BOYS FOR FARMS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 48, 28 February 1929, Page 11

BOYS FOR FARMS

WAITAKI SCHOOL SCHEME

CONTINGENT FROM ENGLAND

(From "Tho Post's" RwrosontttlTO.) LONDON, 4th January.

The baker's dozen of public schoolboys who are going to Waitaki School —there are thirteen, though thero aTe officially only twelve—were quite overshadowed this morning at Waterloo by the forty-five touring schoolboys. These latter assembled at 8 o'clock and were addressed by Dr.' M. J. Kendall and Sir James Parr. The Waitaki boys, however, had the honour yesterday afternoon of being entertained by members of the Waitaki Old Boys' Association of Groat Britain, at the Public Schools' Club, Curzon street. Lord Strathspey (president of the association) presided, and tbero were present as guests of tho association tho High Commissioner, Sir James Parr, and Mr. W. A. Bulkoley Evans (secretary of the Headmasters' Conference and of the Public Schools Endowment Bureau, which has selected the boya for. the experiment). Tho boys present, many of whom wcro accompanied by relatives, were: 6, H. B. Irwin (St. Edmund's School, Canterbury), J. Pavey (Felstod), G. J. Hosier (Elizabeth College, Guernsey), V. B. Waldron and G. B. Waldron (Clifton College), !•!. 11. T. Williams (Llaudovcry Collogc), H. H. Edginton, C. B. Spooucr, and J. L.-Ley (Ipswich). Members of tho Association present w\to: Mr. Robert Mililgan, Dr. B. 18. Macintosh, Dr.- D. B. Jonniugs, Dr. H. T. Jonnings, Mr. It. F. do Vries, Mr. A. J. Learmoiith, and Dr. A. J. Harrop.

• Lord Strathspey read tlic .following cablegram from Mr. Milncr (headmaster of Waitaki): "Very gratcfnL to you Old Boys for farowoH'mg English contingent. Please assuro them of warm welcomo at port of arrival and fraternal reception, by school." Lord Str,athspoy assured the boys that they were going not into an enemy country but into a country of frionds. They must treat Mr. Milner not as a headmaster but as almost a father, and certainly aa a friend. "You must play the game in Now Zealand,'* ho added, "and if you do you have nothing whatever to fear. You will have plenty of opportunity for sport, but you must remember that your primary duty is to work —and, abovp all, to learn. You will find New 25odlandors a fine, friendly and free people, and I believe and trust that you will grow up with them happy and prosperous." Lord Strathspey anifouncod that Sir James Parr had consented to become an associate member of tlfe association. A NEW EXPERIMENT. Sir James Parr said: "I must thank the association for the invitation to bo present, Dot only officially, but because I know the school intimately. During my term, as Minister of Education, I had frequent opportunities of seeing its work for myself. I may mention also that I sent my own son tho eight hundred miles or so from Auckland to Waitaki. The parents of tho boys who are going out may rest assured that they; are not making any mistake. In my opinion the success of a school doponds at least ninety por cent., son the personality of the headmaster, and in Mr. Milner Waitaki has not only a scholar, but a man with a remarkable and distinctive aptitude for dealing with boys.

"You boys should feel highly honoured, for you are beginning a new experiment—and I think a very promising one. You will reside at Waitaki and take a course mainly destined to equip you for farm work. Mr. Milner guarantees to place you with a reliable farmer—and he is in a unique position to place boys to the best advantage. I should like to.see tho movement spread to other schools. How will the experiment turn out 1 It depends on the boys who go out. If you work hard in New Zealand and don't think of buying laud till you havo been there at least live years—three years on a farm—you can hardly fnil to succeed. You arc starting off on tho great adventure of your lives, and I. am sure you will nover regret it." (Applause.) Mr. Bulkeley Evans thanked the association for arranging tho gathering. The boys going out, he said, had a very special chance of gotting on, and it was up to them to do even better than tho other public schoolboys who had gone out direct to farms. Ho hoped that the boys would do their befit in tho future to welcome other boys to New Zealand.

The gathering, which was quite informal, enabled tho parents and boys to gain from Old Boys a closer knowledge of the school, and tho opportunity of doing so was greatly; appreciated.