The ODD ANGLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 296, 15 December 1942, Page 2

The ODD ANGLE

(By MacCLURE.) • FLOG 'EM AND MAKE MEN OF 'EM Mr. P. Milner, rector of the Waitaki High School, is not "a sloppy sentimentalist." He wants to turn out he-men "tough enough to face the stern realities of life." To do this he must have the power to punish the pupils entrusted to him by the good old method of caning them at least. He doesn't say "at least" in his letter to the Waitaki High School board of governors, which received his letter of protest, but we can take it that the amiable rector meant it that way. One cannot imagine him wanting to go any further than this. 'I ask the board whether they want me to add to the current deluge of sloppy sentimentality by turning out, at Waitaki, jellyfish and molluscs or he-men with backbone and spirit tpugh enough to face the stern realities of life?" he wrote. The board saw his point, and when the resolution, "That the power to administer the cane be taken from the prefects at Waitaki as from the beginning of the next school term" was put, only the mover and seconder voted for it. • SEVENTY YEARS AGO The right method of training our lads "to face the stern realities of life" will always be a matter for debate. Flogging them may, of course, be the right way. Selecting teachers fully equipped to teach without the necessity of doing this is another. There was even a time (and not so long ago, either) when certain folks were uncertain as to whether it was advisable to extend the benefits of "a schooling" to the children of the "lower classes." This, as the Press of that day (1870) pointed out when considering the then Newgate prison chaplain's report, is a matter on which "to warn the British taxpayer of the assessment which he will have to meet not only for the instruction of the young barbarians in his parish, but also lor the construction of the additional prisons which their educational development will render necessary . . . they can read and write with ease and fluency; in fact their reading and writing is their ruin . . . they have gone to school early and remained there far beyond the time which is supposed to equip the intellect and arm the character of the young peasant The rest is too sickening to bother about.

• THE CHAPLAIN'S REPORT But we owe it to that Newgate prison chaplain (of 1868) to reveal something of what he observed for himself—"Most of them have committed robbery, generally with violence . . . what was their impelling motive? In this, as in the generality of cases, it was a wild emulation of the vulgar heroes of the cheap Press (there was one then), the mock bravoes, the pinchbeck Duvals of the half-penny journals (he said half-penny) with their tinsel gallantry and felonious hardihood . . . here, then, was the source from which they derived their notions which they later carried out buying pistols which they loaded to the muzzle, boxing-gloves, foils, etc." Terrible. Penny-dreadfuls. Well, they taught the lads to read and you see what came of it, don't you? But— "A few dirty magazines or half-penny papers (why does he harp on that forgotten price), with a wretched engraving of a burglarious murder and a blotchy representation of a frowsy harlot first taint the mind of these "educated" lads, the next step is a visit to a stinking theatre (don't get your back up, Mike, this was 1868) in which the adventures of these demigods and their congenial companions, are. represented. Then comes the practical results. First, the till is pilfered, then a cheque forged. By degrees, early success nres the bosom to deeds of more daring felony, until, at iast, under the influence of drink and lust the young bravo ventures to batten in the brains of an old woman or defenceless man Such are the careers of scores of young lads who have hitherto had the luck to keep out of the clutches of policemen, but who are doubtless destined for the stone-yard of the prison." Free education? Ugh. No wonder these school-tie chaplains desired to save the then "modern youth" from the evil effects of it.

• RE THAT "RECORD TRIP" OP THE TOFUA Percy Lindley writes: I fancy your story of "the longest voyage home is beaten. Leaving Liverpool on January 25 last, we reached Wellington on May 19. Booking in London by the Blue Star Line we found waiting us, instead of the lady liner, an ancient single-decked Swedish tramp. "That, sir, is your ship. The engines of the dear old thing ran at intervals, losing one day the previous day's mileage. With deck and some cabins afloat, we drifted into Wellington. Noah's Ark Auckland a month later. Quite a nice joy trip, but good to get on terra firma. As the old lady said, "less terror, much firmer." The War Transport Department, not the Shipping Company, was responsible for the quick-change ship.