumption and cheek. It inclines towards ambition, and is a serious breach of school convention. An impudent or bumptious new boy gets such a handling from his elders that he will never forget the punishment for the rest of his life. Never funk ; never brag ; conceal your feelings. The new boy can be lonely and heartbroken, but he must send a cheery letter home. The Boss himself was a reticent man and his reticence was fully understood by the boys. A boy is more reserved than a girl.
Many things could never be discussed at school. They were of too lofty a nature, and might expose the secret, sacred places of the soul. A boy might be intensely patriotic but he must not express patriotic sentiments. He should understand why Dr. Johnson said that patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel. No boy in the school would have dared to show signs of emotion, or to be in the least degree " stagey.” Such are the conventions, I suppose, of all schools.
There is another deadly sin on the schoolboys’ list, that of trying to be funny. To try to be funny, whether you succeed or not, breaks a commandment. It is much less venial than saying Damn.
I tried a joke in my first term. The Boss asked me, in a kind of general knowledge test, " What solid matter is found in the sea besides common salt ? ”
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In an unguarded moment, I answered " Fish."
He frowned upon me, but my companions in the class were horrified. I was trying to be funny. It was almost as if I had laid sacrilegious hands on the ark of the covenant. I expiated this gross offence only by a long period of sullen, solitary and certainly humourless penance. Unconscious humour, on the other hand, in the form of " howlers,” was greatly admired by both boys and masters. It was all very perplexing to me.
A few of the howlers perpetrated under the Firth administration are worth recording :
What is the Bosphorus ?
It's the stuff, sir, at the end of a match.
Master ; Tell me how mines are ventilated.
Boy : By fans, sir.
Another boy : Please, sir, what do the miners do with their fans when they are working ?
Mammon —A large animal bigger than an elephant.
Another definition —Stuff sent down from heaven to feed the Jews.
When is water said to be hard ? When it’s ice, sir.
Habeas Corpus Act is an act to ensure decent burial of dead bodies in the land.
Explain the allusions in the line " The pipe of Hermes in the glade.” Hermes is the same as Mercury, and the pipe of Hermes is a mercury thermometer. " In the glade ” means in the shade, and is a poet’s way of expressing himself.
The white horse of Tom Brown’s schooldays was calved on the Malvern Hills.
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A hostage is a large bird in South Africa.
There are three kinds of volcano —extinct, instinct and dormitory (The author of this was evidently not trying).
Christianity was introduced 55 B.C.
The American way of hanging is by electricity.
Essay on Punctuality. To be punctual means always to be at a certain place at an appointed time, and comes in very handy at meal times.
Where is Mauritius and what is it noted for ? South of France, sir, noted for gambling.
(Do they still teach boys the couplet; Coffee delicious ; it comes from Mauritius ?)
Small Boy : Please, sir, what is that strap made of ?
Teacher : Leather.
Small Boy : Not the same leather as boots are made of, sir ?
Teacher : Yes.
Small Boy : Please, sir, boot leather is softer than that.
The Boss had no boisterous jollity, nor any great stock of humour, if humour be based on caprice. Rather, he was possessed of a sound wit, which from the derivation of the word, is akin to wisdom. Wit is instinctive, and in a flash reveals truth in an attractive and amusing way such as no conscious effort could produce.
The Boss had a favourite story which he told against himself. It related to Edward the First, King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitane. He was
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also known as Long Shanks. Some of the wits called him Daddy-long-legs in allusion to his being the Father of his Country.
Now, be it known that there was a little boy, Tom, in the class taught by the Boss. He was naughty, and he had an adorable lisp, especially when he was nervous.
The boys were to read aloud, in turn, any passage selected from their history-book. When it came to Tom’s turn, he looked round knowingly at the other boys and began :
" Edward the Firth wath a very good King, and ruled hith country withely and well.”
Then in a crescendo, to make his point, and with a sly look at the Boss,
" Hith people uthed to call him Long Thankth becauth hith legth were too long! ”
The Boss had great joy of a youth who had a vulnerable spot like Achilles. It was his Christian name, which this boy for some unknown reason, was terrified might become known to the other boys. Septimus Morland Jones, for that was his name, was at times unruly, but if he were troublesome, all the Boss had to do was to raise his finger and say,
" Now Sep— ” and then make a long pause as if thinking of the word he might reveal.
The lad’s eyes would make a piteous appeal for mercy ; the situation would be saved and Septimus Morland Jones would be contrite and well-behaved for a long time.
Firth wrote on the blackboard Kingsley’s " Then
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hey! for boot and horse, lad ” and the rest, and told the class to ponder its beauty. A boy got up from a back bench and told the headmaster that he had made a mistake. It should read hay, and not hey !
" I see,” said Firth, greatly amused, " hay for the horse.”
One day the headmaster came into the assemblyroom of the West School after school hours. He saw a boy clinging to the top of one of the high pillars. With great dramatic power, the Boss recited in the words of Bret Harte —
" Do I sleep ? do I dream ?
Do I wonder and doubt ?
Are things what they seem ?
Or —is visions about ? ”
" What on earth are you doing up there, boy ? ”
Quoth the boy —" I dropped my pen, sir ! ”
This amazing reply can only be described in the words of a former master of Clifton, who was a brother of Lord Oxford, better known as Mr. Asquith :
" Such a remark can only be accounted for as one of the type emanating from the most remote cell of an advanced lunatic asylum ! ”
The Boss enjoyed the inconsequent reply of another boy. There was a commotion upstairs in a dormitory, and lawful authority, in the person of the headmaster, wanted to know what all the noise was about. The explanation was —
" Spinks was chasing me, and I ran after him and hit him, sir."
Wellington College. 1874-1031
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I had some mild amusement, of all places, in the Scripture class. This class was taken by a good general scholar but his knowledge of Holy Writ belied the reputation he should have enjoyed as one who often read the lessons in his parish church.
He told us that the Passover was so called because the Children of Israel passed over the Red Sea. He said, also, that there are only three Christian churches, the Anglican, the Presbyterian and the Roman Catholic.
" What about the Methodists ? ” enquired one of them.
" They are not a church ” replied his teacher.
" Well what the hell are they,” said the boy next to me in a whisper.
We were studying the Miracle of Cana of Galilee, a snare and a stumbling-block for Prohibitionists. We were asked to write an account of this miracle. I was trained in the manse and in the kirk. I knew a good deal, but undertook some special reading to do full justice to my account of the miracle which turned cold lifeless water into warm life-giving wine. My essay concluded thus :
" When Christ, at Cana's feast by power divine,
Inspir'd cold water with the warmth of wine,
See ! cried they, while in red'ning tide it gush'd ;
The bashful stream hath seen its God and blush'd! "
The scripture master read this out to the class.
" I never heard such rot in all my life," he said.
" Well,” said I impulsively, " it was written by Rich-
ard Crashaw in the 17th Century, a poet of repute.”
H
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" You’ll do me fifty-lines, young fellow ! ” roared my biblical instructor.
The Boss was for some years Captain of the Cadet Corps of Wellington College. He gave it esprit de corps. I became a cadet in my second or third year and rose to be a sergeant and Right Marker. It was a prouder distinction for me than that of M.D.
We wore tight blue serge uniforms as rough inside as sandpaper, and on our heads a little round cap like the top of a collar box. Our tall captain was as conspicuous as the whole bulk of the rank and file. He led us once as guard of honour to His Excellency at the opening of Parliament. The day was wet and a scurrilous rag referred to us as " Firth’s web-footed galoots.”
We were not so very web-footed when we drilled, according to our inspecting officers. We did the manual exercises, sword and bayonet exercises, physical drill and marching. Parade, shun! R —right dress! Form fours ! R —right! Quick Mar —rch !
We had field days, and then sometimes the bugle would ring out the call " Prepare to receive cavalry! ” We rushed towards the rallying point of the nearest officer. We formed two ranks, the front rank kneeling, the rear rank standing, flanks dressed back, bayonets fixed and at the ready.
Ah, the naughty soldiers ! But are we not faced with bluff and intrigue when we throw away our means of defence ?
We practised shooting at the butts. The rifle range
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had once been a swamp filled up by prison labour. I remember a new recruit who hardly seemed to know one end of his carbine from the other. His weapon was put into proper position at his shoulder by the sergeantmajor.
" I wonder if he’ll hit the bulls-eye,” muttered one of the cadets.
" ’lt the bull’s heye! ” exclaimed the sergeant. "W’y, ’e couldn’t ’it the bull’s stern if ’e were ’angin’ hon by its tail! ”
The recruit fired. He seemed to have knocked the target completely over. What a shot! It turned out, later, that the target had only fallen spontaneously off a defective fastening.
In the year 1909, Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener inspected nearly four thousand cadets at the Hutt Racecourse. On parade were four companies of Wellington College Cadets. Rain fell in torrents. To save the boys a drenching, Kitchener ordered the March Past to be taken at the double. The cadets, therefore, ran splashing through mud and pools of water. Kitchener relaxed his stern visage at the sight of young soldiers practising how to run away.
The conversation of boys at school is hardly worth remembering. It is mainly about trivial school incidents and the peculiarities of masters. If a boy has depth, he does not reveal it. To offer a well-considered opinion is presumption, and that is a deadly sin. Passing events in the corporate life of the school, not in the life of the
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individual, are the source of what Shakespeare called " The motion of a schoolboy’s tongue.”
Longfellow thought that a boy’s will is the wind’s will. This is not strictly true. The great majority of boys at school have an end in view, although they do not speak of it. A few think they would like to give up for ever their intellectual interests, get rid of the smell of ink and bring their boyhood to an end. It is a tragedy when a lad of parts leaves too soon.
New Zealand is the office-boy’s paradise, and life in the Civil Service and in commerce can begin early. True, those who succeed best continue their studies after they leave school.
The prefects play at being rulers, but not all succeed. The real test comes after they leave school. They have a great opportunity. Some rise to it. The ablest men have often matured late in their boyhood.
Mr. Gifford was anxious to have the cleverest boys in the Sixth Form made prefects. Few of them were appointed. They did not necessarily possess the gift of leadership of boys. They may not have had the physique to impress their authority on junior boys ; perhaps not strong enough for a scrum. Their parents might have been delicate.
We have a record of the views of the Boss on prefects. He said,
" The position of a prefect gives the holder an opportunity of developing himself, of gaining experience, of learning lessons that he could not get nearly as well in any other way. The best form of power and
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mastery comes from service and self-sacrifice. That is a lesson that was given to the world nearly two thousand years ago. To hold a position in which he has its force brought home to him in concrete form cannot but be, if he does his duty, of the greatest value in a boy's training."
Strange and peculiar boys stand out most sharply in my memory of school life at Wellington College. One boy suggested to me a human duck, with his long nose, and no chin. Another was spectacled and his eyes close together and he looked like a human owl.
Another big boy from the country, really a young man, would now be called a retardate. He occasionally stealthily chewed in class a quid of tobacco. One of his classmates with some pretension to the classics, asked.
Quid est hoc ? What is this ?
He answered his own question by Hoc est quid. This is a quid.
A mighty footballer answered every question in the chemistry class with the same formula, that of sulphuric acid, and as the Americans say " got away with it." Perhaps rightly so, because he had more brawn than brains. His education had settled at the wrong end, in his feet.
Mr. James Bee, M.A., has kindly provided me with his impressions of life at Wellington College : he writes :
" The Board, which was not in a strong financial position, made an experiment in offering the headmastership to Mr. Firth who had been a junior master under
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Mr. Mackay. The experiment proved an undoubted success from the very beginning. I was with him for fifteen years until I left in December, 1906, to take up a headmastership in Melbourne. I consider his wonderful success as a headmaster due to the fact that he had a very sympathetic understanding of boys and was a firm disciplinarian.
" For minor offences he asked for only five lines of imposition, but they had to be of the very best so that the culprit spent more time over his five lines than he would over much more of careless writing. He had a favourite mis-quotation when pointing out uncrossed t’s or undotted i’s to a boy
Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner,
Eating his Christmas pie.
With his finger and thumb
He pulled out a plum,
Saying, Always dot your ' i.’
" He had a wonderful memory for faces. After seeing boys for the first time at enrolment, he could name any new boy the next time he came into contact with him.
" In English he did much to imbue the boys with a love of good literature, and he used his dramatic ability in recitation. I still remember how he thrilled the whole School at assembly by his recitation of The Revenge.
'' He gradually collected a good staff and he was unsparing in his support of his colleagues so that even a weak disciplinarian was able to continue his work with the Head behind him. To quote an example :
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" Military drill was compulsory and held twice a week in the boys’ own time in the Dinner Hour. I was captain of the senior company of cadets and had trouble with two of the boys (sons of leading citizens of the Colony) who were inclined to play the fool. After repeated warnings, I asked the Boss what I should do with them, as to dismiss them would only play into their hands. He advised me to tell them to report to the headmaster, which I did.
" His punishment which fitted the crime, was, that at every drill period they should do written work to his satisfaction. In a few weeks, the culprits came to me asking that they might be re-admitted to the cadets, but I refused. All the time I was at Wellington College I had no more trouble in that direction.
" We had a masters’ meeting every morning for ten minutes before school and these proved an inspiration to us. He was ready to listen to suggestions by the members of the staff. He was as scrupulously fair to us as to the boys.
" He had been in his younger days an outstanding athlete and used his powers to the benefit of the school, taking a very great interest in all the out-door activities of the boys, especially cricket, football, swimming, military drill and athletic sports. In bowling he had a great command of length, and had a bigger off-spin than any bowler I have seen. As a batsman his enormous reach made it difficult for a bowler to get his wicket. He was a past master in running between wickets and never called, but signalled his partner at the other end. His
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knowledge of football was profound, and it was not long before the College Fifteen became prominent in the Inter-College Tournament. He was a highly efficient referee and often officiated in big matches. In the early ’nineties he was a familiar figure on Wellington streets on his bicycle which he always rode with a perfectly upright carriage.
" Although during the Great War his services to the Empire were appreciated, I remember how he was criticized in some quarters during the Boer War because he did not support the hysterical jubilation at any reported success of the British troops. To one of the parents, who considered as pro-Boer his action in not granting the boys a half-holiday to celebrate the Relief of Mafeking, he replied that he would readily signalise the next British success by a half-holiday provided that the parents would agree to an extra morning school on a Saturday to mark the next British reverse.
" Soon after he came in 1892, he was instrumental in forming the Old Boys’ Association, and the very great success of that body is largely due to his support. His dominant personality which made him a hero to the boys at school continued to attract all boys after they had left.
" In conclusion, I think that in addition to great intellectual, moral and physical qualities, he, as a successful headmaster, possessed a good measure of tact and strong commonsense, coupled with good business qualities. His influence was felt throughout the school. He was always ready to devote his energies in whatever direction they
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were most needed for the successful management of Wellington College.”
The enforcement of discipline by the Boss on the refractory cadets reminds me of another incident. The son of one of the most prominent and powerful politicians in New Zealand ran away from the boarding establishment. The Boss said he would not take him back. The political potentate pleaded hard to have his son restored. The Boss relented to the extent of agreeing to take back the unruly boy on the condition that he should expiate his offence by taking a terrific flogging.
" Flog him, but take him back," said the father.
The boy had the flogging, became an exemplary man and later gave his life for his country.
I recall two or three further personal incidents. For the Medical Preliminary Examination we had to study a long book of Cicero, and become familiar with it. I used a crib as a labour-saving device. The Boss gave up his Saturday mornings to prepare us in a course that was entirely outside the school curriculum. He would take no thanks.
The other incident was not so pleasant. It happened in my first term. We were in the gymnasium. There was a long ladder set high on a post at each end of the ladder. The exercise was to swing backward and forward along the ladder, hand over hand, sailor-like, gripping every alternate rung. I was not strong enough in the wrists and my efforts did not please the Boss. He made me persevere until finally I dropped limply to the sanded floor. I suppose I looked at him reproachfully.
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" Now he’s angry,” he said, " just look at him ! ”
Then I think the Boss realised that I was exhausted. He said no more, but for some time afterwards went out of his way to show me his favour.
I was fortunate enough in my first year to be top of the class in three subjects. In my second year I was rather inclined to rest on my fading laurels. Rapidly was I becoming an anti-swot of the orthodox type.
There was nothing that the Boss did not know. One morning my name was called out in the defaulters’ list, and I was ordered to see him in his study. I was not the first to arrive, and waiting my turn for admission, I remember that in my trepidation I paced like a piper up and down outside the study door.
I was at length called in.
