Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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and one Guide team. Although we did not capture the First Team Cup this year, it was not for want of trying. However, after hard competition the Second Team Cup was won. Now that Spring has come we are all looking forward to tennis, in which we hope everyone will keenly participate. Mention should be made of our Guide Company this year which, being only half a mark behind the 8th Company obtained second place. We heartily congratulate the 8th Company again for their success, but we hope that our Company will be half a mark ahead next year! All the British Empire celebrated this year the Silver Jubilee of Their Majesties 1 Accession to the Throne. Archdeacon Gower-Rees spoke to us on this subject and drew a very vivid picture of the importance and dignity of the King and Queen. He said that the King was the binding factor to the many Dominions of the British Empire. He told us that the Queen was said to be the only woman in society who is not a society woman. Many of us were also inspired by the Thanksgiving Service which was broadcast direct from St. Paul ' s Cathedra!, London. Thus 1 9 3 4 - 3 5 is another year to go down in the history of Trafalgar and altogether, we of th ' is year ' s Sixth, heartily agree that it has meant a great deal to us and we hope that we will do credit to the Old School in whatever we undertake. Prefects Forrest Burt Marjorie Bayne Phyllis Henry Katharine Stevenson Dorothy Brooks Betty Henry Dora Wright Dorothy Brown Betty Forbes The Grier Cup LAST year Mr. and Mrs. George Grier presented a Cup to be awarded annually to the Senior Girl who showed the greatest devotion to her work, the highest standards of conduct, and the best public spirit. We congratulate Forrest Burt on being the first to win this valuable award. [ 15 ]

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EDITORIAL HERE we are in our last term — the last term of another year. Although perhaps this means little to the Juniors it certainly awakens us, the Senior Girls. For now is the time that we are on the edge of life and must soon decide our future. Some of us already have found where our path lies, but others less fortunate are still wondering. However, we must not be discouraged but remember that other Trafites have had the same difficulties and always came out on top. Hearty congratulations are to be given to last year ' s Sixth. Seventeen girls got full Matricula- tion and we are very proud of all of them, especially Forrest Burt, who won first place in the Province. She is still with us, and having started a small form for Senior Matriculation, is hard at work. We wish her all possible success for the coming exams. This year the Australian Government offered a free trip to Australia for the best essay written about that country by any boy or girl under the age of eighteen. Among the hundreds sent in from the Province, Forrest Burt ' s was one of the four chosen; and we are all waiting anxiously to hear the results. There have been some changes in the staff this year. Miss Brady and Miss Cowan, two teachers of whom all of us were extremely fond, left in the middle of the year to be married. We were very sorry to see them go, for during the time they taught us they both showed keen enthusiasm and understanding. We hope that they won ' t forget their teaching years at Traf. Mrs. Irwin and Miss Donkersly, who have taken their places, we all agree are worthy successors and already have won our hearts. Miss Balmforth, whom wc were all very sorry to see go at the end of last year, was succeeded by Miss Scott, who has taken a keen interest in Guiding. The past winter this year afforded much pleasure in sports. The rink proved to be a great success and hockey was again begun. Teams were arranged to play against the Study, but owing tM ;i sudden thaw the match was cancelled. It is to be hoped that the game will take place next year! Everyone responded enthusiastically to the call of basketball. Traf now has four school teams I U ]

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Australia ' s Prize Essay Competition I AST Summer the Australian Government issued pamphlets for a competition, requiring the J candidate to write an essay on Australia. The aim of the competition was to stir up the interest of Canadian boys and girls in a country about which none of us know very much. Informa- tion for such an essay could be gathered from reference books and various guide leaflets but the value of the essay was to depend largely on the deductive reasoning and vision of the candidate concerning the possibilities of further trade contacts with Canada and Australia and speculation-; about the future of the latter. Though this involved a considerable amount of labour, a most novel and attractive prise was offered — a trip to Australia. Twenty candidates, at least, from each school wrote the essay and the best one was chosen to be sent on to the Provincial Judges. All the essays of the girls of Trafalgar were fairly good. Forrest Burt ' s was chosen as the best, with Jean Scrimger s a close second. Others worthy of mention were those of Betty McCrory, Ruth Mallory, Faith Lyman and Betty Brodie. As Forrest ' s essay has beer, sent away, Jean Scrimger ' s, published below, is an example of the result of the competition in Trafalgar. From the province four essays were chosen. Much to the delight of everyone Forrest Burt s was one of the number. With this to encourage us, we all live in high hopes that Forrest ' s essay will continue to be successful, for as yet the final result is not known. Australia OF all the continents, Australia is the most interesting. It is the newest in civilization and the oldest in formation. Its animals, many of its plants, and its natives, are left over from an age long passed away. White people have been in Australia little over a century, yet large and modern cities have grown up in all the states. Melbourne, Sidney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and the capital city, Canberra, are among the most important. Australia is wholly in me Southern Hemisphere, with the South Pacific Oceon on the East and the Indian Ocean on the West. The first person to sight, or at least report, Australia was a Frenchman, away back in 1503. Then in 1688 an Englishman, William Damper, landed and brought home a story of a very strange animal which took the most gigantic jumps; the kangaroo, o f a urse. And everyone has heard of Captain Cook who, in 1770, sighted, it is thought, what is now Cape Everard. But until 1788 there were no settlers; in that vear eleven ships arrived and the settlers began what is now the city of Sidney. In 1800 there was a gold-rush. People flocked into New South Wals and Victoria. When the gold fever began to die down and the gold become scarce, many went home, but many stayed; they turned from mining to agriculture and made Australia their home. A great find of gold will always draw people, and some of them will always stay. The gold-rush did much to help on the colonization of Australia. Australia has an area of nearly three million square miles, to be exact, 2,974,581 square miles, an area almost equal to that of the United States. There is a population of six and a half million in Australia now, and it is rapidly increasing. Australia ' s death-rate is the lowest in the world. Of the six and a half million people, n ' nety-seven per cent are British stock and eighty-four per cent Australian born. The natives are dying out as any backward race must which comes in contact with a higher civilization. The only tongues spoken in Australia are English, and the native dialects, and these latter are not recognized. Whereas in Canada, French is used all through Quebec Province and part of Ontario. In Canada, too, the Indian is increasing and in the far North the population is mostly Eskimo. There are many things in the formation of Australia which are different from any other country. One is its very compact outline; only in a few places is the coastline cut up, the most outstanding being the North-West corner facing the Timor Sea. Even so, the most beautiful and the safest harbour in the world is found in Australia — the harbour of Sidney. Australia ' s coast-line only measures 8,880 miles, which is the smallest proportion of coast-line shown by any continent. Along the North-East coast lies the Great Barrier Reef, the happy hunting ground oi scientists and naturalists, but hv no means so well loved by captains bringing their ships into port through it This reef is very old and many sea-plants and sea-animals are found on it which are found nowhere else. Navigation inside it is very difficult and was more so when old sailing ships were used, which either went very slowly inside, or by a longer route outside. The only mountains oi importance are those of the Great Dividing Range, but they are important enough as they have a great influence on the climate of Australia. The rain falls on their [ 1 1