NOTES BY A QUIET MAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1895, Page 2

NOTES BY A QUIET MAN.

At a recent meeting of the Governors of the Dunedin High School reports which wore current that fugging prevailed among thd boys who board in the head master's house were considered Dean Fitchett, tho chairman, said that there was no evidence that such a practice had beeu introduced, but one of the members mentioned that complaints were made that " swats were sat on." The Mayor of Dunedin, who is one of the Governors, asked what a "swat" was. It must be explained at once that suoh a character has nothing to do with the tribes to the north of the Indian Empire. Possibly Mr Fish thought that the Chitral difficulty was alluded to, and that what was meant was that the military expedition which is now engaged in fighting and overcoming natural difficulties had oppressed the Swats. Nothing of the kind. I have been a schoolboy, though a long time ago, and have heard tho word scores and scores of times, not generally used iis a term of respect. Though I have heard it often I have never seen it spelt before, and should have imagined that it ought to be

"swot" A "swot" ill school \s what at i ha Universities is more, respectfully oalled a "reading man." A member of the Dunedin High School Board put it still very politely by saying that he was a boy who tried to get on by attending to his school work. I take it that in schoolboy minds it is supposed to have something to do with "sweating." This should make any lad towhom it is given by his follows particularly interesting to modern legislators. I wonder whether or not Mr W. P. Heeves was a " swot " when he was at school. I hardly think so, and he professe3 to object to the system of employment to which I allude I bolieve that he was a very respectable cricketer, and so far as mymomory goes, at school any boy was allowed without loss of popnlanty to excel as much as he pleased at his lessons if he were good at somo game. In fact to a really fine cricketer or football player to win school bouour3 was held to add to bis credit. The sort of " swots " who were sat upon were those who worked at lessons and never shone in the games of the school. Boys are pretty much the same in all generations, and I have little doubt that it would add to the pride taken by his fellow pupils if any good cricketer or football player at Dunedin High School took the best prizes for mathematics or classics.

That a serious complaint should bo made to tlie governing body of a public school that fagging went on is a sign of the times, and perhaps more of colonial leeling. llight through the days of chivalry the spirit was that there was nothing derogatony for one gentleman to serve another who was older or superior to himself in rank. A vassal who was of gentle birth was not ashamed to confess himself the "man" of his over lord. The Kings of England did homage to the Kings of France for their possessions across the Channel, and the Kings of Scotland acknowledged the Kind's of England as their superiors for lands held to the south of the present Bonier. No gentleman was ashamed to aoud his son, to be page to a knight of fame who might even be his inferior in point of birth, and to this day in the English Court the highest of the nobility are proud to hold ofhees by inheritance and appointment, which at all events nominally imply duties of personal servitude to Ihe Sovereign. The same tradition was carried into the public schools. There all the boys were supposed to be equal and met on common ground, except with regard to age and position in the school. Little boys uo doubt often thought it very unpleasant to have to fag for their elders, to have to make toast for them and to clean out their rooms, but they always had tho satisfaction of knowing that when they grew older they would have others to serve them. The page possibly often did not like his work, but lie knew that in time to come he would become a squire, and .the squire knew that he would become a knight. I don't know whether it is much harm for a boy who, in his father's house, has everything done for him by servants, to go out into a little world, where he finds that he lias to do things for other people. Bullying of course used to go on at public schools to ii great extent, but now it is much checked, though it never can be put down absolutely. For colonial ' boys who at home are apt to regard themselves as persons of considerably of more importance than their fathers, and who have after' wards to light their way thron"h an inconsiderate world, 1 am inclined to think that a mild system of fagging at school would not be altogether amiss.

It was stated in a newspaper the other day that a number of applicants for aid applied to the Wellington Charitable Trustees. TJiey said that they were willing to work but could not get anything to do. One was a powerful tyoung man with a wife and children, and another was an old soldier. The only patronage which the Trustees had in their gift was the position of Sandwich-men, to carry advertising boards at the payment of live shillings a day. ISoth men refused the job with scorn. The first said that he. could do navvy work with anyone, but be could not f.ice the taunts wliich he was likely to receive from future mates if he were to accept such employment. The second said that a man who had served in the lield as a soldier could not carry advertising hoards. One of the Trustees expressed the harsh opinion that it was jess degrading to earn even small wages in such a way than to apply for charity. I certainly should not like to be a sandwichnian myself, to be in a sort of movable pillory, to have one's face exposed and one's hands conlined, so as to be subject to insult and attack while incapable of defence. The conditions of engagement' and the ciimbrousness of the load wmld also make it impossible to run away. There is a picture in an old Punvh, illustrating the helplessness of a sandwich-man in whioh a naughty stieet boy is seen tickling the noso of one with a straw. The poor man is angry and helpless, and the whole is very comical in the picture, but would be unpleasant enough in real life. However, every jwsition in life has its humiliation's. I'fom the sovereign on the tlii'Jiiu to the humblest of mankind there is haidly one flf us who has not occasionally to act in a fashion entirely mortifying to vanity and oven solf-estooin. AVe all have our hateful tasks which we must go through, hut in many cases it lessons the mortilication to know that better people than ourselves have gone through them also, It is even a comfort to know that persons of liHier rank or richer than ourselves have willingly undergone what we cannot help. It Is said that a man of large means in one of the New Zealand towns once put on the boards and turned himself into a sandwich-man, in order to ddvertiso foi something which he had lost. It is always well when possible to give credit for the best of intentions. It is' likely that he was a far-seeing man, arid could foretell a time whon good nawiei and old soldiers would bo out of work and would shrink from the job. H may he that he wished it to he thought that what a rich man ceuld do without, l«s of dignity was not beneath a poor one out of work.

The ta'ule of kindred and allinity, wherein it is set out that whosoever are related arc forbidden in Scripture and our laws to marry together, has apparently been in "lie respect upset by colonial legislators. Tliis may not, however, be the case. The table says that a man. inny not many his wife's sjstor. It may for anything! know have been framed in the days when a man was allowed to have two wive, lu which case it must have boon after the time of Jacob. Our law carefully speaks of a "deceased" wife's sister, and the f ranters of the table may not have regarded !a dead womau as a wife at all. In any case no one can deny tho propriety of many of the prohibitions. It cannot be doubted iliat it would be highly improper and injudicious of any man to marry his grandmother. I never heard of anyone who wanted to do so, but if a man were so illguided he would have liltle prospect of a happy matrimonial life, -There have been cases in which men havo married women o)d enqugli to be their grandmothers, with what result I know not. Another prohibition whioh seems rather unnecessary is against marrying one's wife's mother, I don't intend to touch on the stale subject of the relations between men and their mothers-in-law, whioh has been dona to death, but I do not think that in real life such a marriage was ever desired by either side. In fiction, however, something approaobing it finishes one of Thackeray's greatest novels, and I cannot help thinking seriously that the conolusion detraots from the book as a work of art. Esmond for years sought to win bis cousin Beatrix. He was bo devoted (p ber that, though he be was quite .

aware of her complete worthiness and unfitness for a po r man's wife he was ready to run all risks. From boyhood upwards ho desired that Lady Casllewood should b3come his mother-in-law, but failing to do so he made her his wife and went to Virginia. Apparently from hints given in the Virginians the good lady showed to her second husband some of the characteristics which are supposed to be usual in a wife's mother. As an artist Thackeray should have made the self-sacrificing Colonel, after his great disappointment, remain, unwed. A less unfitting end to the novel than that which he chose would have been to make Esmond lake to good living, and eventually marry tho cook.