CAMP FOR BOYS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 141, 18 December 1928, Page 8

CAMP FOR BOYS

GOVERNOR'S PLAN A GREAT SOCIAL IDEA (From "Tho Port's" Roproiontatlro.) SYDNEY, 6th December. Next month eighty Melbourne boys are to have a novel experience. They are to be the guests of the Governor of Victoria, Lord- Somers, at *a week's camp. The boys are to be drawn from all sections of tho community. At this camp there will be no such thing as class distinction. That is the root of the whole idea. Lord Somers modestly disclaims any originality for the idea, which, he says, is based on the lines of the Duke of York's camp for boys at Littlestone-on-Sea, England. Tho idea of that camp will be adapted to Australian conditions. "Too many of us, boys as well as men," he said, "live in water-tight compartments nowadays. Wo shut ourselves up" in our own little spheres, and wo get into the way of thinking that wo arc sufficient unto ourselves. Wo hope by means of this camp to givo the boys an opportunity of getting to know one another, by playing and; living together, and thus demonstrate that boys of widely varying outlook can live and work together in perfect harmony. It is ridiculous for any people, especially boys, to get it, into their heads that they are something superior to their fellows; and by a display of team spirit in, this camp we hope to see some of flic beneficial results that have attended tho Duke of York's, camp. Everybody iv the camp sections will bo on equal footing, aud the whole thing will depend on the group idea, each group being spurred on by its | personnel and leaders to outdo its rivals in a wholesome, healthy spirit of fair play and emulation." With the laudable object in view great care will be taken in the selection of the boys, tho main idea being to secure boys whose parents are on distinct social levels. For instance, Lord Somers has laid it down that forty of tho boys shall be selected from the industrial area—the typical sons of the ordinary worker. Then, 24 boys are to be taken from tho public schools, a sort of second stratum in the life of tho community, and the remainder will be drawn from the Associated Grammar Schools, to include those boys whose parents are fortunate enough to be able to pay substantially for the education of their children in the schools they are at liberty to select. And then, within a week, it is hoped to develop all into one great family. .Lord Somers is anxious that the lessons gained in this camp along tho lines that he has planned will not be forgotten by the boys. Ho hopes that they will retain what he wishes them to learn and carry it through lifo • with them, practcing it wherever they go— a spirit of social tolerance and of love, for one another.