" You are not working hard,” said the Boss, and he gave me a searching look.
" No, sir," I replied, and awaited the sentence.
" Do you want to disappoint your father, and not play fair by him ? You may go.”
He not only understood boys but the individual boy and, as far as I was concerned, he had struck just the right key.
He was lenient towards petty infringements of school rules and the faults of inexperience and immaturity. He punished with severity the sins of falsehood and dishonour. For these corporal punishment is right and proper.
In one of his reports the Boss gave his views on corporal punishment: " Frequently a parent said, 'My
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boy is clever enough. He could learn if he only liked to try. Whip it into him ! ’ Now, I object to the ' whip it into him ’ theory. One good reason is that it cannot be done. It is not by this method that a boy can be got to do his best, but by causing him to look at his school life from the right point of view. This result depends very largely upon the parents’ attitude towards the school and its masters.”
Arnold of Rugby said that corporal punishment was retained on principle as fitly answering to, and marking, the naturally inferior state of boyhood, and therefore as conveying no peculiar degradation to persons in such a state. The feeling of degradation originates in the proud notion of personal independence which is neither reasonable nor Christian, but essentially barbarian.
When boys accept the ignominy of six stripes as the alternative to twenty minutes spent in writing lines, it certainly does reveal, in their case, an inferior state. But, in the general view, Arnold’s opinion is wrong. Equally astray is his statement that personal independence is barbarian.
In my opinion, which is worth little, and, I believe also in Firth’s opinion, which is worth much, except for gross offences corporal punishment is degrading. It is debasing for the boy as well as for the master. It is a pity that any scholarly gentleman should in a school have to do the work of a warder in a jail, flogging a felon. Better for the teacher to use the rod to smite the rock so that the waters of learning may gush forth.
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If he cannot maintain discipline without flogging, he should change his vocation.
Thring of Uppingham, on this question, is a better guide than Arnold. Thring believed that deliberate and premeditated evil in a school should be crushed, but even so, corporal punishment could not cancel a moral fault.
I believe that Firth in his earlier years was too much inclined, in the custom of the time, to corporal punishment. As he grew older, however, and in the light of experience, I am certain he never used corporal punishment until every other remedy had failed ; and even then, not with much hope.
Assistant masters can observe traits of character in a headmaster which do not appear in the same clear light to boys. Mr. Bee, Mr. Ward, Mr. Renner, Mr. Heine and the others all speak with gratitude of the help they received from the Boss.
He ruled his staff firmly and inspired reverence and affection. To none was he kinder than to the new-comer. Firth would come into the class-room, listen to the lesson and make notes on his pad of all that he had observed.
Next day, perhaps the master who had given this lesson would be sent for, and have mistakes gently pointed out to him. This might go on for week after week until finally the Boss would meet the master, and perhaps say : " Well Mr. Blank, I was very pleased with that lesson to-day, and I can say definitely that you are making good.” The tyro would glow with pleasure.
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In the old days the morning staff meeting was held in a little room off Room D. From there the Boss and his staff moved down the spiral staircase to the East Big School. The attitude and gait of the headmaster were determined by what had happened at the staff meeting.
Many a time did Jimmy Bee whisper to Fritz Renner his well-worn quotation :
" The Chief in silence strode before,” or else, " Severe he was and stern to view.”
CHAPTER VI.
Later Years.
In 1920, Firth resigned. He had taught continuously for forty-five years. Thirty-four of these years had been spent at Wellington College, five as assistant and twenty-nine as headmaster.
The Board of Governors asked him to reconsider his resignation. He replied that he had very carefully considered the matter before sending his resignation to the Board. He regretted that he could not see his way to alter his decision.
The Board passed the following resolution :
: ' The Beard accepts with the greatest regret the resignation of Mr. Firth of his position as headmaster of Wellington College, a position he has held for nearly thirty years. The Board now places on record its appreciation of his great services to the school and to the community during the long period of his headmastership in which he has raised the school to a position second to none in the Dominion, and maintained it thus while holding up to thousands of boys who have been under his care at the school the highest ideals of hard work, hard and
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clean play, straightforwardness and uprightness of character and loyalty to school and country. In addition to his great success on the scholastic side, the Board wishes especially to recognise his efforts and success in providing the very fine playinggrounds and surroundings with which the school is now provided."
The causes of his leaving can be analysed. In his opinion the school had become too big for him to give the individual study and attention to each boy which he considered should be demanded of him. There were close upon seven hundred boys on the roll. He had always set for himself a standard that was well-nigh impossible of attainment. The free-place system and increasing bureaucratic control did not make his position any easier. He had drawn to the full on all his thought and energy for the benefit of the school. He was beginning to feel the strain. The wonder was that he could have held out for so long.
A tremor had come upon his hand and arm, and he knew he had no longer his former tireless vigour of brain and body. He felt the slow beginning of a palsy. He asked his doctor very searching questions. Firth knew there was no hope of improvement, but he kept this information private.
The school, not himself, was his first consideration. He had a horror that he might cumber the ground. That was his own phrase. He must be able to give the last ounce of his powers to his beloved College right up to his final day as headmaster. So he would not recon-
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sider his decision. The school required the best that any man in his full powers could give to it. It was sad but it was heroic ; the negation of self.
On the 30th November of that year, 1920, Mr. and Mrs. Firth were farewelled in the Wellington Town Hall. Only his intimate friends knew what depth of sadness there was for him in that farewell. He was an emotional man. He must try not to show his feelings. The Mayor, O. T. J. Alpers, Sir Francis Bell and other prominent citizens united with past and present scholars to show the dear old Boss and Mrs. Firth how much they were respected and loved.
In December he attended the Prize-giving ceremony at the College. He was very quiet and restrained. His mind seemed pre-occupied ; it was the storehouse of a harvest of memories.
In the following year, in July, Colonel Freyberg, V.C. came to Wellington and visited the College. He received a rousing reception from the boys. So also did Firth. This was when he told the story of the halfholiday for Freyberg’s V.C.
Ten days later Firth attended a reception given by the Old Boys to the military hero. The pride of the ageing and enfeebled man in the dauntless and almost reckless bravery of his former pupil was shared by all who belonged, past or present, to Wellington College.
In 1922, in the month of June, there was a great attendance of Old Boys at a social gathering and supper. They had met to do honour to J. P. Firth who had been given the decoration of C.M.G. by the King. The
Lord Jellicoe and Mr. Firth, Old Boys' Day. 30th November, 1923.
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general opinion was that no man in New Zealand was worthier of recognition. No headmaster could more fittingly represent the great profession of teaching.
At this meeting, as President of the Old Boys' Association, I was in the chair. The Boss, sitting on my right, did not talk much, but eagerly scanned the faces of his former pupils. He had for each of them a smile of recognition. I said that the merit of an honour lay not so much in the honour itself, but in the breadth of view and judgment displayed in its bestowal, and, above all, in the merit of the recipient. Judging by these standards, the distinction conferred on Mr. Firth was a high one. Even so, it was not equal to the measure of his worth. Few might climb to the top of the hill of knowledge, but the Boss had shown us the path of duty which all might tread. He had never failed to impress on every boy the nobility of work well done. He had supplied an antidote to the poisonous belief that work is an evil, instead of being a blessing and the begetter of hapoiness.
Firth replied that the goodwill expressed by those present, and the messages of goodwill from many absent and far away, transcended in value any decoration that could be given to him.
Firth, when in his vigour, never missed an important meeting of the Old Boys’ Association. He was virtually its founder, and chairman for six years. He gave great assistance to the Association. In turn, the Association enjoyed the privilege of helping to carry on the Firth
I
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philosophy, and later the Firth tradition, and raising money for various activities in connection with the school.
In 1923, Lord Jellicoe, Governor-General of New Zealand performed the ceremony of laying the Foundation Stone of a new Wellington College. The dormitory block, and the kitchen block were first to be built at a cost of nearly £50,000. Jellicoe spoke well, as he always did. He had a pleasant, but very powerful speaking voice. His laying of a foundation stone was never a formality. He took both time and care, and made a permanent job.
Firth was present at this ceremony. He was asked to speak. The mere possession of a fine building, he said, never made a great school. He rejoiced to see that there was an indication of considerable improvement in the equipment and material of Wellington College. With it, he felt sure there would come an expansion of soul, a respect for the best traditions of the past, an earnest endeavour to carry out the duties of the present, and an aspiration towards even higher ideals for the future.
Three years had passed since Firth’s retirement, and the effects of his illness were now more evident. The expression of his face was not alert. His beard had whitened. He walked stiffly. His mental processes although accurate were slow. His speech was more deliberate. He was sensitive about the constant shaking of his arm. If he tried to check these movements they became reinforced. Sometimes his thumb and forefinger would involuntarily work as if he were rolling a cigarette
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or crumbling bread. His voice became rather monotonous, and he was slow to begin conversation, but, once commenced, the words followed one another quickly. Similarly, this disorder caused the sufferer to experience difficulty in rising from a sitting posture, but once started, the steps were quick as if the body were pursuing its centre of gravity.
He sat as judge at the annual boxing competitions at the College. The final bouts were for heavy-weights. One of the boxers was very tall and very strong. His opponent was game but unskilled, and of moderate strength.
The weaker youth was soon hopelessly out-classed. He was dazed by heavy blows. He swooned, spreadeagled and inert against the ropes. I was the medical officer. I looked at the Boss expecting him to stop the unequal struggle and declare the powerful boxer the winner. The face of the Boss was impassive. His eyes had a far-away look. It was now the business of the victor to finish off the victim ; to knock him out.
A terrific blow landed on the beaten lad’s jaw. Another was coming.
" Stop ! ” I cried.
The police sergeant said " Doctor, if you hadn’t cried ' stop ’ that very instant, I would have done so.” The Boss seemed to return to a realisation of his surroundings. He gave me an angry look, and then his face became like a mask. It was the outward and visible sign of his decline.
The next year, he undoubtedly improved. Before I
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left for a trip to America, he came to an Old Boys’ farewell meeting which they gave for me, their president. He was bright and cheerful. After I returned from this tour he asked me many questions about the Americans and their attitude towards us. Were the Americans friendly ? Could we get on well with them ? All this because he thought that an Anglo-American understanding was essential for the peace of the world ; perhaps essential for the preservation of civilisation itself.
In the meantime the College attained its Jubilee. Fifty years had passed over it ; a long time in the history of a young country. A mass meeting was held in the Town Hall. There was a great procession of past and present students. There was an inspiring church parade. The dear old Boss bore well the fatigue of these proceedings. At the Town Hall there was public praise, in the newspapers there was praise, of the men who have made the school's tradition. Foremost among these was the revered old Headmaster, J. P. Firth, C.M.G.
On rising to speak, he received a tremendous ovation. The audience rose and cheered, and cheered again and yet again. He was quite overwhelmed. Mrs. Firth, as ever, was at his side and gave him confidence. He braced himself as one who faces a crisis.
" Such a reception,” he said, " did not make it any easier for him to speak. Wellington College had a great record.” He paused. No doubt the memory of all his dead foster-sons who had given their lives on Gallipoli, or in France, surged into his mind. He went
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on ; —" A great record in the achievements of the Old Boys, a source of help and strength, as well as of pride and gratitude. So shall her fame spread wide, and her sons prove worthy of a noble mother.”
Next month, he was able to open Firth House, the new home for the boarders. He unlocked the door with a golden key. The inevitable speech he was called upon to make was short. He never made long speeches. He held up the boys’ leaders as examples. The greatest among them would be the one who did the greatest service for all.
He was at dinner the same evening with his beloved Old Boys’ Association. Its stalwarts were to him like the Old Guard to Napoleon. He felt he could always depend on them in any emergency. He said they did not want to hear a speech from him ; most of them had heard too many. He feelingly acknowledged their warm welcome. He admitted that he loved it. He loved the old school and they all thought it was the best school of all for the very good reason that it was.
At the end of 1924 Lord Jellicoe left New Zealand. He had a great liking for Wellington College. He often played cricket on the College grounds. He came to the school ceremonies. Government House was next door to the College. The entrance gates were together. Jellicoe said that the school was very near to his heart and home.
This great seaman, this great Pro-Consul, this very capable and very lovable man, took ship for England
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at the King’s Wharf. At the ship’s side he was received by a guard of honour of Wellington College Cadets under Captain Renner. Jellicoe complimented the cadets on their military bearing and precision. They presented arms to the little man with the big brain who had commanded the greatest fleet the world had ever known ; who had faced one of the greatest crises in history.
Another two years pass. Then comes a great day. It is the day of the laying of the Foundation Stone of the Memorial Hall. The old Boss is weaker, but he attends the ceremony. His venerable appearance is like a benediction.
In place of Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Jellicoe, is another Governor-General, General Sir Charles Fergusson, he of the Fifth Division of the Old Contemptibles. Fergusson and Smith-Dorrien had fought at Le Cateau one of the most fiercely contested battles in our history. On the morning of 26th August, 1914, they had saved the left wing of the British Army.
Sir Charles Fergusson said it was the character these boys and men gained at the College which gave them that wonderful spirit of patriotism which so distinguished them in that conflict. " I suggest,” he said, " to you old boys and to you young boys that you should look on this stone as an altar on which to place your vows of service to your country, to be more worthy of it, and more worthy of those from this school who gave their lives for it.”
He quoted one of the masters of a great English
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public school : " We do not forget you while in this dark December we sit in schoolrooms that you knew so well, and hear the sounds you so well remembered.” I think it was this poignant passage that went to the heart of the old Boss, so that he completely broke down in his speech. I was alarmed for him, and took him home in my car. I said nothing to him. It was surely a time for silence.
March 2, 1928, was another red-letter day in the annals of the College. On that day, His Excellency, Sir Charles Fergusson, opened the Memorial Hall, and unveiled the Memorial Window. Wellington College in England sent a message expressing the desire to join in a common sorrow and pride. Many of the chief citizens were present, and the great audience was an inspiring sight.
The Hall is stately and dignified. It is designed on the lines of a temple of Athens. The building is a fitting setting for its special jewel, the exquisite stainedglass Memorial Window.
At the top of the window is the New Zealand coat of arms. In the centre, is the figure of a young knight in armour. He has the banner of Victory on its staff upraised in his hand. His sword is sheathed and his shield grounded, to symbolise Peace. The knight is of noble mien, his head thrown back and his eyes uplifted, in them the vision of something great and very high. In the background rises the dawn of a new day, the dark clouds of war and suffering dispelled by golden beams.
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The marble memorials on the walls commemorate the names of all Old Boys of the school who answered their country’s call in the Great War. These marble slabs extend along the whole length of both sides of the Hall. In two shrines, one on each side of the Memorial Window, are bronze plaques of perfect craftsmanship displaying the names of the dead. High over all hang the British ensigns and the ensign of New Zealand.
Above the entablature of this Memorial Hall is the inscription Non omnis moriar, in reference both to fame and to immortality.
Exegi monumentum cere perennius —A monument I’ve raised more durable than bronze, and loftier than the regal pyramids which neither biting rain can overthrow, nor winter storm nor lapse of countless years and flight of time. I shall not wholly die. My better part shall live. I shall increase in later fame with glory ever fresh.
Noble and moving tributes were paid at the official opening, by Sir Francis Bell, by the President of the Old Boys’ Association, and by Mr. Firth’s successors, Mr. Cresswell and Mr. Armour.
In reference to the marble memorial stones on the walls, the Governor-General quoted the words of Joshua : " That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ' What mean these stones ? ’ —it can be said : They are a memorial of the past, and a hopeful incentive for the future, as a sign to generations to
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come to make their country a praise in the earth in the working out of a high destiny.”
Mrs. Firth read a brief message from her husband :
" He was proud and honoured to be present. He was not so strong as he once was, but was stronger than ever in his devotion to the Old Boys of the College. He had fond memories of those who gave their lives to the great cause. His thoughts were with those loved ones that day :
: ' They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.”
; ' These laid the world away ; poured out the red Sweet wine of youth ; gave up the years to be Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene, That men call age ; and those who would have been
Their sons, they gave, their immortality."
The dear old Boss, never before so venerable, sat stiffly, leaning slightly forward, intent on every word. The Bishop of Wellington offered a dedicatory prayer and the Rev. Dr. Kennedy Elliott read a portion of the Scriptures. The proceedings closed with the hymn " O God Our Help in Ages Past,” the " Last Post,”
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" Reveille ” and the " National Anthem ” ; a surge of proud and hallowed memories ; and gratitude to Divine Providence that the grand old man of Wellington College had lived to see that day.
