Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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THE .4sHBUR1.4N 19 THE ROYAL VISIT 1957 will long be remembered by Canadians as the year that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Ottawa and opened the twenty-third session of Canada's parliament. But it will be remem- bered even more vividly by the Ashbury College Cadet Corps, of which one hundred cadets were privileged in being allowed to line a portion of the Royal route. XYe were allotted a section of the road leading out of Lansdowne Park, over which the Royal procession was to pass on the last day of the visit en route to the airport. After weeks of preparation the memorable day arrived. VVe were transported down to Lansdowne Park by bus and then we took up our positions on the stretch of road. lt was only a short while until the cheering of the 15,000-odd children reached a Crescendo. Al- though from where we stood we could not actually see the Queen. we could hear wave upon wave of frenzied cheering that followed the Royal car as it slowly drove around the Park. Q Canadal' and God Save the Queen were sung, Her Majesty said a few words, and they were on their way again. The order was given, we came stiffly to attention and then the Queen's procession slowly drove by us. It was indeed like a page from a story book. DEBATING Ashbury has had a rather full debating year for a change, in all, we upheld our convictions in three separate occasions, and emerged as victors on two of them. Our First debate was in the fall, at St. A'Iary's College, Brockville, there, Ashbury upheld the affirmative of the motion that Capital Punishment should be abolished. After much vociferation, Ashbury's representatives, G. Gale and Chamard, were adjudged to be the winners. It seems trite to say that a good time was had by all, but the hospitality of our hosts was truly marvellous, we were at once put at ease and a sense of friendship prevailed even in the heat of battle. During the Winter Term, the St. AIary's team visited Ashbury and, upholding the negative of the motion That Canada should re- cognize Red China , was declared the winner. Both the Ashbury - St. Mary debates were organized on the Oregon style. By this system. it is not sufficient merely to present one's case. but one is subjected to a gruelling cross-examination fby the opposition! calculated to make even the strongest points appear to be trite verbosity. It is sincerely hoped that we may again enjoy the pleasure of further verbal combats with St. NIary's next year. The high point of the debating year was. of course, the Tri- School debate. held this year in Klontreal with Lower Canada College

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TH!-I .-ISHBURInI.Y 21 acting as host. This affair saw Ashbury pitted against l3ishop's College School on the motion That the present policy of the Canadian Government in diverting purchase of goods from the L'.S. to goods produced in the L'.K. is a sound one . Despite the fact that the Cana- dian Government denies this is a policy, the motion was hotly contested. Bishops upholding the afiirmative, established many good points and managed to establish a sound basis for their intention. Ashbury, how- ever, also made its points clear, and eventually emerged victorious. XVe are all looking forward to meeting Lower Canada College next vear at Lennoxville. i Much credit for the successes of the two members of the Ashbury Debating Team, Gale and Chamard, must go to Mr. Spencer whose timely hints and coaching helped us considerably. ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSIONS A new innovation this year was a series of round-table discussions held each Friday after lunch under the guidance of Nlr. Vetter. Over the year many topics were discussed, ranging from VVhy Do VVe Go To Church? to Hit Parade vs. Classical and from Age 21 to Public vs. Private School . The natural outgrowth of class discussion periods, this series was most successful and each week a faithful group of students from Grade X up met to express their views. After a time cunning filled the questions and the answers were all given in ambiguous terms but, never- theless we all learned a lot and enjoyed the meetings immensely. VV e look forward to resuming the group next fall. POETRY READNG CONTEST This valuable annual event was held, in the School Chapel as usual, on Sunday, May 4th, under the same conditions as those of former years: the reading of a set piece, a selection of the candidates own choosing, and a sight piece. As no outside authority was available this year, the readings were adjudicated by Mr. Belcher, who awarded the honours as follows: Senior: Hutchison, Intermediate: Lynn, junior: Campbell II. Rowe received honourable mention in the Intermediate competition. PUBLIC SPEAKING CONTEST Unlike the Poetry Reading Contest, this event did not produce as great a number of entries as last year, nevertheless the quality of the performances was high - perhaps even superior to the general level exhibited in previous years, as there appeared to be an improvement in the spontaneity, conviction and ease of delivery of speeches. In the Senior Division, Chamard and Gale were adjudged joint winners. The former expressed authoritative and convincing views