ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20788, 23 February 1933, Page 13

ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

—« STUDY AND SPORT. SENSE OF PROPORTION. tl-JIOM I>CS OWK tOJtllßSrOfcDßK'l'•> LONDON. January 6. In bis presidential address at' the conference of the Headmasters' Association, Mr Frank Fletcher, headmaster 0!' Charterhouse, said it- was »ot well that tlicru should be any of oiu secondary schools from which any suction oi the nation's boyhood was excluded, merely for want ot money. The imniic schools, it hod been said, were open to everyone—like the Kuz Hotel. ' Laughter.) it Was btill one of our problems how to break down in tlio uiinds of the public generally the barrier supposed 10 exist between so-called public and oilier secondary schools. lii 6 distinction had long ceased to be real, and ovcrv vei'.r nrnde it more meaningless. Extent iu the purely parliamentary meaning, which would confine the namu to f he nine schools of the Public Schools Act. or in the purely snobbish interpretation which made it a matter of expense or of social position, it was impossible for anyone now to draw any clervr dividing line within the secondary schools of the country. The essential ideals of education were alike in all schools. The "public school spirit was not the monopoly of any one school or class of schools; it was not the sudden creation of any one epoch.' Games, not Brains. Poets and parents and others who ought to have known better preached as "a rule of life the exhortation to "Pluv up. play up, and let who can be clever. "1 do not," he added, "suppose thqt England ia degenerate because slie litis lost a Test match, or that Cambridge is degenerate because Oxford won the Uugby match; nor will I think Oxtord decadent if she does not win the boat race." (Laughter and cheers.) But, lie proceeded, we did tvem at one time 10 bo losing our sense of proportion. Eminent generals ■ •ame down to schools and told the boys that it was games, not bruins, that won the war. Successful business men nt [tlecgirings boasted that they had cone no work when they were at school and had nover passed any examinations. Now their successors were demanding matriculation certificates as a condition of employment. (Laughter.) The contrast was significant. There was growing, tip a generation with a better sem<o of proportion. In the main our boys of to-day were being trained, not unmiccessl'nll.y. to develop both sides of tlioir character. They could be athletes without being Philistines, and intellectual without unmanlmess. Both at the schools and at the universities work and studv wore more torioiislv regarded than they were 30 yenrs ago.' It was not unreasonable to associate the change in part with the growth of the new secondary schools, and the extension of university education to all classes. Because the.v believed that their schools had infinitely more limn knowledge to give to boys between 14 and 18 they earnestly desired that fcoondarv school training should be available for as many as possible of the youth of the country, and t.hey were bound to watch anxiously end iralousiy any measures which might Si em to endanger it, or to deprive of their privileges boys and girls capable of profiting b,v it.

A Diesel-engined truck will shortly be seen on the country roads in the Culvorden district. A five-ton chassis has been equipped with a Diesel engine by Messrs John Chambei-s and Sons, WII9 are agents in New Zealand for the English makers of the engine, and the vehicle has been bought by Mr W, Y. Mockett, of Mockett's Motors, GuJverden, for back-country work. The engine has four cylinders and develops 38 brake horsepower, with a speed of 17 miles an hour. It uses crude oil, and it is claimed that the amount of fuel used will be half that required for petrol engines of the same power. t)nly one "dowry bride" claimed a grant from the St. Gyrus Bequest Fund, and the money was paid On December 13, in the little Kincardineshire village of St. Cyrus by the church minister, the Rev. Robert Davidson. The bride was Mrs J. Eaton, of Laurencekirk, who was Miss Margaret Moir. She was married in St. Cyrus East Church on December 9, The amount of Mrs Eaton's share of the dowry fund is &7 15s. Four such shares are allocated to the tallest, shortest, youngest, and oldest brides married in the East Church during the year. The unclaimed portions 4re added to the capital fund, formed from a bequest made for this romantic purpose by a local land owner in 1847.