In 1929 Walter Bethune died. He had been a close personal friend of the Boss, an old Boy of the school, and its friend and benefactor. His nature was gentle and his benevolence unbounded. He carried other people’s burdens and wore himself out too soon. His death came as a great shock to his old friend, who was too stricken to attend the funeral of his dearly loved Walter.
When Firth left the College he went to live on one of the western hills of Wellington, at Wadestown. Mrs. Firth soon made the place a charming home.
The approach from the main road is by a winding path through native shrubs. At the gate there is a delightful vista of the garden and the gabled house. The garden is not large. The ground is a natural slope, levelled where necessary. The arrangement is perfect, a combination of pergola and climbing rose, rockeries and crazy pavement, flower beds and sunken tubs for water lilies ; near the front door three tubs for hydrangeas, rustic seats, and brightly striped screens for porch and balcony.
The living-room has a large plate-glass window which frames a picture which only nature can paint. Through this window is seen the fringe of the city down below on the flat land at the sea front. Beyond is the great harbour like a lake embosomed in the everlasting
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hills. " There go the ships.” In the middle of the wide expanse of water lies an island of emerald green. Sometimes the sky is cloudless blue. More often there is cloud, and shadows sweeping across the water. Now and then a storm rises in the south or in the north west, and whips the waves white with anger.
In the far distance are great mountains coloured in the rose or purple haze of morning or of evening ; a new light upon them at any time of day ; in winter, splendid with ice and snow.
When Mrs. Firth went into town, the Boss was never lonely watching the changing view. Old Boys dropped in to see him. His face lit up when one of these old comrades came into his room. He had the society, too, of restful pictures on his walls and the warm fellowship of books. When reading caused fatigue, so unlike the old days, he had the wireless to amuse him. He could turn off the switch when the contrivance began to croon or jazz.
He did not lose interest in the changing world until near the end. He knew full well that changes are not always progress. He saw, as all old men see, a loosening of the old ties and a changing of landmarks. The individual counted for less than in the pioneering days. A steady drift took the ordering of his life away from a man ; the Government would do it for him en masse.
People hoped for social reform through the remedy of new economic or financial " gadgets." The so-called maladjustments of life could be put right by the clever
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psychologists. Only economics and psychology, it seemed, could save the brave new world. A bleak prospect.
Why, thought Firth, do people now think so little for themselves ? Why are they so easily led away ? What is to be the end of all this reliance on politicians ? Is one man's judgment and ability in this country as good as another's ? Is Jack invariably as good as his master ? Why all this decay of manners as a sign of independence ?
After Firth left the College his energies were employed in public service. His first thoughts were for the returned soldiers to succour them and do them honour ; never to forget those who had made the supreme sacrifice. He found congenial work as Chairman of the Citizens' War Memorial Committee.
He was determined that this Memorial should be symbolic. He was strongly opposed to anything utilitarian. In his opinion a public utility could never be a true memorial. Not all shared this opinion, and a certain degree of conflict rather hindered collection of money by public subscription. Firth kept firmly to his resolution. Another difference arose on the question of a suitable site.
It was hard work but finally all difficulties were overcome. The result is an equestrian statue on a high and massive pedestal in a commanding situation outside the gates of Parliament. Under the horse’s hoofs the weapons of war are broken and perished. It is a symbol
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of triumphant youth. It is also a token of peace. The shrine in the base of the obelisk consecrates the memorial.
J. P. Firth was one of the Vice-Presidents of the National Defence League of New Zealand. General Sir Andrew Russell was president. The aims and objects of this League are easily understood. The need for defence was stressed. Compulsory service by ballot was advocated. The voluntary system was held to be unfair and ineffective. What the young New Zealanders needed was a little discipline. Community clubs should be fostered for the comfort, recreation and comradeship of the territorials.
There was opposition in many quarters. It was the time of the great Post-War Weariness. Pacifists became militant. The Defence League was held by many critics to be nothing more or less than an insidious attempt at militarism. Half-day and evening parades would interfere with football games and practices. Territorials might be used to quell strikes. Anyhow, there could be no more war. Did not someone say that the Great War was a war to end war ?
A few of us addressed public meetings with good success. Firth would not speak because he disliked being in the public eye. He was, however, a great moral support.
The National Defence League went too far in its deliberations. It favoured a White New Zealand without, perhaps, realising all that such a policy might involve.
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Firth advocated vehemently the necessity not only for conscription of man-power but conscription also of wealth, in time of war. At least, he was consistent. He had a loathing of war profiteers. No one, if he could prevent it, would become a penny richer by the sufferings and sacrifices of their fellow-citizens, the soldiers. When the new rich received titles and honour, his soul sickened.
He also undertook work for the Navy League, with zeal and ability. Mrs. Firth acted with him on the Navy League Executive. She worked hard for the Citizens’ Day-Nursery. Her most important public service was her good work as treasurer of the Wellington Women’s Committee of the Red Cross Society, which controlled during the War, and after, a great amount of money.
Firth’s physical activities suffered a steady decline from the time he left the College. He had hoped otherwise. He had cherished the hope that he would retain a large measure of vigour for public service after his work for the school was done. He had burnt out a large portion of his strength. He had over-estimated what even an iron constitution, and an inflexible will, could endure.
The tragedy of his life was that people after his retirement did not know the real Firth of a former day. He became more reserved in manner, and shy. Strangers might have thought him distant, or perhaps unsociable. He could not carry on a conversation with vivacity. He
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joined a bowling club, but in that social atmosphere made no close companions. All this was the result of increasing years and infirmity.
At first glance, however, it lent colour to the views of Charles Lamb. " Why,” said Lamb, " are we never quite at our ease in the presence of a schoolmaster ? Because we are conscious that he is not quite at his ease in ours. He is awkward and out of place in the society of his equals. He comes to be a Gulliver among his little people and he cannot fit the stature of his understanding to yours.”
The poor old Boss had to retire to the quietness and seclusion of his own home. He was quite happy there, in comfort, and with the support and understanding of the companion of his life. She thought of all his needs, and supplied them without drawing attention to herself.
From time to time former pupils called to see their old master. He knew them each one, and all about them. His face brightened when he saw them enter. They were happy together as a father and son would be at a reunion after a long parting ; but when the Old Boys left the house on the hill a great sadness came upon them. They had seen the ravages of time.
No man ever realised more than Firth that he was only a pilgrim and a sojourner in this life. That was why he tried to use every fleeting moment. Favourite lines often came to his mind :
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Time flies, you say ? Ah, no !
Alas, time stays —we go !
Or else, were this not so,
What need to chain the hours ?
For youth were always ours.
Time flies, you say ? Ah, no !
Ours is the eyes' deceit
Of men whose flying feet
Speed through some landscape low :
They pass and think they see
The earth's fixed surface flee
Alas, time stays —we go !
Once, in the days of old,
Your hair was shining gold,
And mine had shamed the crow ;
Now, in the selfsame stage.
We've reached the silver age.
Time flies, you say ? Ah, no !
Once when my voice was strong,
I filled the woods with song.
. . . My bird —that song —is dead :
Where are your roses fled ?
Time flies, you say ? Ah, no !
Alas, time stays —we go !
CHAPTER VII.
Outlook on Education.
In founding the new colony, the pioneer settlers of New Zealand simply transplanted the civilisation to which they had been accustomed. The education system began and continued along lines fixed by tradition. In course of time the fabric showed weakness as the result of patchwork and embroidery applied by officials following upon their tours of investigation abroad.
The Government also now and then took a hand at trying to make education a better national investment. As Government expenditure increased, so also did State control of administration. The State does not readily concede freedom to its servants. It permits teachers, however, to undertake a good deal of office work in addition to teaching.
The Education Act of 1914 put the administration of Wellington College under the control of the Minister of Education and his Department. The powers of the Board of Governors were curtailed. These changes were in accord with the will of the majority of the people. They did not share the view expressed, in his essay on Liberty, by John Stuart Mill, " a general
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State education is a new contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another. It establishes a despotism over the mind.”
To show further that a headmaster of a school is not a free agent it is only necessary to state that a secondary school must teach just what the University asks for. Only a small proportion of secondary school pupils proceed to the University.
It cannot be denied that if the State so desires, it has the power to penalise and repress initiative, ability and industry as being no more necessary for the More Abundant Life. All the more need for an enlightened and cultured democracy.
Democracy, so far, has never survived for more than two hundred years. It may become so simple, alert and Spartan that its expectation of life may greatly increase. Even Nazi-ism, Fascism and Bolshevism inculcate in the minds of their youth the spirit of unselfish devotion and sacrifice.
To a layman it appears that education " has been much laboured but little advanced ” —to use a Baconian phrase. Teachers who are "educationalists” can see what shapes they look for in the clouds that obscure their ascent. Firth, as we have seen, was not certain of the safety of short-cuts to dizzy heights. The old worn tracks had plenty of hazards for the guide. He had seen too many new routes to knowledge come and go. Even the road to knowledge, he knew, may not be the road to achievement or the road to power. Knowledge is not wisdom and understanding.
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It has been the custom in England to appoint clergymen as headmasters of great schools. This practice has advantages, but it has even greater disadvantages. Boys may think it is only a matter of form that a clergyman should teach them religious truths. They are inclined to follow the practice of a layman. There was nothing sanctimonious in the character of Firth ; no religiosity. His life and his teaching were permeated by Christian principles and beliefs. His was a lay ministry with an influence to eternity.
Education is itself religious. Martineau wrote : " the very gate of entrance to religion, the moment of its new birth, is your discovery that the gleaming ideal is the everlasting real.”
Firth set great value on the solemn religious exercises at the beginning of each day’s work at school. His sincerity was pervasive. He believed that these devotions impressed on the boys a sense of responsibility, and its spiritual significance.
He put texts into new words to bring them home to the boys. When you work, work hard ; when you play, play hard ; what was this but a shortened and revised version of " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”
A favourite text of Firth’s was : " Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of
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good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” This briefly comprehended his whole moral teaching.
Firth in his endeavours to build up the characters of his boys laid stress on general principles. He left details to take care of themselves. I do not suppose that he anticipated a great testing-time for the fruits of education in New Zealand. I refer to the establishment of the forty-hour week of work. How will that abundance of spare time be employed ? It is important to implant in the mind of youth the knowledge of how to use money; it is more important to impart knowledge of how to use time. To teach these things was Firth’s constant endeavour.
More money, less work; more comfort, less individual responsibility. These concessions may be harmful, indeed ruinous to the character of citizens unless it has been strengthened to resist softening and degenerating influences. Men may gain their material ends, money or pleasures, and withal have a leanness in their souls. In the jargon of the new psychology there may be a " lack of emotionally-satisfying yields from the output of energy.”
Whatever this sounding phrase may mean, there is no fear of misunderstanding Firth’s philosophy. He said that there is no success or enduring satisfaction without hard work and sacrifice and duty nobly done. There must be individual effort, no leaning on the teacher, or on one’s neighbour or on the Government.
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Another great headmaster, Almond of Loretto, to toughen the fibre of the citizens of the future, taught his boys to endure hardness. These lads had cold baths right through the Edinburgh winters, and wore scanty clothing even in the icy blast of the east wind. Games were to give the boys strength and hardiness. According to the gospel of Almond the laws of physical well-being are the laws of God. In his opinion, W. G. Grace was a greater man than Tennyson.
Firth, like Almond, foresaw the danger of physical and moral softening. To combat this, he took a wider view than Almond. Firth looked on games as valuable not so much for physical training as for mental and moral training. To endure hardness did not mean in Firth's mind mere physical power and resistance.
Firth realised that he belonged to a high calling. He knew that he had, in his lay ministry, an exceptional opportunity, because he was privileged to help in moulding, as a pioneer, the future manhood of a new country.
Arnold, of Rugby, who is taken by many to have been the personification of the greatest in headmastership, longed for the opportunity that Firth enjoyed.
In Stanley’s Life of Arnold, there are published selections from the list of innumerable lengthy letters that Arnold wrote upon any provocation. In a letter to Sir Thomas Pasley, Arnold writes :
" I have often thought of New Zealand, and if they would make you Governor and me Bishop, I would go out, I think to-morrow —not to return
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after so many years, but to live and die there, if there was any prospect of rearing any hopeful form of society. I have actually got two hundred acres in New Zealand, and I confess that my thoughts often turn thitherward, but that vile population of runaway convicts and others, who infest the country, deter me more than anything else, as the days of Roman Proconsuls are over, who knew so well how to clear a country of such nuisances. Now, I suppose they will, as they find it convenient, come in and settle down quietly among the colonists, as Morgan did at Kingston, and the ruffian and outlaw of yesterday becomes to-day, according to our Jacobin notions of citizenship, a citizen, and perhaps a magistrate and a legislator."
Stanley says that Arnold took an absorbing interest in the Australian colonies where he desired to pass his life in the hope of influencing the germs of the future destinies of England and of the world. Writing to a friend who was going to Australia, Arnold said he would go too, if they would make him a schoolmaster there. He says that "no missionary work is half so beneficial as to try to pour sound and healthy blood into a young civilised society ; to make one colony, if possible, like the ancient colonies, or like New England —a living sucker from the mother-country bearing the same blossoms and the same fruits, not a reproduction of its vilest excrescences." He ends these aspirations with the thought " but Rugby is a very nice place all the same."
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Outlook on Education.
I have quoted these views of Arnold as evidence of the importance of the office Firth held, and of the supreme value of his work in a new colony. But what a slander upon New Zealand from the great and holy Arnold ! If his ignorance and assurance on other topics, on which he spoke in a pontifical way, were of the same kind, how calamitous it must have been for Rugby.
Arnold is considered by many to have been the originator of the prefect system. There were prefects, however, before his day ; but according to Strachey, Arnold ordained that the Sixth Form prefects should be Judges in Israel in a theocracy ; the same system as that adopted by Jehovah for the Chosen People. Firth valued the prefect system as something on a much lower plane, that is, as an organisation to permit of limited self-government and provide the pupils themselves with an opportunity to learn the exercise of authority.
Firth, unlike Arnold, did not preserve a severe formality. It often happened that a boy would leave Rugby without having had any personal contact with Arnold at all. Thring of Uppingham, like Firth, could play games with the boys and not lose dignity. Thring, like Firth, could turn a blind eye to a boy's faults. They were more liberal than Arnold in their views on the curriculum.
Arnold, it is true, introduced modern history, modern languages and mathematics into the school course, but he loved best " the bleak rigidities of the ancient tongues." Gladstone inveighed against the low
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utilitarian argument in the matter of education for giving it what is termed a practical direction. Darwin was rebuked by the headmaster of Shrewsbury, Dr. Butler, for wasting his time on such a useless subject as chemistry.
Firth lived at a later period and in more enlightenment on the value of science. He realised that science is alive, changing, moving relentlessly forward. The field of science can be cultivated for ever without exhaustion. At the same time, Firth fully understood the value of the classics, and conducted Wellington College on both classical and modem lines.
Firth’s views on education were very similar to Thring’s. They each were at pains to distinguish between the true teacher, and the machine teacher or hammerer. They both rebelled against the mere treadmill round of preparation for the examiner. The teacher should be a boy among boys, but with the heart of a man. Hearing lessons is not teaching. They were both of one mind on an opinion which Thring clearly expressed when he said that little changes make authority contemptible ; little interferences make it hateful.
These great headmasters were united in the fundamental belief that stubborn effort is needed to resist our animal weakness and inborn indolence, and our inclination to take the easy path and go nowhere in particular. The great satisfaction is overcoming difficulties.
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Firth was not too strong in bookish interests, much less a pickled classical scholar. Therefore he understood that these aptitudes were not strong in many of his pupils. He recommended good books but he knew that an arresting personal utterance, the tone of the voice or even a gesture will remain longer in the mind than a chapter of a book. After the teacher has done his best, the initiative lies with the boy.
Many of Arnold’s views on education would have been repugnant to Firth. Arnold was morbid at times, and often lacking in the saving grace of humour. Firth had a wider outlook. He looked for goodness. Arnold was on the alert to find out evil and eradicate it. It is as if one man in a garden looked at the flowers, and another searched for the weeds.
Both headmasters had intensity and ardour in their great work of training the young. They were men of unresting energy, and were worn out prematurely.
Arnold believed that big boys became childish by reading books of amusement such as Pickwick and Nicholas Nickleby. He thought a suitable prose exercise for boys is to write an imaginary conversation between Thomas Aquinas, James Watt, and Sir Walter Scott!
