DEMAND FOR BOYS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 76, 11 January 1936, Page 6

DEMAND FOR BOYS.

EMPLOYMENT IN SYDNEY. i A HEADMASTER'S EXPERIENCE. (Special to the "Guardian.") AUCKLAND, January 10. The effect that the depression in Australia has had. on the .scholastic careers of some secondary school pupils was referred to this morning by Mr H. C. Dettmann (headmaster of Sydney Grammar School), who is visiting Auckland after an absence of 13 years. Mr Dettmann, who arrived by the Monowai from Wellington this morning, was Professor of Classics at Auckland University College from 1908 to 1923, when ho returned to Sydney to take up his present position.

"I have not had an opportunity of studying the education system in New Zealand on this trip; but I can say that interest in education is Australia, as in New Zealand, is very keen," said Mr Dettmann. "The schools in Australia, like everything else, suffered considerably through the depression, boys leaving school too soon and jumping eagerly at the first job offering, for fear that there would not be another position for them later on. "That all seems to have passed now, however. Sydney Grammar School is ono of the eight great public schools of Australia, and my difficulty at the moment is to find boys for the jobs that are offering. I think it is one of the real indications of returning prosperity that the schools have again a waiting list, and that there is really no difficulty in finding positions for normal boys." Mr Dettmann said there had been a great outcry in Australia recently against the mass examination system; but a good deal of tho comment was very exaggerated. They could not do without examinations, he said, although, of course, any system was capable of improvement. It might interest New Zealanders, he said, to know that sport played a very prominent part in school life in Australia. The great sporting event of tho year was the schools' boat race on the Parramatta River, which attracted anything up to 80,000 people. It provided a great spectacle, and usually a great race. (Sydney Grammar lost the race by three feet this season, and won tho year before. The standard of .rowing in the schools was very high.