TRUANCY INCREASES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23838, 13 December 1940, Page 6

TRUANCY INCREASES

EXPERIENCE OF SCHOOL THE CAUSES NOT CLEAR COMMENT BY HEADMASTER The tribulations of truants were graphically described by the headmaster of the Mount Albert Grammar School, Mr. F. W. Gamble, in his annual ;tsport, presented at the school's prize-gfamg ceremony last night. Truancy, he said, which in modern days only occurred sporadically, had this year raised its head ominously. "Whether this is an effect of the unsettled times or merely one of those queer coincidental gatherings of delinquents in one year remains to he seen," said Mr. Gamble. "Strangely enough, the golf links, which have for years been the happy refuge of truants, seem to have lost their attraction, for the culprits now confess merely to walking around, accompanying the postman, or seeing the shops; certainly nothing very enterprising. "What a painfully cumulative offence tin's truancy is," Mr. Gamble continued. "While interviewing boys concerned, I can see one day leading to the next, each succeeding day adding its misgivings as the rascal packs his hag and wonders whether his 'plant' is still a secure one; the hours that must drag painfully till it is safe to return home again; then the pretence of settling to homework in the last pitiful struggles of deception. Those boys earn their days of freedom hardly, and, except in very rare cases, they are glad when the eye of authority falls on them and a clean, new start can be made."