Page 1 Advertisements Column 5

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7831, 25 June 1909, Page 1

I advise every young fellow in New South Wales to follow only the vocation he is in until he contrives to qualify himself for another higher still," said Mr G. H. Reid in an ad- , dress at Sydney last week. "I was the son of a poor man. I had to go to work when I was thirteen years old. I had no -High School, Grammar School, or University. I had to go to work to earn my own living. And I think it was the grandest thing ever happened to me. 1 learned much more in the first year at tha office than ever I had learned at school. But then I still had ambition. I wanted to reach higher than the vocation of a clerk, respectable though it is. I had always the ambition, to enter public affairs. At eight or nine my great ambition was to become a preacher. (Laughter.) My father was a minister; and, listening to him—he was one of the most eloquent men who ever entered a pulpit; his name stands in a famous book on elocution, side by side with the five most eloquent men that ever were— listening to him, I got my inspiration. I got it from that noble father of mine. [ only wish I could be half as good as him." It is to be hoped that the worthy father knew at least a little more of the rules of English grammar than his sob. Perhaps, however, Mr Reid's closing sentence is intended by him to show what Australian political oratory is when on its high places. Add the implicit verb, and observe how the sentence referred to reads: "I only wish I could be half as good ( as him was." .«