EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18197, 18 March 1921, Page 6

EDUCATION

MR BEN FULLER’S GIFT. BIG EDUCATIONAL SCHEME. . A trust, of which his Excellency the Governor (toir Walter Davidson) is president nas neen lormed to administer a mud given by Mr Benjamin J. Fuller (says the Sydney Morning Herald) to provide scholarships lor children whoso parents have not the means oi affording iugner education for their children. When Mr Fuller made his intentions in this matter Jcnown to the Governor a few weeks ago, his Excellency was deeply impressed, and the offer als% received the cordial endorsement of the Government. After due consideration it was decided to form a trust, his Excellency consenting to act as president, and the other members are Mr T. D. Mutch (Minister for Education), Sir Edgeworth David, Sir Jarvie Hood, Judge Backhouse, Air Consett Stephen, and Mr Ben J. Fuller himself. The . initial meeting of this trust was held at Government House on Monday under the presidency of Sir Walter Davidson, when various proposals _ for the allocation of the fund were considered, and it wag decided to appoint a sub-committee to inquire into and report upon them. Mr H. C. Budge, official secretary to the Governor, was appointed hon. secretary of the trust. Mr Benjamin John Fuller is well known throughout Australia by reason of the big theatrical enterprises which he directs, involving a capital of over a million pounds ; but ho had not come before the public as a patron of education until a few months ago, when the announcement that a young strident who had been chosen, in Sydney as- a Rhodes scholar was unable to go to Oxford because the monetary allowance was insufficient to meet present-day expenses, drew from him an immediate and unconditional gift of £IOOO, which removed all obstacles. “I thought that he would be rushed with offers of assistance," Mr Fuller remarked, in a conversation yesterday, and X counted myself fortunate to be of some service in such a promising educational career.” And this led up to an interesting confession. Mr Fuller intends a year or two hence to relinquish his extensive theatrical interests, and devote the rest of his life entirely to tne promotion oi education. It was the plight of the Rhodes scholar and the letters that he afterwards _ received from men and women interested in education, that induced him to “show his hand” a little sooner than he otherwise would have done. Mr Fuller referred incidentally to the recent announcement of Sir Langdon Bonythoc’a gift of £40,000 for the erection of a great hall for the Adelaide University. “That’s a splendid isn’t it?” he asked, and, with a characteristic wave of the arms, added: “I intend to make that as small in comparison' with what I will do for education as what I have already done is small compared with it. I have been fortunate. I have the faculty for making money. But money means nothing. It is wliat you do with it that matters, and 1 am going to throw my whole heart and soul and energy,, as well as money, into furthering education all I can. It is a tremendous question, and if I ban help to scratch the ground of it I shall feel that I have - done something for my fellows. 1 know that the Government is doing great things, but there is need for personal and unofficial effort as well. Education is our one hope. ' It alone can calm the world unrest which is assailing the very foundations of oivilisation. It alone can dissipate the evil in which the chaos of Bolshevism takes root and tlirives. To do something in the cause of education has been my ambition for years. For some time now it has been my intention when I reach the age of 60 — it wants about four years yet—absolutely to devote the rest of my life to improving the facilities for higher education. Amongst other things, I intend, to establish an institution and surround myself with young enthusiasts of both sexes, who will not work for nothing, for I propose to take the whole burden of this on. my own shoulders. They will collect information from all parts of the world appertaining to education, and niako it available hero; engage in propaganda aiming at directing the efforts of those charged with the education of the young in this country along the right lines; and generally constitute a body which will be an auxiliary to the existing educational bodies, acting as a watch-dog and assistant to them. The need, 'to-day is not only education for the uneducated,, but for the educated, too. The organising capacity and ‘‘force” that one is bound to develop in a business like this, can, I believe, be of much use. I don 1 ’! say that egotistically. All I want is to do the best that can be done. And that, backed by the money that I have had the happy faculty' to be able to make, may accomplish something. For, although I nave made money, I don’t consider that it belongs to me exclusively. I don’t mean to let anybody take it away from me forcibly, but I regard myself as the trustee of it, charged with the duty of doing wHat I can with it for the good of the world. Education is about the best outlet that I know of. And I want to see some of these things done or attempted when I am alive. I don’t mean to leave the burden and the pleasure of doing what I want done to "others who come after me.” Much of Mr Fuller’s enthusiasm for education has its root in his own early strivings after knowledge. Taken from a London board school at 11 years of age, and ■with precious little save his own natural gifts to aid him in his uphill fight—he has been a juvenile entertainer, bill poster, stag© hand, advance agent, actor, house manager, musician—everything, in fact, connected with the theatre except a circus player—his path to learning was strewn with more thorns than roses. “ But reading and travel are great educators,” he says, ‘" and I, owe most that I have to them. I should like to see every man who goes into Parliament travel the world for at least a year, even were it at the Spate’s expense.” Discussing the scholarship trust, which has just been established, Mr Puller said that the object was to assist children to higher education whose parents had not the necessary means. This did not. ’ necessarily mean the children of manual 'labourers. “I know men getting a thousand a year,” he remarked, “ who have less to spare than others with only £250 or £3OO. Many professional men have difficulty in keeping up appearances, as they have to do, and possibly supporting needy relations, and are unable to give their children the education that they could wish. The circumstances of cases will be taken into consideration. “ I look forward to the future,” added Mr Fuller, “with the hope that I shall be able to carry out at least some of my ideas, and help to make Australians better Australians, while preserving my love for the Old Country and its ruling head.”