In Firth’s system of education there was full scope for healthy amusement. He did not want his boys’ minds clogged and sickened with a surfeit of indigestible facts.
Firth studied that very important subject, the boy who is being taught. He should be sufficiently known
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to the headmaster to evoke his sympathy and understanding. That is why Firth was not in favour of very large schools and suffered anxiety in a sudden influx of a large number of free-place pupils. He could be the headmaster only of the boys he knew. He knew at a glance every boy in the school except Mr. Bee's twins, Willie and Jimmy. He had to make them smile to tell one from the other because they were so much alike.
Firth believed that the most important subject in the curriculum is the study of the English language. He was convinced that boys who had no knowledge of Latin would never have a full appreciation of their mother tongue. In his opinion, also, books should not be read without reflection. His searching and significant questions helped his pupils the better to appreciate the beauties of English literature.
As regards the subject of secondary education, Firth thought it should be general in its scope. Boys, who wished to do so, could specialise at a later stage. Cramming might win more scholarships, but it was better for Wellington College to lose such a temporary advantage based on the art of cramming. A creditable average success was more to be desired than a few outstanding scholars and a general level of dullness. He wished to avoid producing pedants. Worse than pedants are prigs developed by a forced moral tone. Prigs and profiteers were Firth’s chief aversions.
Firth, like Carlyle, believed that work is the one thing that dignifies man. To-day many people believe that work is the one thing that degrades him. Machines
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should do the work. We shall see sooner or later, which of these opposing views is correct, perhaps before it is too late.
Firth regarded the school spirit as one of the great objects of education. To get the right outlook ; to do nothing to bring discredit on the school. Rudeness, disrespect, slouching with the hands in the pockets, want of reverence for the aged, want of respect for superiors, any form of bad manners, were anathema to the Boss.
Firth approved of the second part of Voltaire’s cynical dictum : "To succeed in the world it is not sufficient to be stupid ; you must also be wellmannered.”
The boys must be taught to respect the " old school tie,” meaning thereby, as lawyers say, the tradition and the spirit of the school. The " old school tie ” is derided only by those who have not a thread of it in their composition.
Firth possessed a book entitled " Some observations of a Foster Parent,” written by John Charles Tarver. This book passed into the hands of Sir Truby King and was given by him to Dr. Martin Tweed. The book is well thumbed, and certain passages in it were heavily underlined by Firth. Tarver’s book thus provides an epitome of Firth’s general views on education.
Mr. Tarver has a pretty wit and the pen of a ready writer. In his youth he was a true-blue, dyed in the wool Etonian. Later, he was assistant master at Clifton where there was a bare suspicion of Radical tendencies.
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Now, with grateful acknowledgements to Mr. Tarver, there follows a selection of the passages to which Firth gave his hearty approval, that is, the passages on which he laid special emphasis.
" Millions of hours are wasted in looking over examination papers."
" Good penmanship is an accomplishment suitable to clerks. If people write much, they seldom write well.”
" Education is not such a simple thing that it can be the same for everybody.”
" The Act of Parliament in 1870 provided among other requirements that the teacher should not cheat the taught. This was effected by payment by results and by inspection by young men from Cambridge and Oxford who knew no more about teaching than a man who had been washed knows about the manufacture of soap.”
" People call upon the State to undertake all those responsibilities which are usually associated with the fact of being a parent. As soon as these people have brought children into the world they are to have no further trouble with them. This meritorious act is in itself a fulfilment of all obligations ; and it is right and proper that Tom, who has no children, shall pay for the good of Jack’s twelve children while they are being prepared effectively for the work and duty of life. Which children, if they dutifully follow the example of their excellent parent, will take the earliest opportunity of evading both work and duty.”
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" Is there, not, however, a fallacy in the assumption alike of the person who sees in education a means of securing his child’s livelihood, and also of the legislator who thinks that moral improvement is necessarily associated with intellectual training ? It is the discipline inseparable from instruction which favourably affects the learner from the moral point of view, not the thing taught.”
" Reading and writing, the so-called elements, are not elementary at all. For my own part, I am firmly convinced that the vast majority of educated English men and English women are still learning to read and write at the age of sixteen.”
" The school is not the boy’s servant. He should be the servant of the school.”
" It is the recording, not the reciting, memory that is useful. What is ascribed to intuition, or to a flash of genius, is really the rapid adjustment of recorded knowledge to unforeseen circumstances.”
" The ordinary boy is broken into a sound system slowly and with difficulty.”
" I see that a special form of intellect is best suited for the purpose of examiners, and that by no means a strong form of intellect. When I further observe that by a process of selection —by examination continuing over many years, persons who possess this form of intellect will infallibly occupy all the Government offices and monopolise the public services, why then—l congratulate myself that I shall not live long enough to see all the results of the system."
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Firth’s annotation on this passage is—" Men shall drop like ripe pears from lamp-posts, shall be decapitated like hogs in Chicago : thank God, we shall not be alive when that red day comes ! ” Sir Truby makes comment on this and has written in the margin—" It is the most passionate passage of Firth’s which seems to me to reveal best the nobility and depth of his ideals and soul.”—F.T.K.
To return to Tarver :
" The object should be not to get any particular subject learned, but the boy developed. Obviously to cut him off the subjects which are difficult to him is absurd ; it is as ridiculous as if a gymnastic instructor were to say, ' This boy has a small and weak chest: I will, therefore, in his case, omit all exercises which tend to strengthen and expand his chest ’.”
That passage is very heavily underlined by Firth.
" It is usually impossible for specialist teachers to see anything outside their own system.”
" Tone is rather an indefinite thing, and largely a question of taste ; but if by tone there is meant a horror of an ungentlemanly action, an enthusiasm for courage, a staunch patriotism, an open and fearless acknowledgment of the maxim noblesse oblige, I have not been able to discover an essential difference between public schoolboys. Eton has no more the monopoly of these sentiments than any other public school. If, however, it is a question of silk hats, and neat umbrellas, and spotless trousers and —Hum, hum, I admit myself discomforted.”
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The final extract contains a sentiment which few would venture to applaud. It is underlined by an unknown reader of the book. That is the opinion of the higher critics.
Here it comes, —" A very small minority of people have the time to manage their own affairs, and those of the public. There are busybodies who are prepared to manage the hospital, the school, the workhouse, the lunatic asylum, and every other public institution.”
CHAPTER VIII.
On Patriotism.
Firth was a patriot and a great imperialist. " A great empire and little minds go ill together.” His mind was great enough to comprehend the terrible responsibility that goes with the privilege of holding empire and dominion beyond every sea. If Great Britain undertakes the protection of alien and backward races she must be strong enough to shield them.
He believed that the Empire was won by the sword, and that in the final issue it must be held by the sword. This kind of imperialism is anathema to doctrinaires who see events not as they are, but as they ought to be. World affairs are certainly not as all men of good will would like them to be, and as they hope they ultimately will be. But the time is not yet.
Firth used the word " Empire ” and not the words " British Commonwealth of Self-Governing Nations.” They are not all self-governing. He knew quite well that the Empire is a Commonwealth, and imagined that people of ordinary intelligence and observation were equally well-informed, without constant reminders and shuffling of words.
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The British Empire is far different from the old Roman Empire or the Spanish Empire. It was because of this fundamental difference that Firth was proud of the British Empire, and therefore an unrepentant Imperialist.
The last words written by Balfour were :
" Whence comes the cohesion of the British Empire ? First, patriotism, loyalty, custom ; secondly, religion, race, pride in various manifestations, habit, language. Mere law is among the weakest of bonds.”
Firth was not an internationalist. He did not live long enough to learn the lessons of the Great War ; how the Press and intercommunication and trade and other agencies have made the world smaller, and shown that no country can live unto itself. Moreover, he did not live long enough to realise the danger of collective insecurity.
In his time, Internationalists, as the world knew them, were anti-social, and eager to promote a most bitter and vindictive class-warfare. The horrors of the Russian Revolution will never be forgotten. They were not less dreadful than the horrors of the Czarist rule, but they were perpetrated in the names of brotherhood and democracy.
There is a text in Holy Writ which teaches that he that provideth not for his ov/n is worse than an infidel and has denied the faith. Charity begins at home. People may be internationalists, not because they love foreign countries, but because they have lost their love for their own country.
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God gives all men all earth to love,
But since man's heart is small,
Ordains for each one spot shall prove Beloved over all.
Now is the day for the intrigue, the bluff and threats of despots. There is a new definition of compromise in international relationships. One side yields everything ; the other side, nothing.
There were many people apart from Lord Roberts and Robert Blatchford, who knew that the British Empire would need to fight to the death for its existence. It will have to fight for its existence again and again, according to biological law. Firth had clear vision of what trials the future had in store. For the young, life would be a splendid but perilous adventure. This vision illuminated his teaching, and his example. If he was wrong then Burke was wrong when he said boys should " be taught to despise danger in the pursuit of honour and duty.” Then Milton was wrong when he said " the object of education is to prepare people to take their part manfully in peace or in war.”
Firth had the love for the Mother Country that a good son has for his mother. He taught his boys that Britain had fought disease and famine throughout the earth : organised relief against earthquake and hurricane : provided means of education. She had abolished slavery and made the seas safe for commerce ; she had brought law and order to all people under her control, and had prevented internecine wars of race
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and religion. Where possible she had compelled the settlement of disputes by peaceful means.
It could be said with truth of her that " one noble pledge after another she had given to the peoples she was leading throughout the world into the enjoyment of the freedom she loved, and these pledges she never failed to honour.” True, she had made mistakes. She made no claim to infallibility.
Shall boys not be told of gallant deeds ? Is courage not the greatest virtue because it makes all other virtues possible ? Is faith itself not the greatest adventure ? Firth made his boys read about great and heroic enterprise. He tried to inspire them with courage and tenacity and the will to endure hardness. Our hearts thrilled with his in the brave story of the storming of Torquilstone :
" Look for the Knight of the Fetterlock, fair Rebecca, and see how he bears himself ; for as the leader is, so will his followers be.”
" I see him not,” said Rebecca.
" Foul craven ! ” exclaimed Ivanhoe ; " does he blench from the helm when the wind blows highest ? ”
"He blenches not! He blenches not,” said Rebecca. " I see him now ; he heads a body of men under the outer barrier of the barbican . . . Holy prophets of the Law ! Front-de-Boeuf and the Black Knight fight hand to hand on the breach, amid the roar of their followers who watch the progress of the strife. Heaven strike with the cause of the oppressed and of the captive ! ”
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Or again—
" Sir Richard spoke, and he laughed, and we roar'd a hurrah, and so
The little Revenge ran on sheer into the heart of the foe,
With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below ;
For half of their fleet to the right, and half to the left were seen,
And the little Revenge ran on thro' the long sea-lane between."
We were in thought on the breach with the Black Knight, there under the shadow of the barbican ; we were roaring a hurrah with the hundred fighters on the deck of the Revenge with the sick men dying below.
Sentiment ? Yes, sentiment, but perhaps sentiment has done as much as reason for the world. Tradition ? Yes, and like all tradition arising out of a dead but unforgotten past.
All that was best in the chivalry of the Middle Ages has been preserved in a purer and more permanent form in the tradition and spirit of our great public schools. This heritage, it is said, is not evident in the same way in foreign countries. We have tried to blend romanticism with realism. What I am attempting to convey is revealed in the well-known verses that Firth occasionally quoted :
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" The sand of the desert is sodden red,
Red with the wreck of a square that broke ;
And the gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death had brimmed his banks,
And England’s far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks
' Play up ! play up ! and play the game
Firth was a lover of his native land. There was no more patriotic New Zealander. He knew what he owed to the land which had given him birth, health, and opportunity. He felt, in return, he could never do enough for his country. He loved her great mountains and her rivers. He was proud to be one of the pioneers in a land he believed one day would be a great nation.
In his " dreams out of the ivory gate, and visions before midnight ” he perhaps saw that his work would greatly prosper in moulding good and faithful citizens, men who would live and, if necessary in the testing-time, die for their country. His great friend Alpers said that Firth did not look on teaching as a job, but as a " call.” There is no doubt that he took up the work of training the future manhood of a young colony as a lure and challenge to a personal adventure in the path of duty.
He was never a militarist, and would not have fought for mere material ends. He hated sabre-rattling and jingoism. He would have victory accepted with modesty and restraint, in mercy, and as a solemn trust; and defeat met with courage, but with hope to
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regain the lost advantage. In one of the poems that Firth in his younger days recited to the boys, he laid emphasis on the lines :
It isn’t the fact that you’re licked that counts
It’s how did you fight and why.
There came five fateful years of unending battles, of monstrous and desperate conflict on land, on sea and under the sea, and in the air. Memory of that Great War is fraught with faces and forms familiar still, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. Their sufferings and their achievements are beyond the power of words to express.
The Great War was the Great Test for Firth and for Wellington College. We shall see how they faced the ordeal. From 1890 to 1912 the boys who passed through the school numbered 2,836. Of that number, 1,643 went on active service.
This record especially when seen in the light of the casualties suffered, and the distinctions won, shows the type of manhood that the College had produced ; that, in the main, Firth had produced. The first expeditionary force from New Zealand captured and occupied Samoa. In this force one man out of ten was an Old Boy of Wellington College.
From first to last, there are records of over 2,000 Old Boys who served in the Great War. A third of these ex-pupils of the College, in one way or another, died on active service.
One hundred and ninety-five received decorations. As all soldiers know, not everyone, by any means, who
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deserves decorations receives them. These distinctions depend on opportunity and observation. Often the greatest deeds pass unobserved.
The beastliness of the Great War was unspeakable. Gone were the glamour and the glory that for ages had been the theme of epic poets and romantic writers.
No roses of Minden ; blood-red poppies buried in the mud of Flanders. No brave scarlet and gold, the stormy music of the drum, and gay banners ; but mud-stained and blood-stained torn and shabby khaki ; ear-splitting din, shell-holes and water-logged burrows, and the dunnest smoke of Hell; roaring guns and screaming shells for mutilation and the filthy fog of poison gas. Agony and bloody sweat before the way to Calvary.
A hundred miles of men and guns on either side of him, and on his front, so that a man could feel his nothingness like an atom in a world convulsion. Thus millions went to their red graves.
Of those who faced the horror of the war many of the survivors were less fortunate than those who fell. Disappointment, lack of power of application, lack of energy, poverty, sickness, insanity, clouded their lives.
How complex is human nature! Many at home became rich from all this welter of blood and misery. An American wrote of war: "It is the dizziest, gaudiest, grandest, damnedest sort of bust that the human mind can imagine.” It is a release ; old men making fiery speeches, old women knitting socks, and all gulping thrills out of the newspapers.
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An old Boy of the College, Dr. Diamond Jenness, was one of the few English-speaking people, perhaps the only one, who for long knew nothing of the war. He was away with the Arctic explorer, Stefannson, at the North Pole.
One of the first Old Boys to volunteer was Bernard Freyberg. He was known as " Tiny ” on the lucus a non lucendo principle. One of the first to fall was J. F. E. Gale in action in South Africa.
Tiny Freyberg went out into the battlefields of the world to capture fame by assault, and in doing so collected nine wounds.
He wrote to the Boss on the 21st February, 1915 :
" We are on our way again and are off on an expedition into the Mediterranean, perhaps to Constantinople. We are to be a landing party to the fleet and are trying to force the Dardanelles for a passage for Russian wheat. This is as far as we are able to guess. We are likely to be away some months, and then are going to land in France, and go up to the big show in Germany. I am promoted and am third in command of the battalion and hope to get a battalion before the war finishes. To-morrow the King reviews us and then we are off.”
This letter was written when Freyberg was with the Royal Naval Division and wounded in Antwerp. Freyberg was awarded the D.S.O. for swimming ashore from a destroyer at night. His mission was to deposit flares on the beaches to lead the Turks to believe that a landing was being made, so creating a useful diversion.
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A letter to the Boss from this mighty man of valour, Brigadier-General Freyberg, V.C., D.5.0., written early in 1917, is well worthy of record :
" Many thanks for warm messages. I long to revisit the Old School. I’m back again in the trenches and am enjoying it all acutely. Life is very well worth while living at present. It seems hard to realise what life would be without a war ; one seems to have been at it half one’s life. Conditions here are not exactly ideal. Everything is frozen hard. Best wishes to all. P.S. Did you give the boys a holiday for the V.C. ? ”
On Ist July, 1921, Freyberg did revisit his old school, and took the Boss with him. Fie inspected the Wellington College Cadets, 732 strong, under five officers. Then he addressed the school in the Assembly Hall.
