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Otago Witness, Issue 3995, 7 October 1930, Page 10

The part that youthful aviators played in the Great War, and the alleged practice of calling men boys, were referred to by the Deputy Mayor of Christchurch (Cr Thacker), speaking to the annual report of the Canterbury Centre of the Royal Life Saving Society the other night (says the Christchurch Times). “Boys of 22 who may still be at Christ’s College or High School are still called ‘boys,’ when they are men,” stated Cr Thacker. “ When I was young I believed that I was a man when 16. We do not want our young manhood called boys and our young women called girls. It is a perfect humbug to have young women described as girls. It is a ridiculous way of talking babyishly, and is a sort of spoon-fed thing that is no good. The war was won to a large extent by aviators, who were at their best at 19 years and under.”