Correspondence—"Another School Poll"

The last meeting of the session was an attempt to combine a little consideration of relative values with a little entertainment, and the Society's balloon made an ascent with the following passengers :- The philosopher, Plato (Haxby). The man of letters, Master William Shakespeare (Ankers). The man of science, Lord Lister (Hilton). The man of action, Captain R. F. Scott (Robinson). The sportsman, Mr. C. B. Fry (Gunning).

No one present, including the Chairman—"pilot" for this occasion —had had experience of this type of debate. However, the arrangements worked excellently, and the meeting proved most successful. Each speaker was given two minutes; then the House was allotted an equivalent time to say what it thought, before voting.

As soon as the balloon had reached a sufficient height—not without signs of malaise among some of the passengers—the necessary leak was suspected, and quickly proved with the aid of a book of logarithms. The Secretary had forgotten to put in the parachutes, and it became necessary for one passenger to jump to save the rest. Each was given two minutes in which to show why his services to mankind justified why he should NOT be sacrificed. Plato's philosophy failed to appeal, and out he went after a cheerful handshake all round. The leak continued, and though Shakespeare pointed out that it was not his fault that his work was used in schools, he went next. Perspiration and nervousness (literally) became apparent among the remaining trio, more, perhaps, at the thought of making another speech than at leaving the balloon. Lord Lister began to confuse anwsthetics and antiseptics. Capt. Scott rather airily announced his readiness to follow the example of Capt. Oates—or did someone tell him he jolly well ought to? Anyway, he went next. Throughout Mr. Fry had urged the benefits of good health derived from sport; but now he invited the House to contemplate scientists in the mass and consider whether they deserved to live. This for some reason sealed the fate of Lord Lister (by 79 votes to 78 !). The exponent of sport and the pilot then made a safe descent.

CORRESPONDENCE

"ANOTHER SCHOOL POLL"

We have received the following letter concerning an item in the last issue of "The Peterite". It is unfortunate that there has not been time to submit the criticisms to R. D. Wheatley, the author of the "Poll", for his observations. Editorially we would only remark that we do not understand our correspondent's figures for aspirants to the Legal Profession (his first paragraph). As printed in "The Peterite". the figure was 3 per cent of those interviewed. However, we can take no responsibility for the method of conducting the "Poll", and must leave it to R. D. Wheatley to justify himself 26