At this meeting the Boss told the boys that Freyberg had written to him many times during the war. In these letters he had made no reference to his decorations. However, in reply to congratulations sent to Tiny on gaining the V.C., he put the postscript to his letter, which I have quoted.
The Boss said : " I read that letter to the boys assembled after prayers, and there was, as you may imagine, considerable cheering. After it had finished I said : ' But there is a postscript ’ : All eyes were fixed on me waiting to hear it. I read : ' Did the boys get a half-holiday for the V.C.’ ? ”
Again there was an air of great excitement.
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" No, you did not get a half-holiday, and I shall take good care —all eyes were fixed on me —that you — get a whole holiday! ”
The V.C. had been awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel B. C. Freyberg for conspicuous bravery and brilliant leading as a battalion commander. By splendid personal gallantry he carried an initial attack straight through the enemy’s front system of trenches. He received four wounds in this exploit, which was the joy and pride of his former headmaster.
Before Gallipoli, when the New Zealand troops were in Egypt, there was an Old Boys’ Dinner in Cairo. An autographed menu was sent to the Boss. Captain Powles wrote to him from Zeitoun Camp :
" You would have been proud of them. There are thirty-nine signatures on the card. The chief toast was : Mr. and Mrs. Firth, proposed by me, and responded to by Trooper J. L. Grace.”
Trooper J. L. Grace died on Gallipoli. Lieutenant T. M. Grace came unscathed through the advance on the Bth August, and had dug in himself and his men, when a stray bullet struck him mortally through the head. Another Old Boy, Major A. G. Hume, fell in action the same day.
Captain Powles became Lieutenant-Colonel Powles, C.M.G., D.S.O. He wrote the third volume of the History of New Zealand’s effort in the Great War, the volume relating to the campaign in Sinai and Palestine. He was with Lord Allenby, and with Chauvel, the Australian ; and with Chaytor, the New Zealander.
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Colonel Powies tells in glowing prose how his Brigade returned to their horses after Gallipoli and took the Way of the Land of the Philistines, and through the desert entered Palestine, and went up against Gaza. How they broke the Turkish line at Beersheba, captured Jerusalem, crossed the Jordan and entered Moab ; and coming down by Jericho crossed the Jordan for the last time and returned to the Plains, and then to Egypt.
A distinguished pupil of Wellington College who became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, served with the Royal Fusiliers. His name was Captain Allan McDougall, and needless to say, he was of Highland blood. He had just written the message " O.C. Royal Fusiliers —Relief complete,” but was killed before he could sign his name.
" So thou are gone, but who that lives can mourn,
The promise of thy manhood, who by fire
Tried and accepted, dids't endure to scorn
The world's desire ?
Rather we pray that we who hold the fort
May with an equal courage pace our beat,
Till, unashamed, we can at last report —
Relief Complete."
A war number of the College Magazine, The Wellingtonian, gives a list of the names and service of all former pupils of the College who served in the Great War. Bathe Brandon, the airman, brought down a zeppelin in England. Many others performed great
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deeds, some known, others that will never be known. None of these citizen-soldiers failed to give of the best that was in him. The brightness of heroic deeds did much to relieve the darkness of that forbidding background.
Firth’s sympathy for his soldier foster-sons, and his pride in them, ran like a golden thread through the sombre texture of those years. He wrote to nearly every one of them in the field. This involved the labour of a Hercules. He sat up to write at night, and well into the morning, instead of seeking sleep, the balm of each day’s care. He wore out his vitality, mentally and physically.
" O my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom ! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son ! ” These tortured years made him old before his time. They hurt him like a dagger in his flesh. Through it all he kept an iron silence.
Tom Seddon writes to me : " I suppose most Old Boys on active service were remembered by Mr. Firth as I was. Regularly I received a post-card with a cheery message, and each post-card bore a photograph of the Old School. I used purposely to leave these cards at the billets I passed through, hoping some other Old Boy would see them, and so get a cheery message, too. The casualties suffered by his boys must well-nigh have broken his heart.”
The Great War, with all its sorrow, brought home to headmasters like Firth that, after all, their calling is richly rewarded. A letter from " Somewhere in France ”
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written not long before the zero hour and in writing that seemed familiar, was for the Boss, a tribute and a priceless gift.
On the morning of Armistice Day, a senior assistant master very dear to the Boss, stood beside him on the steps overlooking the lower playing-field. The assistant knew full well what was passing in the mind of his headmaster, as the guns boomed, the bells rang, and the flag waved in the breeze. Firth turned to his friend and convulsively clasped his hand. Then was seen by the one observer what has been seldom seen, Firth’s tears streaming unashamedly down his face.
We all knew the tenderness that was in his heart. On another notable occasion it stood openly revealed. It was at the laying of the foundation stone of the Memorial Flail. The old Boss said that the central idea of the ceremony was to express their gratitude for the sacrifices made by the Old Boys when they served in the Great War. "We wish to express our admiration of the heroic devotion of those who fell for King and Country. I am proud ... I am proud of ... ” At this point after a vain effort to steady his voice he said in a low and broken tone " I am very sorry ; I cannot say any more.”
Verses in the London Spectator made a profound impression. They expressed exactly what was in the mind of Firth. When he first saw these lines he copied them in his beautiful handwriting on a card. The card lies now before me, redolent of memories :
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THE DEBT UNPAYABLE
What have I given,
Bold sailor on the sea,
In earth or heaven,
That you should die for me ?
What can I give
O soldier, leal and brave
Long as I live
To pay the life you gave ?
What tithe or part
Can I return to thee
O stricken heart,
That thou shouldst break for me ?
The wind of Death
For thee has slain life’s flowers.
It withereth
(God grant!) all weeds in ours.
Firth’s patriotic spirit revolted against the war profiteers. It was incredible to him, that British people could be found to make increased profits during the war, and not return these profits to patriotic funds. He gave freely himself, time and again. The profiteers provoked his anger as nothing else had ever done. Later when titles and honours were freely given to men whose sole claim seemed to have been the riches they had acquired during the war, Firth’s sense of justice was deeply shocked.
When it was reported that many of these honours had actually been bought, in the form of contributions
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to political party funds, his sense of decency was outraged. A shrewd observer remarked, when knighthood was in flower in the years following close upon the end of the war, how few of these knights had been seen prancing on their steeds on the battlefields.
In sad contrast were the broken men who had given all, and had nothing in return except the consciousness that they had done their duty. It was Firth’s ambition, when he retired from the College, to help these men, and devote his time to their service. That ambition was frustrated not completely, but to a great extent, by failing health.
Firth did not come into contact much with the men of the senior branch of the services. From the date of the foundation of the Navy League in Wellington, thirty-five years ago, he gave it his active and loyal support. Under his influence Wellington College enrolled almost every boy. For many years the college had the largest enrolment of members of any school in the Empire.
It is not surprising to find, therefore, that when the Navy League departed from the custom of electing the mayor of the city as its president, J. P. Firth was appointed President of the League. His appointment was made on 4th April, 1921. He did not vacate this office until failing health compelled his retirement. He used no gestures, but his impressive inflections, his perfect English and his patriotism held large audiences spellbound at many Navy League meetings in the Town Hall.
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In his work for the Navy League the President was ably assisted by his wife. Mrs. Firth was president of the Ladies’ Auxiliary for many years during her husband’s term of office. During part of this period Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Jellicoe, was GovernorGeneral of New Zealand. He publicly declared, that, in his opinion, the Wellington Branch of the Navy League was the best in the Empire.
CHAPTER IX.
Sport.
There is no doubt that J. P. Firth was criticized for giving over-emphasis to sport and athletics as part of school training. It was thought by many that boys did not need encouragement to indulge in play. Rather they needed to be restrained from giving way too much to a strong natural inclination.
Parents who had been brought up in the middle and later Victorian epoch had little knowledge of organised games. To kick an empty football round a field was considered a rather childish pursuit, and to a great extent, a waste of time. Worship of sport was not for enlightened people. It was nothing but a form of idolatry.
English people have the same fondness for games that distinguished the ancient Greeks. In Greece, at one period, physical education occupied as much time in the training of boys as did all their other studies. It was continued through life with modifications to suit the altering requirements of age and occupation. The Greeks clearly recognised that mental culture could not reach its highest perfection if the development of the body were neglected.
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Lucian attributed not only the bodily grace of the ancient Greeks but also their mental pre-eminence to the physical exercises they practised. Physical development and muscular poise contributed to the excellence of Greek sculpture. Exercises and games were an important part of medical treatment. Hippocrates in the Fourth Century, 8.C., protested against prolonged and laborious exercise. He recommended his own system, one of moderation.
All sensible people must admit that sport can be overdone, just as study can be overdone. All will agree that sport should never be allowed to occupy the principal place in the curriculum of a college. A Chinese student described an American University College as an athletic association where opportunities for study were provided for the feeble-bodied.
Firth aimed at the development of the complete man, and would have placed first, character and personality; second, scholarship ; and third, sport. He did not choose assistant masters for their athletic achievements. If they were athletes, so much the better. They were required to possess character and scholarship first and foremost.
After all, life is more like a football match than a lesson in a schoolroom.
The body, particularly in youth, requires education as well as the mind. Physical development under the conditions of civilisation rather tends to deteriorate. Mind and body act and re-act on each other.
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It is not by any means only among youths that sport tends to be glorified. An athlete at school is undoubtedly a personage. So also are successful cricketers, footballers, tennis players and golfers of adult life.
Old Boys foster sport at school. They find news of their school in the sporting columns of the newspapers. Accounts of ordinary work inside the school are not " news.” Scoring a try in an important match on the school playing-field has definite news value. We are the slaves of the press. Old Boys may meet one another socially at sports tournaments, but not in the classrooms of the old school.
If readers of the present day can assume that there is a Devil, they may not dissent from the belief that he finds mischief still for idle hands to do. Therefore, to frustrate the Devil, or the power of evil, organised games are essential in every school.
In the maintenance of health, in the development of the body, physical activity is not the only factor. In the Temple of Health are many gods. The apotheosis of sport alone may tend to the neglect of balanced nutrition, suitable clothing, healthy working conditions, adequate housing, rest, quiet, and recreation.
College sport and games, which Firth advocated, belong to a different atmosphere from that which surrounds public sport. Firth looked upon games for boys not only as physical exercise but also, and mainly, as moral and mental training. He had no wish to make
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football matches and cricket matches a public spectacle for idle thousands ; a source of revenue for promoters, and astute gamblers.
Mob hysteria which at times sweeps like a wave over New Zealand for attainment of " football supremacy of the world ” would have been a sorry spectacle for Firth. He remained all through the days of his manhood a grown-up, game-playing boy, and kept that spirit and outlook.
The Inter-collegiate Football Tournament, held every year, is a recurring exhibition of football as it should be played. The boys do their best whether they win or lose. They take a beating in a good spirit. They play with impetuosity and dash, and for the joy of it. Never is there a grim and win-at-all-cost struggle foreign to the spirit of any game.
It was Firth who, as assistant master, established this tournament. In 1883, Wellington College played Nelson College and was beaten. After this match, in the evening the Wellington team was to leave for Christchurch to play Christ’s College. This plan, unfortunately, was changed at the last moment without due notice.
The next year, 1884, Firth showed wonderful tact and sound judgment. He expressed regret for what had occurred and made amends without, in loyalty to his own school, labouring the apology. This letter of his to Christ’s College was received in a generous spirit. Thus the tournament was re-established by the wisdom
" CHRISTCHURCH PRESS," 18th AUGUST, 1934.
INTER-COLLEGIATE RUGBY TOURNAMENT.
The acceptance of the invitation in this letter written to Mr. E. R. Webb in 1884 by Mr. J. P. Firth (a junior master, and, later, headmaster of Wellington College) was virtually the beginning of the football tournament that takes place yearly between Christ's College, Wanganui Collegiate School, Wellington College, and Nelson College.
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and diplomacy of one man. It has continued to this day. In addition to its being a demonstration of how a game should be played, it draws closely together in friendly rivalry Wanganui Collegiate School, Christ’s College, Nelson College and Wellington College.
In 1907, Firth felt impelled to take part in a controversy in the newspapers on the subject of the effect of athletics on schoolboys. He said :
" The schoolmaster’s work lies very largely in the classroom, and his efforts are directed towards the boys’ acquisition of knowledge and still more towards the training of the boys’ minds ; these things do not, by any means, sum up his work and anxieties, for there is a much more important thing than either —the boys’ character. An important means by which to influence the boy in the right way, to get more closely in touch with his feelings, to give him opportunities for developing his individuality and his manly qualities—among which I rank highly usefulness and self-sacrifice —is afforded by school games and athletics.
That is why I rejoice at the approaching completion of our new playground, rendered all the more necessary by the building of the new West School. That is why, apart from the physical good resulting from the exercise of wholesome employment, so much trouble is taken at this school with the boys' out-of-class occupations.
Of course, these things may be allowed to occupy too much of the boys' attention and thought—they may be regarded as the only things desirable —but at
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this school very strenuous efforts are made to prevent play from assuming too important a place.
That Satan finds mischief for idle hands is an everpresent difficulty for the schoolmaster whose aim should be to keep hands and minds busy with healthy occupation. It is true that at times the boy attaches too much importance to athletics ; but the danger he thus incurs is a grain of sand to the mountain of danger that threatens the boy who, slack in his classwork, takes no part in the athletic side of school life. His mind wanders —and assuredly it does wander. It does not roam over the clean fields of health and the playing of games, but wades through the garbage of the gutter of idleness.”
It has already been made evident that Firth was fond of the study and practice of boxing, called by the " fancy ” the noble art of self-defence. He had the distinction of having boxed with no less a celebrity of the ring than Jem Mace himself.
As an instance of Firth’s attention to detail in his desire to be thorough, Mr. M. C. Barnett recalls the introduction of boxing to Wellington College. Such was Firth’s keenness and enthusiasm that he first of all studied the great standard work on the prize-ring, " Pugilistica.” He then set about to find a suitable instructor, and eventually lighted on a worthy semiprofessional in the person of J. J. Stagpoole, a baker by trade.
Firth and Mick Barnett visited the sporting baker for lessons in his bakehouse. Later on, with the aid
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of the Wellington Football Club, a gymnasium in an old brick store in Herbert Street was set up, and " Staggy ” as these two enthusiastic pupils loved to call him, held his classes there. In this place Firth participated in many highly interesting bouts with capable adherents of the " game.” One of these was the late T. S. M. Cowie, a very capable boxer, who proved too much for Firth whose long reach was of no great avail against his clever opponent with English training and experience.
" Staggy ” took endless pains to impart all the knowledge of the art bound up in his sturdy and active little frame. He was not good with names and Firth was always amused with " Staggy’s ” reference to Barnett as " Barnum, my promising pupil.” At such times Firth’s face would assume a puzzled expression, and "Staggy” would explain —"You know, Mick Barnum.”
When the boxer-baker saw Firth or " Barnum ” on the street, he would step down from his baker’s cart and in view of all passers-by demonstrate leads and guards and counters and side-steps. If either of his well-known pupils happened to be wearing dark clothes they would find that they had been well dabbed over with patches of flour. Then they laughed very heartily at each other.
It was not only Firth’s long reach that made him take to boxing. It is purely a British method, far removed from kicking or using the knife ; clean and above-board. This appealed to him.
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The ethics of the ring were embodied in the first words spoken to the boys when Firth came as headmaster. " I have come here as headmaster. You come to learn ; I to teach. You will be given ample opportunity for learning, and for play. I will assist you in both. When you work, work hard ; when you play, play hard ; if you want to fight, fight hard, but hit always above the belt.
He could nose out a fight like a terrier. One day he saw intruders come into the bath-enclosure, and two or three of the big College boys go after them.
" Come on quick, Jimmy,” he said to the groundsman, " there will be a good mill.” Many a time he just happened to be passing by—slowly and not unobservant—when his boys round a corner were settling their differences with their fists.
Boxing he favoured as teaching boys to control their tempers, and for the purpose of promoting the virtues of courage, and patience under adversity. Adversity, of course, took the form of severe punches on various parts of the anatomy, and often a copious blood-letting.
" In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed."
In the Christmas holidays of 1908 the two good companions, Firth of Wellington, and Alpers of Christchurch, took a trip to Sydney. It happened that, not
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inappropriately on Boxing Day, there was to be a prize-fight at Rushcutter’s Bay. The pugilists were Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson.
There were about 20,000 spectators. Firth and Alpers were at the ring-side. Johnson had followed Burns round the world to force him to fight. The one hated the other with a bitter hatred.
