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THERE WILL be a lapse of six months before another issue of THE GOLDONIAN is published. This does not mean that we are cutting down
our number of publications or that the editor is going on a world tour (I am afraid), but simply that with the changes of terms, this issue is a
month earlier that usual, and we shall be having our summer vacation in July instead of August.
I am very pleased that the support by the people who supply the material for our magazine has in no way lessened, in fact I think everyone
has made an extra special effort on my behalf, and I do thank them most sincerely. Believe me, an editor's lot is not always a happy one, and
I count myself most fortunate in getting the co-operation I do.
It is a little disturbing, and I know our Headmaster agrees with me too, that so few BOYS take the trouble to send in articles, or write up reports.
Is it a case of not having time or not having interest I wonder? I'll guarantee there would be a hue and cry from the boys if we stopped or
reduced publications! So come along lads, this is your magazine as well as the staff's.
The improvements in the home continue, the latest development is the laying of lino tiles through the dormitories, wooden beds with interior
sprung mattresses, and bedside mats, and what is more important is the'fact that gradually everyone is getting 'house proud' with the standard
of cleanliness and tidiness improving (every week, which once more proves the importance of 'a good example'.
Life can be very hard, and the march of time often appears cruel and ruthless and I am "sure our very good friend and member of the Goldings
Committee, Mr. Daniel Dye, would be the first to endorse that remark.
Until a few weeks ago Mr. Dye was 'Alderman Dye', an honour bestowed on him many years ago by members of the Hertford Borough Council,
and he had regularly been re-elected to that exalted position until this year, when he failed to secure enough votes from his colleagues.
Every local resident knows the great amount of good this public-spirited man has bestowed on every kind of charitable and worthwhile
organization. I am sure all present and past members of Goldings will join me in offering our commiserations, and to assure Mr. Dye that
although he may have had to give way to a younger man, his great kindness to the young and old will never be forgotten.
We here at Goldings will always be pleased to welcome Mr. Dye, and who knows, perhaps we may see a little more of him now that his
official duties are less!
The Printed Word
IT is not considered the business of the printer to question the subject matter which he records in print as his daily work. His job is to set out
other people's ideas in the clearest and most attractive form. It follows therefore that he will print wisdom and nonsense, good advice and foolis
h notions, truth and falsehood all in the pursuit of his calling.
Printing is only one of the means by which a few influence the ways in which many think, speak and behave. In ancient, as in modern times,
there have been orators who have stirred assemblies to deeds of valour and incited rnobs to wicked acts of vengeance and destruction. The size
of audience that can be addressed at one time and the power of the spoken word have been immensely increased by modern inventions—by
microphone, loud-speaker radio and television.
In countries ruled by political dictators loud-speakers are set up in public squares where thousands can be assembled. Mass viewing is provided
for in some places by erecting huge television screens where crowds may gather to see them. This is not done just to provide free entertainment.
A dictator does not want people to listen to him in small groups by their own hearthsides, lest they should start to think for themselves or even
become critical of what he says.
Man, as an individual, is a thinker, but a crowd can be swept along by other people's fears, prejudices and false arguments and may be persuaded
to do things of which they would be ashamed if they used their brains. It is for this reason that the work of printers is of the greatest possible
value to a democratic people. All sorts of rubbish may be printed along with the good, but at least one knows that a reader must apply his own
mind to get at its meaning and before it alters his thoughts and actions it must be sifted, so to speak, by the reader's own intelligence. One may
listen or view in a crowd, but one normally reads alone. One thoughtful reader displays more intelligence and is likely to be more useful in a
democratic community than a hundred 'goggle-box' watchers. So, Printers of Goldings, thank-you for printing this issue of THE GOLDONIAN,
and more power to your elbows!
R. F. W.
Chaplain's Notes
'ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS' is an old and oft repeated adage, but nevertheless still a true one. We have all met people who
talk and talk and talk. They make protestations of good intentions; they promise to do all kinds of things, but somehow no matter how much
they say to the contrary their words never show themselves in actions. They remain just empty words, promises which never came to anything,
good intentions which somehow failed.
It is an easy thing to allow our tongues to run away with us. There is a short passage in the 'Letter of James' which speaks about just this sort of
thing. In the new translation it reads 'So with the tongue. It is a small member but it can make huge claims.' The passage (chapter 3) goes on to
show what effect this can have. If we get carried away with words, in other words allowing our tongues to run away, then the effect can be
disastrous, and the faith we profess is never seen, because the sham which our words produce never let it come into action.
Our Christian faith can never be just a mere protestation of good intentions put forth in words, but it must always be rooted and grounded in
actions. Our faith must be expressed practically in our relationships one with another. There must be a real sense of Christian brotherhood and
fellowship, a faith in real expressed action—riot in the emptiness of words. We are not called to suggest the Christian life just in words, but to
express it in deed and act and make our faith really become action.
B. L. N.
Sir Alfred Owen, C.B.E.
ALL BOYS and staff would like to offer their congratulations to our Chairman of Council on the occasion of his knighthood, bestowed on him
by Her Majesty the Queen in her Birthday Honours List, 'for political and public services in Staffordshire.'
We in the Homes are most familiar with Sir Alfred for the wonderful work he does in the field of child care and moral welfare, and perhaps are
inclined to overlook the great work he has done, for this country and. the world, in the engineering field. The B.R.M. may not have won all its
races, but it has certainly forced the pace!
ED.
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