THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1933. SEVENTY YEARS ON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22023, 4 August 1933, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1933. SEVENTY YEARS ON

Time is a great corrector of the mental vision. The boy who quarrelled with his years of tutelage, who was indeed Shakespeare’s very whining schoolboy, may in after life come to regard with real affection the halls wherein he blundered over his lessons or pored over an imposition within hearing of the voices of his fellows in the playing field without. As his retrospective survey lengthens, the glamour of those earlier years tends to increase, and the memories they evoke may induce in him a sentiment of which he once never dreamed himself capable. After a sufficient experience of life’s ups and downs he may easily arrive at the conviction that his schooldays were the happiest in his life. Whether he deceive himself or not matters not. It is a gracious dispensation that mellows man’s progression along such lines. “ Old boys ” who cherish the memory of their old school, and are proud to take part in the celebration of outstanding episodes in its history, demonstrate a feeling which, finding as it does an outlet in many other directions, exercises its beneficial leavening influence over the whole community. And by the same token it would be hard to overestimate the value of their interest in contributing to the maintenance of the prestige of the institution behind which, even in potent, grave, and reverend seigniority, they are always ready to range themselves, The example which in this wily they set before the younger generation should be of considerable value in assisting towards the maintenance of that esprit de corps which is so important a factor in the life of a school or college. The celebrations attendant on the attainment by the Otago Boys’ High School of its seventieth anniversary convey their own tribute to the far-sighted zeal in the interests of education shown by the leaders of the small community of which Dunedin was the centre in'the early chapters of our history. To-day there is no institution of the kind in our midst, it is safe to say, around which gathers quite an equal ti’adition. Let the rallying call to the “ old boys ” go forth and the response becomes a revelation of the extent to which the history of this school is interwoven with the life of this community. From all walks of life the thread will be found leading back to the Otago Boys’ High School. The finely situated scholastic building that overlooks the city has a character of its own: it can tell of yesterday as' well as of to-day. The story of the Otago Boys’ High School, as fittingly retold at such a moment as the present, is full of interest. The record that is set forth is one of, which the community may be proud. The claim that it is that of' “ a great school ” is not lightly or rashly asserted.

The reputation of a school is established in the main through its teachers, and its achievements are measured by its pi’oducts. This is not the place perhaps for particularisation, but it suffices to say that the Otago Boys’ High School has had “ heads ” whose influence has been abiding upon those who have sat beneath them, and basked in their urbanity or trembled at their frown. Its fine record of success in the scholastic field has been well balanced by its record of achievement in , the cultivation of the manly attributes. The motto over its portals, “ Recti cultus pectora roborant,” has been well and faithfully carried into practice. Without labouring the matter further it may be suggested tlmt the finest and most eloquent testimonial of all that the school could have consists in such gatherings as those of the present week of citizens, elderly and young, all gladly acknowledging an old tie and an old debt, all united in loyalty to it, and proud to participate in the celebration of its seventieth anniversary. These reunions serve more purposes than one. Time’s decrees are inexorable. The scholars of this period or that disperse and go their ways, never all again to reassemble. The pathos of the backward look finds humorous expression in Praed’s wellknown lines: —

Where are my friends? I am alone; No playmate shares my beaker. Some lie beneath the churchyard stone, , And some —before the Speaker.

But it is a cheery and confident note that is struck for the Otago Boys’ High School in this, the seventieth year of its progress. Its foundations have stood magnificently the test of time, and in its own achievements it must find an unfailing stimulus to maintain its high standards and never fall below the expectations of the many to whom its reputation is dear. The present scarcity of suitable employment for youths has unfortunately introduced a new problem which touches our secondary schools, but the serious business of education must proceed without intermission. And the potentialities of the Otago Boys’ High School to-day, with its seven hundred pupils, as a factor influencing the future character of the community in which it takes its responsible place can only bo regarded as tremendous.