The real name of Tommy Burns was Noah Brusso. He was born in Canada of foreign parents. He was as skilled in finance as he was in pugilism, and a good match for a keen promoter dictating terms for a contract. He demanded and obtained £6,000, win, lose or draw. He was not unlike a Roman soldier, but his head was his shield. He had also in appearance a likeness to Napoleon, and accentuated the resemblance by every means in his power.
Tommy was a showman, and a dandy. £26,000 was taken in gate-money which was a good performance for an amateur financier. After all, Tommy was a " sportsman ” for he was easily persuaded to buy racing ponies. He betted heavily so that his £6,000 disappeared completely in little more than a week after the fight.
Jack Johnson was a typical Ethiopian. He hated " little Tahmy who is vurry sarcastical.” Jack was of the gorilla type.
The fight began. Johnson held off for a time and did not appear to feel " Tahmy’s ” blows. There was a sneer on the black face, and a gleam from the white gold-filled teeth.
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Burns shouted, " Are you not going to fight, you cur ? ”
Johnson’s reply was a swing of his terrific left, and sledge-hammer blows over " Tahmy’s” kidneys.
" I thought Tahmy was an in-fighter.” " His mother soon won’t know him,” and other reflections were shouted by Johnson for the ears of the ringside.
The police stopped the fight in the fourteenth round.
The good companions did not noise abroad this incident of their Sydney holiday. A film of the fight, however, was shown in various theatres in New Zealand. Right in front in their five guinea reserved seats, conspicuous as Burns and Johnson themselves, were Alpers and the " Long ’Un,” the latter difficult to conceal even among twenty-thousand.
The whole affair was a brutal spectacle, or else the taste of many good people is too squeamish. I support the first alternative.
Tom Brodie saw the Boss on the playing-fields on the morning after his return from Sydney.
" What did you think of the fight ? ”
A small boy, the smallest in the school, was passing by.
" You see that boy over there, Tom. It was just as if he and I had been in the ring.”
Firth did not favour tennis as a school game because it does not foster team spirit. He did all he could to encourage swimming, and life-saving. He was also a strong advocate of rifle-shooting. In his opinion, every
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boy should learn to swim and to shoot; to swim, for exercise and for self-preservation ; to shoot, as a duty of every citizen for the defence of his country.
For the promotion of the manly games of cricket and football perhaps no schoolmaster ever did more. He was a pioneer in this branch of education. First he had to make playing-fields. Then he had to keep them in order, and extend them as the necessity arose. He had to contend against hills, gullies and unkindly clay, filling in here, cutting down there and covering up the impervious subsoil with fertile loam. At times the progress of the scoop and shovel seemed in a literal sense the fulfilment of the prophecy —" Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low ; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.”
Mr. Renner, to whom I am much indebted, has given me the early history of the playing-fields. He writes :
" One of the most outstanding works of the late J. P. Firth was the trouble he took to provide the school with playing-fields for the boys. He came to Wellington College when the school had sunk to a low ebb and when the present Lower Ground was a clay patch with coconut matting for cricket in the middle. The ground sloped from the school and was dotted with stunted pine and macrocarpa. On the western side was a deep gully descending precipitously into the backyards of Adelaide Road tenements. Realising that the foundation of
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education for the adolescent was based upon facilities for physical development, the Boss decided to provide them.
The Board had no money. The Boss advanced it and it was repaid in instalments. The contract was let and the excavations and levelling begun. The boys of the day did yeoman service in hauling down the trees, three-quarters sawn through and, later on, in light skirmishing order, picking up the stones before the soil was laid. Of course, football practice before and during, and for two years after the reconstruction was a hectic affair
For at least two seasons the whole school played in two huge teams on the plateau in front of the school. Gravel-rash, cuts and skinned knees were a plentiful crop. To overcome this depletion in the school attendance, for a time the Boss gave us Wednesday afternoons to practise in a paddock at Newtown. That’s where Frank McGovern made his name. But we had to make up time by coming back to school on Saturday mornings.
The Boss loved the Lower Ground. Ffe spent hours after school with a bottle of concentrated sulphuric acid and a piece of tubing and burnt out the dandelions, docks and other weeds. He immersed himself in the literature of grass cultivation ; and he became an authority on the question. Again he was instrumental in forming the top ground. This was formerly a deep gully but is now built up 8 or 9 feet above the roadway. It used to extend northward into what is now Paterson
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Street where Mr. Crump, a contractor, had several sections. The Boss’s plan was to hand over to Mr. Crump sufficient land to form a roadway (the present street), and in return the hill on which Firth House now stands was to be cut back. Several thousand yards of spoil had to be tipped into the gully to form the ground and all clay was subject to a royalty payment. Actually the Boss formed this second ground at very little cost. It was a notable feat.
On a public holiday a man was to ascend in a balloon from the Basin Reserve, and descend in a parachute. The wind was blowing in the direction from the Basin Reserve towards the nearby College playingfield which had been newly sown with grass. Firth anticipated that the parachutist would descend on the new-made ground with the wind in that direction, and not risk the barrier of the hills beyond. The Boss therefore posted Jenner, a six-foot ex-lifeguardsman, at the St. Mark’s entrance while he, himself, patrolled up and down the fence. He actually left his class to undertake this job.
The balloon rose high. The crowd streamed up towards the school grounds covered with precious loam just turning green with new shoots of tender grass. Any moment the parachutist might descend.
Jenner dealt very faithfully with those who tried the St. Mark’s gate, but quite a number stormed the church grounds, and began to climb over the fence.
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The stentorian tones of the Boss warned the first-comers to get back. One or two of the most daring took no notice, and one succeeded in dropping over the fence.
Quick as a cat the Boss pounced on the intruder, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and the slack of his pants, and with a mighty heave and a sudden electric straightening of the arms shot him over the seven-foot fence. Then followed an ominous silence.
" Heavens,” thought the Boss, " is the man’s neck broken ? ”
After what seemed a long interval, obscene language issued from the other side of the fence. It was the first time that Firth was pleased to hear a man swearing.
No one else came across. The boys in room 9, who saw it all, went wild with glee. The Boss must have heard them giving tongue. Without comment, he resumed the lesson.
Mr. Millard, who was one of Firth’s staff, says he never saw the Boss really upset and roused except when the boys by misuse had damaged the turf. Evening after evening, in November, the Head himself might have been seen out on the playing-field with rake and lawnmower, raking up sticks and mowing the Wanganui wicket, the precious green velvet of which was worn only once in two years.
When funds were low, the Boss would pay out of his own pocket anything up to £3OO a year for maintenance of the playing-ground. He did not disclose that this money came out of his own pocket. However, it
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was all entered in a book, and one day, when he was greatly incensed against those who had thoughtlessly damaged the turf, he read out the amounts spent on upkeep. He did not say where the money came from but tried to shame the delinquents into realisation of the financial loss they had caused.
The lower grounds, and later, the upper grounds were completed. Nothing appealed to the artistic eye of the Boss more than greensward. The cricket pitches were the pride of his heart. Not a single weed was allowed to disfigure them. The boys helped, especially the boarders, and lines of them like skirmishers ranged over the outfields removing weeds which grow too readily in the New Zealand climate. The big horses that drew the heavy rollers had padded leather boots strapped over their hoofs. These soft-eyed, docile, intelligent animals seemed to us more sure and dainty in their steps than the rest of their kind.
Firth’s career as an athlete in Nelson has been recorded already.
When he was at Christ’s College, W. F. Ward, a famous half-back joined the boys at their games when school was over. The coach, J. P. Firth, stood on the sideline. If a boy tried to collar the crack half-back, did not take him low and failed, there would come a roar from the coach :
" Don’t try to collar a clean-shaven man by his beard ! ”
As an assistant master at Wellington College he distinguished himself as a representative of the Province
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in both cricket and football. He played against New South Wales in 1882.
When he was headmaster, as a result of his coaching in the early years, the College was never beaten in school matches for a period of four years. Those were the days of those stalwart front forwards, Clifton Holyoake and George McFarland, and of that splendid little half-back, Willie McAra, who was a light-weight. The opposition never knew where he was at any given moment.
After passing the active football age, the Boss became a referee. For many years he was the President of the Wellington Rugby Union.
He was supposed by many followers of the game to use the whistle far too much. Like Charles Lamb’s Mrs. Battle he believed in the rigour of the game.
On one occasion his strict interpretation of the rules offended a player who invited the referee to go to a much warmer climate. Firth ordered him off the field, and, by the way, made a very shrewd comment on the incident. He said :
That player has either no control over his feelings or not sufficient to express them.”
Firth, as a referee in the early part of his career, created a new Rugby law. The Athletic Club of Wellington was playing East Christchurch. The Athletics had a particularly speedy man named King. He kicked the ball past the full-back and a score was an absolute certainty. Perceiving this, the East Christchurch full-back collared King as he raced for the ball.
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Firth thereupon awarded a try to the Athletic team. Such a penalty was not in the book of rules, but it was soon after adopted by the English Rugby Union.
At one time Mr. Millard was coach of the College football team. The Boss was intensely interested in the doings of the team but never interfered in any way with the choosing and training of the boys. He believed in giving a man a job and letting him do it. Later, Mr. Millard was sole selector for the Wellington Province representative teams, and was encouraged in this difficult, and often thankless, task by the receipt from time to time of friendly notes from his former Head.
In cricket, Firth had few equals as a slow bowler. Although he bowled right-handed, he was naturally a left handed batsman. He believed that left-handers are never so good as right-handers. That belief was enough to make him learn to bat as a right-hander. It is a curious fact that later the acquired right-handed skill completely left him.
In 1904 Monaghan played in the College cricket team and next year he played against the Australians. He made 34 runs and bowled the great M. A. Noble. J. P. Blacklock, another ex-collegian, caught Clem Hill. Monaghan became a master at the College, and afterwards went into the Church and became Archdeacon. He it was, who preached Firth’s funeral oration.
Firth’s happiest hours, I believe, were spent on the playing-fields his enthusiasm and energy had created.
F. Martyn Renner says : " I cannot recollect any man who excelled in so many and varied branches of
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sport. In this activity, as in all his activities, he had an infinite capacity for taking pains. He knew every fine point of cricket, football, golf, croquet and billiards and excelled at them all.
" As a referee he was unsurpassed for both strictness and impartiality. I recollect his making only one mistake when he was umpiring at cricket. He called out' wide ’ before the ball had passed my bat. I hit the ball and was ' out ’ —caught.
" I used to watch him train the Ist XV in the old Payton-McAra days. It was a revelation to see him handle scrums and line-outs. With a weaker team coached by him he could out-manoeuvre and out-general a much stronger team.
" I never saw him in a friendly bout with the gloves. In his day he was a tremendous hitter. He dropped the game suddenly and for a reason which rests only on hearsay. The Boss always maintained that a bout with the gloves trained a man to keep his temper. If he lost his temper, then he had no right to keep on with the game.
" The story is told that on one occasion he was having a friendly bout with one of the Shannon boys. The Shannons were all nuggety and very powerful. This particular member of the family, in his bout with the Boss, got again and again under his opponent’s guard. This counteracted the big man’s reach and he was given a rather hectic and painful experience. He lost his temper and caught Shannon a vicious and terrific
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punch. The Boss, thereupon, true to his colours, tore the gloves off his hands and never donned another pair again.
" In cricket, it was an education to play with him or against him. He was graceful as a left-hand bat, and forceful as a right-hand bat. For a big man his footwork was beautiful to watch. He was never a big hitter. Every ball in the front of the wicket was played with a dead-straight bat. His cutting, square or fine, was strong and wristy. He shone as a captain in placing his field. Every fieldsman had to do his job. This was often not easy, especially when the Boss began to tempt the batsmen to hit out at his slow-break bowling.
Strange to say, he was not a fast bowler, but as a slow bowler he had the most marvellous control of the ball. He could make it break in either direction without sacrificing his length or disclosing the direction in which the ball would break.
"He was a fine sportsman. Scrupulously fair in decisions that he made, he never resented an unfair decision against himself or his team. I have seen him now and again make a gesture of irritation. In a second or two, however, he was his own serene self again. The game was played for the game’s sake.”
I can see him now in my mind’s eye on a glorious Saturday morning. He walks towards the steps that lead down the bank to the cricket ground. The boys are waiting for the time to begin the games, and are wrestling and frolicking on the grassy slopes. They hear a cheery " Good morning, boys.” Before they see
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him they stand up; off come their caps, not obsequiously, but in sincere respect and good-will. He is one of their own kind, but better than they. That is the firm conviction of them all.
I can see Firth again, standing head and shoulders above the biggest boys in the team. He says to them very quietly : " Win of course if you can. If you can’t, well —losing the game may do you more good than winning.”
During the progress of the match he does nothing to animate his boys by voice or gesture. It is enough for them that he is looking on. They cannot fail to see his lofty figure as they take now and then a quick glance at the side-line. They will do their best. If they win, they will be modest. If they lose, did he not say it will do them good. The better side has won, and the losers will make no excuses.
When I was president of the Old Boys’ Association, the football team lost an important game in the senior championship by the barest margin. They had scored a try near the posts but the referee, who was not up with the game, had failed to see the try, and it was not awarded. Should a protest be lodged ? The committee decided that Walter Bethune and I should see the Boss about it. We stated the case. The Boss said ;
" Under no circumstances whatever must any referee’s ruling be called in question.”
CHAPTER X.
Life and Character.
The choice of a profession reveals a man’s inclination and taste. The profession he chooses then becomes the main part of his life. If a teacher attains to a head mastership he assumes at once a much wider and more liberal calling.
Lan Hay, out of the wealth of his experience as a schoolmaster and man of letters has written : " Though a bad headmaster may not be able to wreck a good school, it is certain that no school can ever become great, or remain great, without a great man at the head of it.” This opinion may err on the side of generosity. Frankly, it may be admitted that a bad headmaster can ruin any school.
A headmaster is only one degree less than a despot. He is hardly a constitutional sovereign for he is not bound to accept the opinions of his advisors. He is an administrator and a man of affairs.
To be an administrator only is not enough for a great headmaster. He must also be a prophet, for although, like an ordinary man, he should live in the present, it is expected of the great headmaster that he
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project himself into the future. This makes him an architect; he must draw the plans of the school-life and the boy-life.
The necessity for making things run smoothly in his little kingdom turns the great headmaster into a statesman. When he finds that his kingdom is a psychological laboratory, Proteus, the headmaster, next becomes a scientific investigator.
He must never forget that, with all this distraction, he has to conduct the school as a successful business with the balance on the right side of the ledger. Thus he plays another part, that of business manager.
A headmaster must far excel the average man in his influence over boys. He requires personality and tact because he cannot rely alone on the dignity and authority of his official position.
He must not exalt old-fashioned methods or decry innovation, but maintain a proper balance between the two. Firth was a conservative in the true sense. He built on whatever was sound in the old foundations.
He was a radical also, in the right way. He would uproot all that stood in the way of vigorous growth of the best type of citizen for a new land in a new age ; a new land that may redress the balance of the old.
It must now be evident that a good headmaster surely is the real superman, and that supermen do exist. Such a man was J. P. Firth. He belongs to the company of Arnold of Rugby, Thring of Uppingham. Almond of Loretto, Haig Brown of Charterhouse, Butler of Harrow, and their kind.
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Firth of Wellington was in no way inferior to any of these great men. His task, on the whole, was more difficult than theirs. His work in the building up of a new colony on a sure foundation was of more importance than the mere maintenance of an order already well established. That was Arnold’s impartial opinion. It cannot be denied.
Firth’s breadth of outlook, his knowledge of the world, his insight into the nature of boys, his Herculean toil, were perhaps without parallel in any part of the world. AH this did not bring him praise, the one thing he least desired ; but it brought him the silent tribute of devotion. If it was excess of devotion, his followers erred ; but it was an excess which few men can inspire. To have brought this forth without conscious effort was not a fault of Firth’s, but a very rare virtue.
The greatness of his leadership was based, as all true greatness is, not on subtlety, but on simplicity. His nature was simple and generous and quick to forgive. He never expected anyone to do anything that he, the headmaster, could not do himself, and do it well. In this simple way he kept himself up to the highest standard attainable.
It was fortunate that Firth, before he had finally settled upon his career, gave evidence of his magnetic power over people, especially over boys. He was therefore encouraged by shrewd observers to devote his life to teaching.
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He had a strong personality, inflexible will, and a fine sense of fair-play. He was considerate of the feelings of others.
