Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 121
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[Page 121]
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State Government, in the Labour Party administration led by Premier Holman, took it back again, and the Governor General and his imported staff had to be content with the less pretentious Admiralty House across the water. In the interval the State Governor was accomodated [accommodated] in "Cranbrook House", just down the slope from "Scots": eventually it became Cranbrook School.
Among the new boys starting at "Scots" with me, was a Japanese youth, "Jun" Suzuki (a name as common in Japan as Smith with us) the scion of a wealthy family of wealthy fertilizer manufacturers. He was, naturally, a target for our curiosity. I remember his being penned in a corner of the Common Room, after our evening meal on the first night of school opening, by a gang of boys who were firing questions at him about Japan, until it was time for all of us to go down to Preparation ("Prep") in the classrooms for an hour, to study under the supervision of the Master-on-duty, before attending evening prayers in the House chapel, and so to bed in the dormitories, with "lights out" being called at 9.30 p.m. But the only English that Suzuki knew at first, was "Yes" and "No" and "Very difficult". Actually he had already had a complete secondary education in Japan, and the main reason for his coming to our school was to learn the English language, and he concentrated almost entirely on this task for three years, during which time he wore out three or four large Japanese-English dictionaries. When deep in study during "Prep" he had a disconcerting habit of twisting his stiff wiry forelock of hair between his finger and thumb, making a crackling noise that could be heard all over the room. As he progressed in using our language, he made a practice of writing down big words he saw in public notices and newspapers. He would look these up, in his dictionary, and at the first favourable opportunity, he would utter one or two of them in a most ungrammatic, but amusing, sentence. Often the boys in the top form didn't know the meaning or correct pronounciation of these "jawbreakers", themselves.
A very athletic Japanese, "Jack", had been employed at the College for several years as a gardener and handyman. But Suzuki and he didn't seem to have much in common; probably because