The Onehunga Tragedy.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 237, 8 October 1886, Page 2

The Onehunga Tragedy.

It is right to draw a veil over tho circumstances connected with tho diro tragody which occurred at Onehunga the other day. The unhappy man who atoned with hln life for any follies ho may havo committed, has appealed from earthly judges to n higher power ; but though It would be shameful to besmirch the memory of tho dead, it is equally wrong that unjust reflections should be cost upon tha living. Tho aotion of those who brought the complaints of their children before th« Onehunga School Committee, was justified beforo Mr Gurr's death, by his resignation, and the recommandation of the School Committee to tho Board of Education that his resignation should bo accepted. And wo think the Board wcro simply discharging a plain duty to the publio in refusing to accept that resignation until they had satisfied themselTes that Mr Gurr had not been guilty of any misconduct such as should preclude him from obtaining a scholastic appointment in another educational district. The demand made by the Board that the Committee should make a soarching inquiry into the allegations made against Mr Gurr, and either acquit or condemn him, was surely one against which no innocont man could justly demur. Rather should wo think that it was his boundendutyto demand such an inquiry, in order that it should never be cast up against him that ho left tho school undor a cloud. It would bo as pitiful as useless to rake out tho details of this caso and to try the unfortunate man alter his death. His extreme distress prior bo the final act of self-destruction assures us that whatever his faults, whether guilty or not guilty of the offences alleged against him, his was not the case of a hardened sinner. And whether we regard his action as that of an innocent man overwhelmed by the difgraco

fa false sutp cion, or as the act of a con-science-stricken wretch, equally may wo pity and mourn tho sad ending of a human life which had initsuch possibilities for good. But our sympathy can go no further; his death was the evidence of a moral cowardice that shrank from an ordeal which a healthy moral nature would not merely have faced manfully, but have demanded. If the guardians of our children had acteci otherwise than they did, they would have been grossly culpable, and amenable to the condemnation of every parent in the Province. Above all other offices, that of teacher should bo hold by men whose moral character and behaviour will stand tho strictest scrutiny.