ON EDUCATIONAL TRAINING FOR OVERSEAS LIFE. 457 



' young people of good education,' but it might be worth while making it 

 quite definite. 



Mr. Dymond said he would accept the amendment, and the resolution, 

 amended accordingly, was then put and carried, the chairman intimating 

 that the resolution would be conveyed to the Council. 



Mr. G. W. Olive said it was good to feel that the meeting would 

 attract much public attention to the urgent need for bringing more and 

 more of the boys and girls of the Homeland into the wide and yet close 

 family bond of the Empire. The Mother Country and the Dominions 

 formed one organic whole, and as various members of the one body they were 

 interdependent and must function as one. The general public had not 

 hitherto understood that the needs of the Dominions and the oppor- 

 tunities they presented together constituted such an important question, 

 and one so vital to our national and Imperial welfare, that it should loom 

 very large and receive the full attention it deserved when the education 

 of elder children was being considered. Many thinking people were in 

 complete accord with the opinion of the Committee on Educational 

 Training for Overseas Life that in schools we adopt the narrow rather 

 than the wide view. 



The preparation of boys for life on the land had been an important 

 part of his work for over twelve years, and in this time it had been 

 possible to see some of the results. What he principally saw was : Old 

 boys who were engaged in life on the land were, in the main, big men — not 

 only in body, but big in mind, in ideas. How schools could ever have 

 regarded them as human material of such insignificant potential value 

 that adequate preparation for their future careers was quite beyond the 

 province of the school, seemed inconceivable. But that was exactly the 

 position now. He had a large number of o|,d boys abroad, fellows who had 

 proved themselves real sterling quality, doing good work for their 

 Dominions and themselves, as farmers, ranchers, managers, organisers, 

 and scientific experts. These were living witnesses to the value of 

 educational training for life overseas. 



He had a special word to say on behalf of the type of boy whose 

 ability and mental capacity were demonstrated at their best when they 

 found expression in action, in doing, and in creating things. The Empire 

 needed this type, quite as much as the type which excels with pen and 

 paper in the examination room. To his mind it was a dangerous practice 

 to attempt to satisfy the needs of the outdoor type of boy by preparing 

 him along the rigid lines of some examination syllabus, for unless great 

 care was taken the procedure might have a deadening influence on the 

 very activity it was intended to stimulate and promote. It was not 

 difficult to arrange suitable schemes of work, but each school should pre- 

 pare its own scheme, adapted to its own special facilities. The essential 

 point was that it must be real and practical. The scheme should not 

 only prepare the boy, but also test him as far as possible. By testing, 

 he meant that it should be ascertained whether the boy had the liking, 

 ability, and physical capacity that would be required of him for an 

 overseas life. A boy who could not get up in the morning, or one who 

 would shirk rather than work, would be of no use in the Dominions. On 

 the other hand, some boys had a real love for life on the land, were handy 



