Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

Page 32 text:

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Page 31 text:

THE ASHBURIAN l29l THE LIBRARY HE Library has had an immensely successful year and has really got somewhere, it thinks. The Library must be taken as meaning a body of boys headed by the writer of this article who is a master and the chief Librarian. The Library has been thought to be remarkably unscrupulous by various members of the School, who have been inclined to suspect that the money paid by them in fines for the late return of books has been later consumed in the purchase of coca cola and other drinks and fruit cake for the Library feast at the end of the term. This information is not however correct, though we are proud to say that the collection of fines has been remarkably ruthless and successful and has resulted in boys being very much more careful about the books than they were twelve months ago. The writer is also proud to say that the boys who have assisted him as librarians this year have been conscientous and efficient. We started off in September by extracting a grant of S5000 from the Headmaster which gave great pleosure and this action on the Headmaster's part has done much towards the success of the year as it inspired a great deal of enthusiasm. Books were bought in two instalments and the bookshelf doors were as far as possible locked so that books could not be extracted at ony time by the less scrupulous members of the school. ln addition owing to the return of a number of English boys to their homes across the sea, the Library has inherited a great number of books in almost new condition which have been willed to it by those departing boys. There are books for boys of all ages. ln the spring term alone there were more than l4O entries in the books out book and this represents a very big increase in the reading over recent years. One cannot say that more boys are reading more but at all events they are patranising the Library and not relying on what books they may happen to own themselves, or borrow from other people. There will always be o good deal of trouble with the books as long as is is not possible to lock ALL the books up. This might seem a trifling task and you may be wondering why it has not been done long ago. The fact is that certain of the shelves are so made with sliding doors that it is very difficult if not impossible in war time to find any lock of the right kind to deal with them. Consequently we still find books all over the school that have somehow found their way out of the shelves without being noticed, but on the whole the members of the school are very helpful and conscientious about bringing them back when they find them, and we are duly grateful. For the purposes of the record the Library has been open at the following timeszat break lll.l5l every day and at 8,30 pm. every day, Monday to Friday inclusive. After chapel on Sunday morning for fifteen minutes There has been no opening an Saturday. The boys who have acted as assistant Librarians during the year are as follows. Atherton, Birchwood, Eliot 2, Lighthall, Matthews, Nelles, Plowden, Winser. GJKH.

Page 33 text:

THE ASHBURIAN U, I DEBATING SOCIETY HE first meeting of the Society took place on 29th October at 8 pm. when L. Chapman was elected President and R, Boutin Vice-President. Mr. Harrison at his own suggestion agreed to act as Secretary. The meeting was largely attended by the members of those forms qualified to attend, and adjourned at 8.55 pm. The Second meeting of the Society took place at 8 pm. in the Library when P. Horben moved that in the opinion of this House tu be born poor develops a better character than to be born rich. J. C. Mocnobb opposed The Hon Mover, drawing both personal and national examples from those of Abraham Lincoln and ancient Rome, emphasied the importance to character of having to sweat and fight for the advantages of life otherwise denied, when Rome was poor she had the character to create a great empirel when she grew rich she grew lazy, dependent on mercenaries and slaves, and these things led inevitably to her decadence and final collapse. A boy born to wealth is padded and shielded from the hard things of life and as he has no need of a strong character, he will not develop one. He admitted the advantages of a formal education in the building of character, but would not admit that a rich background gave a boy a better chance to take advantage of such an education than a comparatively poor one. Those who are born poor may sink even lower, he said, but it is equally true that those who are born rich waste their lives: 'in fact,' said the Hon Mover, 'to those who say that there are more poor vagrants than rich wasters, l will reply that there are a great many more poor people than rich ones' This was a good speech and confidently delivered. The Hon Opposer supposed that nearly all his audience would ultimately be at least moderately successful in life: in imagination therefore we were rapidly whirled to a school in Hull, Quebec: the members of the Debating society there, he said, had less chance of becoming successful, Why? Poverty. The jobs that awaited the poor were monotonous, in which the spirit was held down and hope smothered. The Hon. Opposer knew what he was talking about because he had worked in a job all summer in a factory, He was amazed, he said, by the simple-mindednes of his fellow workers' their minds were at 5th form level: and don't suppose, he added, that these people led exemplary lives. Not a bit of it. Two of his acquaintances there had deserted their wives and many did not appear on the morning after the night before, which seemed to happen often. The rich man has character which he has had the chance to build up in a good school: the rich have so much character in fact that the Hon. Opposer was able confidently to attribute the fall of France in I9-40 to the French revolution in l789 when all those with money land therefore charocterl were so unfortunately destroyed The only Free French leader of any consequence is De Gaulle, an oristocrat. And then what about Churchill and Roosevelt? Both rich men Consider, said the Hon. Opposer, how exceedingly lucky you are not to have been born in the slums.