Correspondence

To the Editors of " The Peterite." Sir,

Recently there has come into my possession a collection of lantern slides which belonged to the late Mr. Oxley Grabham, formerly the Curator of the Yorkshire Museum.

While shewing some of these slides I came across some pictures of a fisherman's boat—taken probably near Bridlington or Scarborough.

With the fishermen in the boat, hauling in a fish, is a boy wearing a Peterite cap.

We wonder who it is ! Does this query perchance catch his eye?

The photographs must have been taken some 30 or 35 years ago, and the boy must have been friendly with Mr. Oxley Grabham.

Yours, etc.,

A. Wentworth Ping.

March, 1940.

Dear Sirs,

We are writing this letter in order to make a few criticisms and to provide constructive ideas for your journal.

In our opinion the magazine at present consists merely of a record of facts, and really, it is not worth sending them to print, for a record of events could be entered into one single book and so much valuable paper could be saved in this way. The lay-out of the magazine is poor and any original articles that do find their way into your pages start at the bottom of a page or are squashed between two paragraphs of factual matter.

We suggest that drives for original articles should take place each term, and as an incentive to effort the offer of small prizes for the three best articles submitted would be an excellent idea. We do know of a case when an editorship was offered for the best original articles, and one of the writers of this letter tried for this ; the article was accepted, but no editorship was forthcoming ; we suppose that this was to be expected however.

Well sirs, we hope that you will take notice of our wellmeant remarks and improve the quality of your magazine so as to make it worthy of our famous School. We are, dear sirs,

In answer to the above letter the Editors wish to remind the writers that the form of a school magazine is governed largely by the question of costs. They are also convinced that the majority of boys are in favour of a detailed record of events, particularly when they themselves are concerned in them. The Editors would welcome further expressions of opinion on this point.

They also feel that as regards the economy of paper, the first two points of the letter are mutually contradictory.

A " drive " for articles does take place each term, usually with disappointing results. No Editorship was promised for an accepted article. It was merely promised that the writing of such articles would lead to subsequent Editorship. Vacancies are always announced, and if the writer failed to apply, the Editors can hardly be blamed. There will be a vacancy for the next issue, and it is to be hoped that the omission will be remedied.

Finally, in spite of their disagreement with the contents of the letter, the Editors wish to thank " Wellwishers " warmly for practising what they preach and presenting the " Peterite " with several excellent articles for the current issue.

Dear Sir,

In the B.B.C. programme for the Schools—a normally rather dry production—there is one very good item, namely a lecture on the progress of the war for Senior boys.

In these days when we are stuffed from two sides with conflicting propaganda, the genuine news—when it seeps through—is so difficult to find, that it becomes a Herculean task to discover the truth by ourselves.

Why not then have a lecture, once a week, or once a fortnight, for the fifth and sixth forms on the War?

These lectures need not only be concerned with the progress of the War and the tactics being used by the belligerent powers, but something of the economic side, which we cannot get from books or the wireless, might be gone into.

The lectures might even on occasions be turned into debates on Questions of National purport, and then several sides of the case would be seen, and conclusions could be drawn much more easily.