PUBLIC SCHOOL CADETS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1505, 30 July 1912, Page 2

PUBLIC SCHOOL CADETS.

Sir,—Those wh'o have-Tead the evidence of .Major-Gcneral Godley, .given a few days ago before tho Royal Commission 'on.Education, will realise the danger in j which ,the Junior Cadet movement at present' stands. And your leading artiole 'in connection with the General's evidence show's' that you sympathise with the view he takes of the matter. But, sir, I very respectfully tslke leave to diift'er from both the General and younsalf; and I say,, without , fear of contradiction, after 18 years' experience, of school cadets (for the first cadet company in connection with my school was formed in August, 1894), that the system has been of incalculable bonefit to the discipline of the school. Give a boy a broomstick, and put him through the physical exercises, end he is never anything but a schoolboy, but give him a uniform and a rifle, and you transform him at once into a soldief. That was recognised very many years ago by Professor •Dritmmond in connection with his Work among the street arabs of GlasgoW) and it is recognised to-day, I think I am safe in saying* by 00 per cent, of the headmasters of those schools who hav o adopted the system. Boys who otherwise would have been truants and ne'er-do-wells become self-respecting and responsible lads, and some of them even rise to be "non-commissioned" officers in their respective companies. Truancy in such schools has practically died out, being now confined to isolated cases of boys too young to take their places in the ranks as the country's defenders in the making. Wo have, a system of compulsory military service for boys after they leavo school; are we asked to believe that the Defence Department would prefer to receive them in an untaught condition rather than in a condition in which tho initial difficulties of military drill aro already overcome? One would almost gather as much from the evidence ef tho Commandant. It is objected that boja are pnt through movements that are; far iu ifilvanco of what can reasonably bo expected from boys at that stage. What does that betoken? To my mind, it shows the high standard of efficiency set up by. the teacher-officers who. have- the training of the boys; and tho fact that in many cases their movements ion .parado have eclipsed the volunteers shows the success which Bneh teacher-officers havo attained. You talk of "scrapping" tho dummy rifles! "Well, and what then.? There is more than tho dummy to go to the scrapheap. We have the uniforms of the officers, the Winchester rifles, and tho shcot■ing ranges, which I suppose wduld have to follow them thither. What made the Boots such wonderful shots? They didn't blossom into marksmen at once when war was declared, beforo Majuba Hill, before the Jameson l?aid, and bpfore the lato sanguinary conflict. Nat at all. For that, as for nearly everything else that makes for efficiency, you must catch them young. And the cadet system catches Hie Nnw Zealander young. What he learns of drill, of marksmanship, of. bugle music, and of everything ri«e attached to his sohool soldiering is his for life, and all with the halo of school around it; for, say what you will about boy 3 and their Echool days, before most lads havo been away from school five years, the halo bog;ins to appear, and it continues to grow in brightness for the vest of their lives. I know, for I've nee.n a boy myself. I am certain, sir, that thero is no better preparation for the future military training into which boys naturally graduate after leaving school than the cadet drill they are at present receiving at school; and I <un als* certain that any movement towards demilitarisation would be a most unpopular one among the parents, among the boya, and among the teachers. My advice would be when ymi find a body of men willing to do g:«d seTvice for tho State, without extra pay or emolument of any kind, let them do it, and if you haven't any "halfpence" to spare don't "kiclc** them with such nasty words aa "bo 6 u,"-lam,cte.; D.H.S.. Wanjanni, July 27.