The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1926. THE HIGH SCHOOL

Southland Times, Issue 19822, 19 March 1926, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1926. THE HIGH SCHOOL

Although the scholars and the staff have been in occupation many weeks, the ceremony to be performed to-day has the significance of a dedication which will serve to recall to students, past and present, the story of the Southland Boys’ High School. The old building in Forth Street belongs to the past and about it centres the romance of the school’s achievements through many years, but the new building, modem and giving expression to the latest ideas m educational architecture, offers the vista of a greater school, in numbers and in glory. It is not always wise to dwell on a brilliant record of jast works, unless it is raised like a banner bearing battlehonours as a living standard to which the future must measure. The past should be an impetus, not a cushion, and the power it brings to the present-day heirs is dependent on their ability to set a just value on reputation, and to translate their legacy into actual things. With a splendid story behind it the Southland Boys’ High School can look with confidence to the future now that it is properly equipped insofar as the school is concerned, but we doubt if the full results will be gained until the erection of a hostel will make way for the development of a boarding school, wherein the influence of the staff can be carried much further than is possible where the contact between the boys and the men extends over a very small portion of the day. It is a trite saying, but none the less true that bricks and mortar do not make a school. They may build a shell, a material thing, more or less permanent, by which the outsider can identify the organisation, and to which those who have belonged to the school may look as the casket of the hidden treasure; the real school is behind .these walls. It is not confined in any building, because no building can be built to accommodate the affection which should, and does, spring from the hearts of all those boys who have passed through the school, and all those who are on the present roll. That affection and pride which comes from the scholars of yesterday and to-day is the surest possible indication of the spiritual force of the school. The rector and his staff ate the foundation on which everything depends and they work with the knowledge that there is a past to be justified in the future. Out of the leadership of the staff comes the real character of the school, and through the ex-students can be read that character. To-day is not a milestone in history, it is not day of change of departure: it is the moment when the Southland Boys’ High School in the fullest sense of that term, can determine that the greatest of the past is io be illumined and glorified by a greater future.