PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 29 



interest in the work of the Selection Officers, and took 

 great pains to familiarise themselves with the physical 

 requirements of the different callings, so that the recom- 

 mendations to applicants to follow particular callings were 

 the consensus of opinion arising from medical, psychological 

 and technical points of view. 



There is an old adage full of wisdom and recognised as a 

 basic principle in business that "it is easy to sell well if 

 one has bought well." This principle applies particularly 

 in the matter of selection of a calling or trade. If a career 

 has been well chosen, its working out will be a pleasure to 

 the end of life. If, on the other hand, a mistake has been 

 made, work becomes a misery instead of a pleasure. There 

 are few things so much to be deplored as a misfit in a call- 

 ing, and, recognising this, most educational systems now 

 contain provision to enable children to keep clear of this 

 kind of tragedy. In this country, the syllabus of the 

 primary schools includes subjects which tend to develop an 

 elementary interest by the children in nature and in human 

 activities. There are also pre-vocational schools following 

 the primary schools, in which the tastes and interests 

 started in the primary schools are further developed in the 

 hope that the children will be able to form opinions suffi- 

 ciently clear and strong to enable them to help themselves 

 Tery materially in the matter of deciding what careers 

 will be the best for them. Beyond what help the teachers 

 can give in the way of direct advice and what the parents 

 can do, no more assistance is available. Yet more is un- 

 questionably needed. Added to what is now being done in 

 the schools should be some systematic method of studying 

 the suitability of the children for the different kinds of 

 professional, business and trade callings, and, moreover, 

 machinery should be established for directing them by 

 advice and with facility into the callings selected. The 



