The Reason Why.

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 5576, 14 February 1931, Page 15

The Reason Why.

New Zealanders visiting Australia express surprise when they see the school boys there, wearing high collars, knee-length knickers and long stockings—in striking contrast to the more comfortable style generally adopted by the boys of this-Dominion. At a lunch given by women writers in Sydney, the other day, at which Miss Amy Kane, journalist, of Wellington, and Miss Margaret Magill, New Zealand’s delegate to the conference of the Federated Teachers in Adelaide, were guests, Miss Magill’s remarks about tho subject were amusingly taken up by the Bulletin.” Margaret was a bit Rosa Dartloish about schoolboy apparel iu Australia. Here they go clothed in high collars, stockings and knee-length knickers, whereas the young Maorilander walks with knees bare,- the minimum of sock and no collar. Whaffor? The answer is an easy one. On tho other side of the Tasman they’re mostly Scotch or Irish. Now every Highland daddy wants his laddie (when he stops growing and the measurements won’t have to bo altered) to swing a kilt; and how can a laddie swing a kilt even on State occasions if his shins and his kneecaps aren’t hardened to the wuthering blast? So tho Scots schoolboy bares his brawn and muscle to the gale, and the Irish father won’t let his son show less hardihood: “If the son of a McTavish can walk about half naked, then the son of an O’Brien can do the same.”