The 1937 School Magazine

Early in the year an event of some importance in the history of Queensland took place — the laying of the foundation stone of the permanent buildings of the University. The University is the centre of culture of a community, and it is essential to the development of that corporate spirit and harmony of the whole which is necessary to the proper functioning of the institution that it should be housed in buildings which afford the room for the development of the faculties for which it provides. Culture is the greatest attribute a man can possess, and it should be the duty of every man to attend a University, for the more cultured the people of the world become, the sooner will they find solutions to their problems of peace and war.

Before the world can have an effective and systematic polity of nations, it must, to a large extent, remove the international barriers or prejudices that arise from those national characteristics which are logically wrong. The majority of these characteristics are not innate but are merely the expressions of different traditions. Force of custom is usually supreme in less cultured communities; therefore if the level of culture of the great nations were raised, perhaps their peoples would be able to look more dispassionately upon themselves and upon others, learning to distinguish between the good and the bad, adopting the former and discarding the latter. They would not lose their national characteristics altogether, for culture would not tend to destroy them, but rather to modify them in such a way that they would no longer hinder, but would further the cause of world peace and prosperity. This culture can be obtained only through a University, and it is to Queensland's credit that she is doing her part by providing adequate facilities for the true education of the people.

Behind the Universities, however, are the Secondary Schools, whose work it is to provide the foundation upon which culture is later to be built. In this respect, the years a boy spends at school are the most important in his life, for it is then that his character begins to develop. It is at school that he first acquires a sense of authority, and learns to strive cleanly for anything worth having while growing up in an atmosphere of comradeship, discovering the worth of his fellows and endeavouring with them to be worthy of those who have gone before. B.G.S. has a very long list of those whose deeds reflect nothing but credit upon their Alma Mater, and this list is certain to increase in course of time.

The OBA's monthly luncheons and Annual General Meeting were chaired by the President, Mr. G. Carson-Cooling, with Hon. Secretary Mr. J. G. Nowlan; among the senior Old Boys present at functions were Mr. S. Stephenson, Mr. F. S. N. Bousfield ("who received quite an ovation on entering") and Mr. A. J. Mason. Mr. George Carson-Cooling was the newly elected President of the Old Boys' Association for 1937–38 (succeeding Mr. S. D. Tozer, President 1936–37).