His firm will was not in any way related to obstinacy. His sense of justice and power of quick decision were the offspring of an alert and orderly mind. He owed much also to the promptings of a tender conscience even in minor matters. Thus his close attention to detail made him the master of every phase of the life of the boys and others under his command.
His magnificent physique gave him power. The resonant tones of his voice made his hearers hang upon his words. His wide and tolerant outlook on life, his own life as convincing evidence that he practised what he preached, all these qualities held his audience whether juvenile or adult.
This thoroughness of his, his attention to meticulous detail, was carried to the farthest extreme. From 1892 to 1920 he never got to bed before midnight, and was up at six o’clock in the morning. Nothing in connection with the school was beneath his notice. This was to a great extent the secret of his success as a headmaster, but at what a cost to himself. Even his iron frame at last was shattered. His nerve cells were all too soon exhausted ; the silver cord was loosed before the golden bowl was broken.
He took upon himself to investigate and keep under his own eye what headmasters nowadays regard as petty incidents beneath their notice. He gave his attention to every little detail such as boys late for school, boys
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absent from school, boys inattentive or failing to do their penalty work ; all this in addition to his class teaching, his general supervision, the control of the boarders, supervision of the school grounds and the school games, and accounts, reports and heavy correspondence.
If an Old Boy were asked the secret of the success of the Boss as a headmaster, he would probably answer : " Because he knew every boy in the school.” Parents discovered in conversation with him that he knew all about their boys, much more in many ways than the fathers and mothers had known. He did not forget the name or character of a boy when the boy grew into a man. Thus he kept his grip on the Old Boys.
This memory for faces and for names is a gift with some people, but Firth also cultivated it. At the beginning of the year it was his custom to go round each class and run his eye down the rows to spy out the new boys he did not know. Very few visits were necessary to enable him to know every boy in the school. Once he knew a boy he never forgot him or his strength or his weaknesses.
A boy is a very important personality in his own eyes. It hurts his dignity to be asked for his name by his master late in the year. When the roll grew from sixty to six hundred, Firth still knew each boy.
I can see him at the beginning of a new term stride into a class-room. He sits down and watches and makes notes on his pad. Then he rises, walks over to a boy, and points his finger at him.
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Suddenly he says : " Thompson, is it ? "
Thompson it is, or I am much mistaken.
Another of his great assets in dealing with people was his ability to keep silent. Delinquents were completely confounded in their excuses simply by his eloquent silence. He was quick-tempered ; that was why, I think, he had to learn the grace of silence. If someone displeased him, the tide of anger rose in him. Then came at once a quick gesture, an abrupt movement, and silence ; silence, that convenient cloak if only we all had the sense and the strength to use it.
The greatest shock a master could receive, if he had been remiss, was to endure the cold cross-questioning of the Head, who at the end of the interview would whirl round and stalk off without a word. The underling would later go to the study to make his peace. All he would hear in reply from the Boss probably would be the question asked quietly and kindly :
" How can a boy be expected to carry out regulations if the master himself neglects to do so ? ”
He was not lacking in humility. He would confess an error. His strong personality was free from egotism. He was always willing to learn from others. Many schoolmasters, like other people, allow nothing to be right but what they do themselves.
He knew little of chemistry but was profoundly interested in the subject. He would come and sit down in the chemistry classroom with the boys. First his
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entry would be heralded by his big hand lingering on the inside of the opening door to give due warning of his approach.
On one of these visits, a young master was in charge of the class. He prepared a sample of gas in a test-tube, and passed it to Jock Forbes to tell what it was. Jock’s reply was :
" Chlorine every toime ! ”
Quick as a flash came the Boss’s ejaculation
" Garn Jock ! Wotch yer givin ’ us ! ”
A terrible fall from Olympus, but surely a singularly apt answer to Jock’s carelessness of speech and demeanour towards a new master.
It was refreshing to see the Boss come in and sit down in the class, just like a big boy, hold up his hand to answer a question, or to ask for an explanation. Headmasters are not so unconventional as a rule. That is, they are not so human.
Firth had little of tradition to guide and inspire him. Tradition is that sacred fire which bums for ever from the smouldering ashes of great men. There were traditions he had to discard. They would not blend with freedom and democracy. There were traditions that he himself created.
His wisdom was based only partly on the study of books ; but all that was greatest in Rome, all that was noble in the spacious days of Queen Bess, was in his mind. He listened closely to the opinions of others and reflected upon them to find the truth. Thus he followed Solomon’s advice : " With all thy getting, get under-
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224
standing." I have heard him say to a boy : " Use your common-sense. Do you not know why common-sense is so called ? It's called common because it is so extremely rare."
Firth had not the wit and brilliance of his friend,
Alpers, nor his quick and agile mind. A natural courtesy saved Firth’s humour from irony and sarcasm. A mordant wit is dangerous in a schoolmaster. Many of his quips, it must be confessed, were too subtle for the immature minds of his boys.
He enjoyed a joke, particularly one against himself ; witness the Long Shanks story.
The Boss and Fritz Renner were one Saturday afternoon sitting on a seat by St. Mark’s fence watching the progress of the various cricket matches. An elderly and drunken man made his way past the line of spectators and came to unstable equilibrium right opposite the Boss.
Swaying backwards and forwards, with an unsteady eye on the Boss, the old reprobate said :
" Boss, I likes yer.”
He repeated this remark several times without receiving any reply. Then he asked a question :
" Boss, do yer know why I likes yer ? ”
No reply. Again the question, and again no reply. Then in a solemn voice, and with deliberation,
" I likes yer because yer such a damn rough-looking bloke! ”
This was a strange tribute to massive strength in repose. Fritz choked with suppressed laughter. The
225
Firth of Wellington.
rough-looking bloke took the old fellow’s arm and escorted him off the grounds, and then returned to his seat. Firth made no comment except an occasional quiet chuckle.
Firth’s appearance on holiday in Paris attracted great attention. He and Mrs. Firth were followed about the streets by people who were amazed at the sight of a pair of giants escaped, probably, from a circus. The recollection of this and similar incidents gave Firth many a laugh long after the episodes had passed.
An assistant master only about five feet in height was walking up the College path between Mr. and Mrs. Firth. A College boy coming behind with a school friend was heard to remark : " Say, Harry, not much meat in that sandwich.”
Firth was greatly amused at a story I told him. It was of the kind to appeal to him. An old and not over-educated whaling captain, a familiar sight dressed in a long sealskin coat, gave public lectures in New Zealand. At one of these he told of an adventure.
He was with his mates in a boat that had left the parent ship far behind and it was toward evening. They harpooned a whale, but the whale in its death-flurry, stove in the boat. Three survivors, including the lecturer, hauled themselves by the harpoon-rope on to the whale’s back. Darkness fell, and the whaling-ship was far out of sight. Unlike Jonah, they lived on the outside of the whale for three days and three nights.
They would have died of thirst, but one shower of rain fell, and what did the lecturer do ? He pulled out
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the harpoon and with it dug a little reservoir in the whale’s back to receive the gracious drops from heaven.
" It’s a damn lie,” called out a youth on a back seat of the hall.
The ancient mariner with an offended air stalked down to the culprit, held him with his glittering eye, and said :
" Young fellow, I would have you know that truth is stranger than friction.”
Firth’s collection of amusing stories was almost inexhaustible. They were all clean good fun. He never told and never countenanced a dirty story. He was a good actor, and his powers of imitation gave zest to his anecdotes. He could with equal facility impersonate to the life a German, a Jew, an Irishman or a Scotsman.
Two Old Boys prominently connected with the stage, Austin Strong and Cyrus Hales, the one a playwright and the other a leading actor, met Tom Seddon in New York a few years ago, and in general conversation expressed their admiration of the dramatic powers possessed by their old headmaster. By the way, Robert Louis Stevenson sent Austin Strong to Wellington College from Vailima in Samoa.
Good paintings gave Firth great pleasure. He possessed several fine examples by well-known artists. He was one of the first to discover the merit of Nairn, a New Zealand artist who had commenced his studies in the Glasgow school.
227
Firth of Wellington.
Nairn’s paintings were in the impressionist style. His earlier work was condemned by orthodox critics. Firth, however, supported Nairn and estimated his work at what is now considered its true value. He also upheld that erratic genius, Van der Velden, who in his declining days repeatedly informed his friends that " der vas only tree great men in dis world, The Man of Sorrows, Napoleon Buonaparte and Van der Velden.”
Firth had a keen perception for dramatic art, pictures and literature, but not a highly-trained and refined ear for music. Nevertheless, he promoted the teaching of music in the school. He occasionally sang a song.
His ear was better attuned to the rhythm and the delicate harmonies of verse and prose. Tennyson was his favourite. He liked the rise and swell of Byron’s poetry; the virility of Kipling, and the strange mysticism of Rosetti. He was well versed in the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, Scott and Stevenson.
Of his kindness every boarder can tell. His servants can speak with gratitude of his consideration and generous treatment. He was more than kind. He was full of compassion for the poor and the distressed. A man of most generous impulses, a liberal giver, he let no deserving cause ever appeal to him in vain. He could not bear to witness the suffering even of a dumb animal.
Martin Tweed was wakened one night in his bed in the dormitory and found Firth’s hand grasping his shoulder.
" Martin, dress quickly and come with me."
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Life and Character.
They went downstairs to the armoury. The Boss slipped a cartridge from his pocket into the breech of a rifle and the boy followed the man through the near-by gate to the cow-paddock. Here a cow was lying in great pain and moaning piteously.
" This has been going on for an hour. I can’t stand it,” said Firth.
" You shoot the poor creature, Martin. I can't."
An Old Boy and a friend of the Boss hurried off the hospital ship to the train at Auckland on his return from the War. His little daughter was dying in Wellington. The funeral was three days after his homecoming. In a week or so he went to see the Boss at the College. The father outwardly calm as the result of an intense effort saw the tears falling down the cheeks of the big strong man. No words could have been so eloquent.
Firth hardly ever accepted a social engagement. He was something of a recluse, not by inclination but from a sense of duty to the school. Mrs. Firth had other opinions, and took her place in the social life of Wellington, and dispensed generous hospitality.
She saw her part in life as complementary to her husband’s, revealing in perfection those elements of character for which he had neither leisure, aptitude, nor inclination. She lifted every burden she could carry from his shoulders. She radiated an atmosphere of confidence and of serenity in his home. She gave him advice, not obtrusively. She became an antidote to the
o
229
Firth of Wellington.
poisonous oppression of wearisome routine. She gave her strength to support the almost overpowering weight of responsibility.
Trouble and sickness among the boys engaged her sympathy, if possible more than his own. His greatest good fortune was his wife. She was justly entitled to a half share in his success. He would have allowed her the credit in full. Mrs. Firth in a dark and difficult hour was never perturbed. Her calmness and self-possession were the secret of her strength.
As host in his own house, as a man mixing with men, Firth had a charming personality. He wanted to hear the opinions of others rather than give expression to his own. He made guests talk at their ease and now and then interposed a shrewd or witty comment of his own. He was a good listener. He had a quality possessed by few speakers ; he knew when to stop.
On Saturday or occasionally on Sunday evenings the Firths had visitors for supper. Friendships then became closer and warmer. Mr. Meek says that he and others had many an evening yarn in Firth’s study, talking over everything in Heaven and Earth and the waters under the Earth.
Their host would convince guests deep in literary lore that Macbeth is the greatest tragedy in any language. He might introduce the poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, of which he was very fond. He might repeat with just feeling and appreciation The Blessed Damosel and The Stream’s Secret. The general conversation was not, of course, so serious.
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Firth, during the vacations, travelled extensively. He knew New Zealand thoroughly, Rotorua, Auckland, the beloved evergreen West Coast. Their bicycles in the old days, when petrol fumes were unknown, took his wife and him to many secluded and enchanted places. He loved best the high mountains and the snow. The memory of those days and of those bewitching sights, like a faithful companion, remained with him to the end.
A. R. Meek was lucky enough to meet Firth on the way to Mount Cook about 1904. They tramped to the Make Brun hut together. It was a sight to see Firth sitting in front of the hut on the evening of their arrival there. He was watching in silent awe the effect of the sunset on those majestic peaks, tingeing their virgin purity with a rosy glow, while two keas played king of the castle on a rock at his side.
There was a lighter side to this expedition. They had taken one or two bottles of whisky.
On the long and rocky track down from the Make Brun to the Hermitage, the " Long ’Un ” got footsore, and Guide Clark advised him that the best remedy was to rub the soles of his feet with whisky. When his companion looked at the size of the feet and then at the scanty remains of the whisky, his heart sank within him.
Occasionally Firth spent a holiday at Marlborough sheepstations. He conferred a distinction on one of these places by lying on his back and lifting a waggon off the ground with his feet. He might truly have said after that trial of strength, as they say in Ireland,
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Firth of Wellington.
" Thank God, I have me health ! ”
Firth was above political faction. No one knows to what party he might have loosely adhered. He admired Mr. Seddon for his vigour, his patriotism and his regard for the bottom dog.
In Firth’s position as Head of Wellington College it would have been inexpedient for him to give utterance to anything that savoured of politics. The boys taught were sons of parents of all shades of political thought; a few of the fathers were leaders in Parliament. Firth, like the wise man he was, was more concerned with the character of the man than with his party label. If an Old Boy stood for Parliament, Firth in a quiet way would support him, irrespective of party.
Firth was an outstanding example of a man who without flaunting his Christianity before the world was yet deeply religious. He carried his principles into daily practice. He spoke the truth from his heart.
I can find only one direct reference to religion in anything he wrote to deliver publicly on a Speech Day. In his hatred of hypocrisy, he appears somewhat to overstate his case. He wrote :
" School work in the ordinary acceptation of the term is only one important part of school life. There are other things still more important, but to talk intimately and familiarly about the formation of character and the soul’s aspirations after the loftier concepts of the human mind is sometimes only sounding brass and tinkling cymbal by way of advertisement for the huckstering pedlar.”
Life and Character.
232
Firth had a deep knowledge of the Scriptures. He knew that the Bible does not extol mere knowledge. It praises wisdom and sternly denounces human vanity. Again and again with expressive voice and no less impressive manner, he quoted from that inspired source, sometimes directly and sometimes by paraphrase :
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Play hard, work hard.”
" The boy who gives most to his school gets most out of his school. Let him be the servant of all.”
"Do men gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles ? ”
"You may ask as Cain did of old, Am I my brother’s keeper ? The answer is—You are. You are.”
" Follow the Christ, the King.”
Firth hated intolerance in any form. An elderly Pharisee had said of young Firth : " He is not completly perfect in Grace, but he’s young of course.” This came to Firth’s ears.
He referred to it in a letter to a friend : " The longer I live,” he wrote, " and I have lived but a little time yet, the more is it driven in upon me that man is intolerant beyond measure. Much of the unhappiness of life is, I think, included in that characteristic.”
Firth quoted in this same letter a verse that had impressed him deeply, written by a poet who believed, but needed more help for his unbelief. The tenderness and pathos of these lines touched quickly-responsive chords:
Firth of Wellington.
233
" Yet God knows—
If God there be —I would give my life to know
The strong belief of old, when little hands
Were folded morn and eve, and little eyes
Scarce open from the night, or half weighed down
By the long hours of play were raised to see
Heaven in a mother’s gaze.”
His philosophy as a teacher was based on the maxim in the motto of Wellington College —Lumen accipe et imperti. Absorb the light of knowledge and diffuse it. Teaching boys and moulding them into men was all he needed. There was nothing he could do that was more important. The rest, others might do better. To him, a true teacher, this was a rich and colourful experience.
Firth of Wellington had an adventurous spirit that was Elizabethan ; a gravity that was Cromwellian ; and an abiding sense of duty which perhaps was Victorian but belongs to great and good men in all ages. Sometimes he appeared like a Demosthenes denouncing the lax spirit and weaknesses of his time ; but he will be chiefly remembered as a kind friend, a helpful guide, a man greatly beloved.
A calm and mellow philosophy had arisen out of his experience of life. It sustained him to its close, when his soul was at length set free, leaving his " outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea.”
CHAPTER XI
Life’s End.
A long illness almost free from pain towards the close of life is not without its compensations, although they are few. Heartburning, ambition and all turbulence should be past. Seclusion gives pause for thought, for reckoning, and for the finding of true values.
In this spiritual breathing-space there is time to look after, and before. There is room for a mild satisfaction in the things that have been done reasonably well. It is too late to bemoan failures. There is no place for self-righteousness. There is no place even for self-satisfaction to a man whose aim in life has been high. Firth of Wellington had come to this penultimate stage. His long day was drawing to its close. Gradually he was forced to retire to his bedroom above the livingroom. The view from the bedroom windows was even more magnificent than the prospect from the ground floor.
