THE VALUE OF MANNERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10871, 11 September 1913, Page 2

THE VALUE OF MANNERS.

"Manners," said Lord Rosebery in his admirable little address to tho boys of Guildford Grammar School, "have an enormous commercial value in life." Tliat this is so, no one with a large experience of men and affairs would deny. A good address, tact and sympathy, the art, as Swift said, of making every reasonable person in the company easy and being easy ourselves, are endowments of the extremest importance in the battle of life. The able man who is shy, awkward, self-conscious, rough and angular in his ways too often finds himself passed in the race by those who have not half his capacity, but can play their part in human intercourse with effect. "The clever man," said that Oxford sago Jowett, "who has no manners often remains an eccentric boor whoso want of tact unfits him for most situations of life." Certain schools seem to produce courtesy ana good breeding infallibly and inevitably, and, as youth everywhere is much alike., this is proof that the boy can be moulded by good examplo, if there is only sol.coiio willing to take the pains. A great deal depends, of course, upon the schoolmaster himself. If the teacher is careless, eccentric or boorish, the child naturally patterns himself on that model. If, on the other hand, the man in charge of a school i 6 scrupulously careful and exacting in this respect-, the children inevitably reap the benefit of the discipline. Hasty observ-

ors have professed to notice that tho children tiirnnl out from tlio primary schools in New Zealand «ro habitually ill-mannered. Our experience is that this is not invariably the caso. There aro many schools which impart a characteristic "tone" to thoir pupils. There aro others, alnst in wliieh the behaviour of the young people is lamentably slack. In such cases not only the teachers, but the pa routs are to blame. All these things can bo remedial if tlio precept of Lord Ilosebery is studiously taken to heart by thoso chiefly concerned.