"BANE OF MODERN LIFE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 39, 16 February 1931, Page 5

"BANE OF MODERN LIFE."

HEADMASTER OUTSPOKEN.

"RUSH AFTER, PLEASURE." GRAMMAR LIBRARY OPENED. A plea tliat something be done toI wards overcoming the modern rush after pleasure, novelty and excitement, and restoring to domestic life the pure joy that comes from a selection of good books and a cheerful fireside, was made by Mr. 11. J. D. Mahon, headmaster of the Auckland Grammar School, at the opening of a new library building at the school on Saturday. The building was a. gift from the Old Boys. Mr. Mahon, who thanked the Old Boys on behalf of the school, said the beginnings of a library were established in 1908. Its growth had been helped by an endowment of Mr. E. Earle Vaile and a bequest of the late Mr, P. S Bridson, an Old Boy and a University scholar, who fell at Gallipoli. In the diamond jubilee year Air. Eliot Davis had headed a subscription list with a donation of £250, and the organisation of the executive of that year, under Mr. A. St. C. Brown as president, had ensured the success of. the scheme. Mr. Mahon quoted Macaulay on "the pleasures that may be derived from intercourse with the great minds and beautiful spirits of bygone ages" as follows: "That placid intercourse is disturbed by no jealousies or resentments. These are the old friends who arc never seen with new faces, who are the same in wealth and in poverty, in glory and in obscurity. With the dead there is no rivalry. In the dead there is no change. Plato is never sullen. Cervantes is never petulant. Demosthenes never comes unseasonably. Dante never stays too long. Xo difference of political opinion can alienate Cicero. Xo heresy can excite the horror of Bossuet." The headmaster continued: "If we are able to cultivate in our beautiful library some appreciation of the truth enshrined in that eloquent passage of English prose, we shall have done something towards overcoming what is the bane of modern life—the feverish rush after pleasure, novelty and excitement—and we may succeed in restoring to our domestic life the pure joy that comes from a selection of good books and a cheerful fireside." Appreciation of the generosity of Old Boys, who had contributed £1000, was expressed by Mr. Mahon. The amount had been subsidised £ for £ by the Government. Mr. Eliot Davis, president of the Old Boys' Association, asked the chairman to accept the new library in commemoration of the diamond jubilee. He said the principal part in launching the scheme had been played by Mr. A. St. 0. Brown, who was his predecessor in office, and the completion of the effort was largely due to Mr. Brown and his co-workers. Xo gift could have had a greater value to the school than the library, said Professor Thomas. The board accepted it with the greatest pleasure. The ceremony was attended by a large gathering of Old Boys, including Captain Albert Duder, for'uerly headmaster at Auckland, who attended the school I on the day it was opened in 1869. The scholars wore also present. A gold key, with which the building was opened, was presented to Professor Thomas by Mr. W. A. Cumming, the architect.