DEFENCE OF MODERN BOYS

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1932, Page 7

DEFENCE OF MODERN BOYS

CABLED REMARKS CRITICISED. HAWERA HEADMASTER’S OPINIONS A vigorous defence of the modern boy was made by Mr. A. Gray, headmaster, at the Hawera High School Board meeting last night. Mr. Gray attacked statements recently cabled from England.

“I note in Saturday’s cables a statement made-at the centenary dinner of the British Medical Association by somebody called Mr. C. H. Blackiston,” said Mr. Gray. “Mr. Blackiston may, or may not, be competent to speak on the subject of the modern boy, unless English boys are very, different from their cousins in New Zealand. I should think they are not. Compared with the boy of thirty years ago, the modern.boy is described as timid, untruthful and dishonest. "I remember very well the boys of thirty years ago, and I cannot recall that they were in any significant degree different from the boys of to-day. There is nothing to indicate that the infants of war years have developed into feeble workers or feeble players.

“True they suffer a certain disability, but it is obvious that this person is totally unable to appreciate or understand what that disability is. It is most certainly not' on the lines indicated in his speech. Surely the present day boy is up against things hard enough as it is, without the insult of the wholesale libel of ‘timid, untruthful and dishonest.’”

(Note. — A. later cable states that Mr. Blackieton claims to have been misreported. He referred only to deficients.)