POLITICIAN'S SCHOOLDAYS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 6, 8 January 1908, Page 2

POLITICIAN'S SCHOOLDAYS.

A.FRAJJK ,CQNFESSION.

DARK AGES AND. TORTURE CHAMBER.

,In distributing the prizes at Newington Co)leg~e (Sydney,), (Mr Reid (Leader <5f £he Commonwealth Opposition) delivered a< speech descriptive of; his own school experiences, and his al^rtneps ixa i tumning \, to. acopunt in ■ Reid Mid: that his'experience ofschoolmfcsters ,WA»,in the dsrk; ages. (Laughter.) He fiaq a distinct recollection, of an item of. torture—the c^n6— for he got it oiice a day— —and it'Vas not a. fcane of the light, order used nowadays. It Was more in^ club line. /(Laughter). He supposed'a speech" day was jolly because it was tne real enjoyment wHicn followed hard work J Tne1 cqrse oi. fbe day > - air; tended the life of the idle rich .who had no taste for hard. work. When he saw the rich man driving past in his carriage, the,poor, man envied him; bub,tif ,he_ could, 'only'get .into that rich man's inner mind, he would find that he did not even enjoy a auare meal. (Laughter.) There were essings in poverty, and one was a splendid appetite. They had only to look at him't© realise: that- (Loud laughter.) School life to the boarders was, after all, a sort of prison. They were sent there to do time—(laughter)— attd they could not come in when they liked. (Laughter). There were two thitigs which struck him about school life. One was authority, and the o^her was obedience. There were two kinds of authority—authority which compelled, and, authority which at-: trticted^ (Applause.) The h^ad? master in his report spoke of the velvet glove and the iron hand. They could take it from him that the vel-

vet glove was the best. (Laughter and applause.) In the dark ages he knew what the iron hand meant, and it did not do much good. To take a boy out and give him a thrashing made him mind his superiors from fear, and it made him an example also to others in the same direction; l)ut he would hot give much for that boy when he went out into the world. He would he a wild ope all right. (Applause.) They talked about their natural resources; but a politician who did Jot see that the greatest of all naural resources was in the mind of the people failed in his duty. (Applause.) They took out the gold from the mine, and nothing was left; but in the case of the human mind the more they drew upon the riches the more they could draw. (Applause.) Every ma.n had this immortal mind; \t was a gift from the Creator, but they must put it to the best accountThe dux of the school might not be the best man after all. (Applause.) jit was not'the fact of a youth having fcJncation, but his ability to put that cJucation to some practical' use that made the man. (Applause.) He Itnaw of no better method of training jthan & good;. debating society. , He tfobld recommend the young men of the college to get Up upon the plat-f.-rm and see if they could make a speech'to their fellows. See if the/ fctuld write. something .(Laughter.) The great fault of their high education system was that they stored %he mind with a lot of facts, ana infcrmation, but did not show the youth how to make the best use cf it. (Applause.) He often felt that hi Vt,« uld like to have' the storehouse of knowledge' possessed by the masters ot the schools; and, with his exo »-!- puce and training to use it to advantage he would do something. He \\bd had very little knowledge given him, but what he got he made the nest of. (Applause.) He Ut.Mi of thji vast riches possasraJ by many men, and yet,they had not it he ability to get out of the ruck they were in. No self-reliance, no} pit per training—stuffed full of leaf fling and yet unable to apply :t tj (bTeryday life. (Applause.)