The 1947 School Magazine

World affairs appear once again to have assumed a state of relative stability, and war is not now so much an immediate problem as is widespread inflation and unemployment. Many are the troubles in the reconstruction of a Europe wasted by war, and the advent of a winter of almost unprecedented severity has been very detrimental to rehabilitation in European countries. It is with sorrow that we Australians have seen an England, already wearied by the ravages of war, now combat in a time of peace all the trials of this last winter, all its problems in transport and drastic food and fuel cuts. Let us hope that this summer will bring relief to these peoples who stand in such need of the rest they have long awaited.

We Australians cannot but feel remote from European troubles, and a certain degree of complacency on our part must surely be excusable. Our conditions are so vastly different from those of Europe that we find it difficult to realise that there thousands are dying from malnutrition and cold. The governments of those countries are certainly faced with a colossal task, and ours should be thankful for its relatively easy lot. If, however, our conditions are to remain good, we must ensure by our co-operation that we have a national unity to combat our internal strife, and a foreign policy that expresses our friendliness to other nations. A spirit of "camaraderie" and hard work must be engendered in the rising generations.

Many people strongly oppose the amount of sport in which the secondary schools of to-day indulge. They maintain that this recreation restricts school work. But we want men who are good, not merely at their Latin, but men who are men, and can face our national problems both fearlessly and confidently; men who have that sense of comradeship and goodwill so vital to happiness. This is not saying that an education should consist solely of sport. Far from it. We only contend that every school should aim, not merely at imparting to its pupils the elements of knowledge, but by including in its curriculum a variety of sports, imbue the schoolboy with an attitude of comradeship towards his fellow men. Then, and only then, can the foundations of world peace and stability be secure.

(This was the year the Head Master, Mr. G. Carson-Cooling, M.Sc., retired — see the OBA section below. The "Events and Achievements" notes confirm D. K. Sault as winner of the Roe Memorial Bursary and an Open University Scholarship, and I. R. Ferguson as the A. J. Mason Scholar.)

The 49th Annual General Meeting (November 1947) was chaired by the retiring President, Col. H. C. Harris. Mr. Carson-Cooling addressed the Old Boys for the last time as Head Master before withdrawing. The meeting elected Mr. H. V. Byth as President for 1947–48; acknowledging "the highest position in the power of the Association to confer," Byth praised the work of his predecessor Col. Harris and stressed the importance of backing the School and the War Memorial.

The meeting also resolved on a stained-glass Memorial Window in the School Hall to the late Mrs. Carson-Cooling (cost £150–£200), and recommended that the OBA sponsor annual J. G. Nowlan Prizes (Fourth and Sixth Form) to commemorate Nowlan's services.