A sun-porch opened into the sleeping quarters. This porch was furnished with an easy chair and a large swinging-cot. It met full-face the first rays of the morning sun ; it snatched a last sidelong glance to the west at the end of day.
235
Life’s End.
236
The sea lay down below, and on it the frequent coming and going of ships. In the distance the magnificence of God’s handiwork, quiet and still; near at hand, the busy hive of His creatures at their work in office and shop and street ; the rumble of their traffic on wheels and rails.
There was peace in the old man’s quiet eyes. There was wisdom in strength’s decay. His philosophy of life did not fail him in the end. He did not fear the power of any adversary, through a Might that was not his own.
No doubt he felt the pathos of it all, and at times there may have been clouds and darkness round him. To be able to endure hardness had been his aim for his boys ; he would endure hardness himself. He had seen many vicissitudes since he had been a boy. A boy ardent in the fresh and cool young world ; an old and failing man, and the fires of life burning low. The same, what a strange thing is a lifetime in retrospect. The old familiar lines came to his mind :
" Sing me a song of a lad that is gone —
Say, could that lad be I ?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.
Billow and breeze, islands and seas
Mountains of rain and sun
All that was good, all that was fair,
All that was me is gone.”
There is no need to linger over a good man's last days, or to lift the curtain of the closing scene. He had
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F'.r th of Wellington.
all the service that heart-felt and lifelong devotion could supply. The faithful companion of his youth was at his side.
" Nothing but well and fair, and what may quiet us in a death so noble.”
On the 13th day of April, 1931, in his seventy-third year, came the end, or was it not the beginning for him of a world of light? On Wednesday, the 15th day of April, his earthly form came for the last time into the Hall of Memories.
His coffin was covered with the Union Jack, the College flag, and on these lay the insignia of St. Michael and St. George. The pall-bearers at the Hall were Messrs. A. de Brandon, M. C. Barnett, R. Darroch and W. W. Cook, Col. R. St. J. Beere and Dr. J. S. Elliott ; and at the cemetery, Messrs. Meek, Desborough, Luckie, Renner, Ronaldson and Simmonds.
" Walk gently ; the Master sleeps.”
Later, a memorial bronze was placed on the wall of the main staircase. The bronze bore his favourite words :
" Follow the Christ, the King.
Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow
the King
Else wherefore born.”
Applied to himself, they are his epitaph.
Life’s End.
238
The Ven. Archdeacon H. W. Monaghan, M.A., a former pupil and assistant master, came from Timaru to preach the funeral oration. This is a full report :
My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.
! ' These words of grief were wrung from the lips of a young man gazing affrighted at the passing of one who had been in himself a tower of strength in a crisis which threatened to destroy his country. All that morning, sad and silent, he had walked at his master's side, and certain men kept intruding on his sorrow with their idle chattering. ' Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head this day,' and he turned impatiently upon them,
' Yea, I know it, I know it, hold ye your peace.'
" And as I stand to-day before this great gathering of Old Boys to pay a tribute to the memory of him, who in the school, was indeed the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof, to everything I say I hear a murmur from you all, ' Yea, we know it, we know it, hold ye your peace.'
" This is not a public service ; we all belong to the fellowship of the school, and we belong to him. I leave it to those who have a right to speak for this city and this country to pay their tribute to his memory for citizenship and the patriotism which to the end burned with a passion in his great and loyal heart. Let it suffice for me to speak of those memories we share together, with him here in the place he loved and made us love so well.
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F t rth of Wellington.
" It is not difficult to analyse the qualities which go to make a great schoolmaster. He must first of all be very human and able to see life with the eyes of a boy ; he must have always and in all things a steadfastly judicial mind, and added to his reverence for truth and justice he must have a strength which will enforce his judgment with an unbending discipline. Then you must add an enthusiasm which comes only by vocation and, most precious of all, a paternal love, which will transfuse his work with a tenderness which will open young hearts to him. Take these qualities and blend with them that unchartered mystery which we call a personality, and you will by the grace of God get a great Headmaster, and all these things we found in him we mourn to-day.
"We called him ' The Boss ’ and we felt we honoured him in doing so. Now this is strange because the name in any other connection is usually an unpleasant one. The will to dominate and rule if allied to selfishness, conceit and arrogance, is an ugly, evil thing. It is only if it is allied to some noble and unselfish ideal that it becomes a virtue. And that is just what we saw in the case of ' The Boss.’
" His soul was consumed with a great love for the school ; he had a vision before him of what he could make of the school and the kind of men he would send forth from its classrooms and playingfields. Because his discipline was part and parcel of this ideal it satisfied us, and we loved him for it.
Life’s End.
240
" Deep down in every human soul is a sense of the ought and ought not. It is part of our nature as created beings to lean on authority higher than ourselves. In these days when the democracies of the world are tottering, and the nations are crying out for leaders, it were well if we remembered the lesson he taught us, and to pray that in the face of all these ideas of modern educationists and presumptuous psychologists that here in the old school this tradition will remain.
" Then do you remember how he used to drum into us the phrase ' school spirit.' Many a one of us who came here with small, paltry, narrow loyalties went out into the world knowing that it was the school, the side, and not the self that mattered. In this he was only repeating the lesson of a greater teacher ' whosoever shall lose his self, his life, his spirit, shall find.' He sunk his soul, his life, in the spirit of the school, so it is not surprising, as the names on this wall tell, that so many learnt the lesson.
" But there is something more precious than these things, something which alone can explain the power he had over us.
" All through his life here he had by his side one who shared his ideals and inspired him to fulfil them. To her this day, we, the boys and Old Boys of this school, tender our remembrance and sympathy. They had no children of their own, and this, their loss, was our great gain.
" I think that some boys went all through their school life here without seeing that behind the stern discipline
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Firth of Wellington.
there was something else, something akin to a father's love and solicitude. We couldn't mistake it when we came back as Old Boys. We can see him now. When we were afar off he came striding towards us with a smile of welcome and a handshake which overwhelmed us.
" What is the measure of a man ? Is it the amount of wealth he accumulates ? Is it the power he has to dominate his fellow men ? Is it to be found in the fame which the world attaches to his name ? Or is it to be found in the number of friends he makes, the hearts that love him ?
" All over New Zealand this week, all over the Empire, men for weeks to come will be arrested by this news, and their thoughts will fly back here and they will mourn for him who was for them not only a schoolmaster but a friend.
" May I be allowed to speak a word for all who have served with him on the staff of the school ? One of the greatest tributes to his worth as a great headmaster is surely the consistent respect, admiration and affection which he always called forth from the men who served with him.
" As one who served for a short while on the staff I saw a little of the consideration and loyal comradeship in him which called forth this devotion. We know even better than boys or Old Boys can know the greatness of his leadership.
Life’s End.
242
" Death is inseparable from sorrow in human life. We feel to-day :
' As when some kingly cedar green with bough,
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.'
" But he would be the last to want us to tune our hearts to-day to sentiment and sorrow. He has done his share of work for this school, more than any other man can ever do, but not more than yet remains to be done. We, gathered here to-day in his presence —boys, Old Boys, masters, will surely honour his memory best by consecrating ourselves to a greater loyalty to the school, his and ours.
"So death ends all. And the pity of it, says the materialist.
" Death ends nothing. It cannot even destroy the material body which it leaves behind it. It can only change it back to the elements from which it came. The soul of the man, it cannot touch : ' his soul goes marching on.'
" As we grow older, and the years in passing snatch from us old friends and old companions, death should begin to lose its sting.
' Doth not death fright you ?
Who would be afraid on 't
Knowing to meet such excellent company
In the other world '."
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Firth of Wellington.
We can best follow in the footsteps of Firth of
Wellington, even if only afar off, if,
" We pray that we who hold the fort
May with an equal courage pace our beat,
Till, unashamed, we can at last report —
" RELIEF COMPLETE.”
Index.
Adolescent Boys .... .... irj4
Almond of Loretto 14,1
— _„... w . ~ wy Alpers, O. T. J. ']" 46> 50
Armour, W. A. [35
> • ■— IJO Arnold of Rugby 123, 149, 151, 153
Atkinson, A. R. ' 27
Balfour, Earl ... .... . iqi jg.
Barnett, M. C. Q4 ' | B3
D ' - t yH > lQi Darnett, bir Louis .... ... .... 35 3<
oarnicoat, J. T. .... ... j A
Bee, James 53 117
Beere, Col. R. St. J 218
Bell, Rt. Hon. Sir Francis .... .... 75 93
Bethune, Walter E 133
™ ble > ihe 113.208.213
Birdwood, General .... 95
Boer War ... .... .... .._. 77
Boss, The ... .... .... ... 54
Boxing 36. 131. 183. 195
Brandon, A. de B. ... ... g2
Brandon, Bathe .... \y\
British Empire .... .... jgg
Brodie. T. 76 js7
Brown, Prof. Macmillan 45 32
Bunney, E. P. .... .... .... .... ... 33
Burns, Tommy ... .... .... .... 186
Butler of Harrow .... ... .... .... .... .... 199
£ adetS , U „ 91,94,114,134
Canterbury College .... . 45 AA
Chemistry Class ... 203
Christchurch .... A c
._„ .... _ Christ's College .... .... 43 180 192
Citizens' War Memorial .... .... 140
Clifton School 15c
Cobden Township ig io J9
Cocks, HS. 53, 76
College House ' yg
Conscientious Objectors .... .... oq
225
245
Index.
Cook, W. W. 218
Corporal Punishment ... ... .... 40, 122
Cresswell, T. R. 136
Cricket ... . .... 35
Darroch, Robert 218
Democracy 82.83,96,116,204
Desborough, H, 218
Development, Physical .... .... .... 70
Discipline ... ... ■■• 221
Drill, Military 91
Education ... 84,86-91,145
English Language ........ 154
Eton School . .... . . .... .... .... 158
Evans, Dr. W. P. 48,53
Evening Post ... .... . . .... 96
Fergusson, General Sir Charles .. . .... .... .... 134
Firth, Aaron 17,21
Firth, J. P.; birth and parentage, 17 ; boyhood in Cobden, 21 ; at Nelson College, 25, 28 ; assistant master ac Wellington College, 34 ; head master, 49 ; on holiday, 78, 92, 206, 211 ; his appearance. 26, 58 ; his patriotism, 88, 120, 160; discipline. 28. 69, 118, 121, 122, 221 ; sense of fair-play, 40, 55, 201 ; his skill at games, 29, 119, 192, 194; his punctuality, 71 ; his humour, 110, 205; his knowledge of every boy, 202 ; his influence on boys, 13, 200 ; his simplicity, 200 ; firmness of will, 201 ; his sympathy, 172, 173 ; his resignation of headmastership, 90. 97, 98, 126 ; C.M.G., 128 ; his illness, 127, 130, 142, 216 ; his Wadestown home, 138 ; his public services, 140 ; his lay ministry, 147 ; his philosophy, 6, 148 ; politics, 212 ; on secondary education, 154 ; attention to detail, 195. 201 ; his gift of silence, 203 ; his humility, 66. 203 ; his artistic feeling, 108, 207 ; his kindness, 208 ; his social life, 209, 210 ; his religion, 147, 212 ; his hatred of intolerance, 213 ; his last days, 216 ; his funeral, 218.
Firth House 133
Firth, Mrs. 47,50,51,56,99,105,137,142
Football ...... 29
Free Places . 81,93, 154
French Language 63
Freyberg, V.C., Major-General 55, 128. 168
Funeral Oration .... ... .... 219
Gifford, A. C. 44,74,93, 116
Goldmining ... 20
"i""""" © ■■■ *- v Grace. W. G. 14?
Greymouth 18
Grey River Gorge 22
Grey, Sir George .... . .... 51
Index.
227
Haig Brown, of Charterhouse 199
Hales, Cyrus 207
Hamilton, General Sir lan .... .... .... .... .... .... 94
Hay, lan 198
Headmaster ship .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 198
Heine, Augustus .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 53,93 tj i___ 1 in
Howlers 129
Internationalism .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 161
Intolerance .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ... 213
Ivanhoe .... ... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 163
Jellicoe, Lord 130, 133, 176
Jenness, Dr. Diamond 168
Jubilee of Wellington College .... .... .... .... .... 132
King, Sir Truby 153
Kitchener, Lord .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 115
Lamb, Charles .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 143 T _^*_
Latin 63
Leckie, Frank M. .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 37
Luckie, Martin .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 218
Lumen Accipe et imperii .... .... .... .... .... .... 214
Littlejohn, Dr 27
Long Shanks .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Hi
Macdonald, General Sir Hector .... .... .... .... .... 78
Mackay, Joseph 25, 34,40
Make Brun 211
Marlborough Province .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 211
Massey, Rt. Hon. W. F. 99
McDougall, Capt. Allan 171
McFarland, George ... .... .... .... .... .... .... 80
Meek, A. R 37,211
Memorial Hall 95, 134, 2lB
Millard, J. N 191, 194
Monaghan, Archdeacon .... .... .... .... .... 194 219
Myers, Rt. Hon. Sir Michael 13
Nairn, James 106,207
Napier, General Sir William 59
National Defence League .... .... .... .... 141
_ _—„ — i _ T t Navy League 142 175
Nelson City .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 24
Nelson College 23,25,30
Nelson, The 18
Old Boys' Association 96 ( 120, 129 133
Old Boys' Day .... .... .... .... .... 94
247
Index
Parr, Hon. Sir C. J 98
Patriotism . . 160
Playing Fields 35,57,75. 188
1 IBf 1115 1 lUUO .... )J, /I , t J , iOO Politeness 68, 155
Powles, Colonel C. G. ' 170
Prefects 116,151
Prizes 154
Prize-fight, A 186
Renner, F. Martyn 60,77,188,194,205
Revenge, The ' US,', 164
Rifle Shooting .... 114 187
Rugby School ... 151
Russell, General Sir Andrew 141
Rutherford, Lord 27
Scabs 1 07
School Life 101 a a 1. .
Schoolmasters 102
School Spirit .... .... 155 221
Science 152
Seddon, Rt. Hon. R. J. 76 73 82
Seddon, T. E. Y. 172
Shackleton Expedition 95
Some Observations 0} a Foster Parent 155
Speech, Purity of 61
Sport 29, 177
State Control 145, 156
Strong, Austin .... 207
Suter, Bishop . .... .... 25
Swimming 187
Switzerland 79
Swots 107
Tarver, John Charles 155
Thistle, W. G. .... 34
Thring of Uppingham 24, 151. 152
Tradition ... 2CM
Tripe, G. C. P. 53
Tweed, Dr. Martin 155,208
m. ........ _-. .......... IJJ,4.\JO Van der Velden .... .... 208
Wangnnui Collegiate School 182
War Profiteers 142 174
War, the Great 94 166
" - ■ ——* y<t, 100 Ward, W. F. 46 , 53, 56, 75 98
Watkins, Laurence 4g
Wellington ~...,. 17 139
Wellington College 51.66,67,102,103,130
The 77 171 w;—» r*~... •'. .'„ ...
West Const 18 19 21
Wilson, Kenneth 34 52
PRINTED BY WHITCOMBE 8. TOMBS LIMITED
• ABOUT THIS HOOK •
Firth's Period of Office . . .
Firth's period of office from 1892 to 1920 and his earlier appointment to the College was fraught with incidents . . . some amusing, others sad, but always was his pleasant unassuming understanding of the scholars to the fore. Sir James Elliott, last year's successful author of " Scalpel and Sword," brings to life again those memories of the College days you knew.
The Chapter Headings are . • •
Early Years .. . Assistant Master. . . Headmaster. . . Fruitful Years . . . School Life . . . Later Years . . . Outlook on Education ... His Patriotism . . . Sport . . . Life and Character . . . Life's End.
PrINTEO BY WhITCOMBE ft TOMBB LIMITED.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/books/ALMA1937-9917504003502836-Firth-of-Wellington
Bibliographic details
APA: Elliott, James, Sir. (1937). Firth of Wellington. Whitcombe & Tombs.
Chicago: Elliott, James, Sir. Firth of Wellington. Auckland, N.Z.: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1937.
MLA: Elliott, James, Sir. Firth of Wellington. Whitcombe & Tombs, 1937.
Word Count
53,653
Firth of Wellington Elliott, James, Sir, Whitcombe & Tombs, Auckland, N.Z., 1937
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