THAT PATUTAHI AFFAIR.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 190, 1 September 1888, Page 2

THAT PATUTAHI AFFAIR.

Is a scattered district like Patutahi we can well imagine there is a difficulty in securing organised action on questions affecting the district, but these disadvantages should not be allowed to prevent the householders of tha‘ township £rom speaking veryldeeidedly on a matter which sagdeeply cancerMl them as does the education of their children. We give those parents credit for having the sam® regard for their children as all thoughtful parents have, and for this reason we do not believe that they will silently submit tpjthe reflection that has been oast upon the district. But if the position is not fully realised in time, the action may come too late. Nor is this question of interest to Patutahi alone : if the affair is allowed to slumber quietly into forgetfulness, there is not one of those gentlemen occupying the responsible position of instructors of our children who can feel himeelf safe—his reputation may be blasted for life by the thoughtlessness or ill feeling of a few individuals, Is it right that men who are compelled to devote the best years of their to the most arduous studies—men whose whole life is one of care and anxiety—may be ruined without any proof of mismanagement or misconduct being made against them ? As a correspondent remarks elsewhere, such a possibility savors very much of the Dark Ages. Will the Patutahi people allow this monstrous injustice to be perpetrated without a protest being raised ? Will they permit a man to be sacrificed in the way in which Mr Maclintock has been, or it is feared will be 1 For the sake of their children they should see that this affair is thoroughly sifted—in common fairness, they should not allow a man to ba cast °ff W WK "’ay, in the face, too, of a protest from 3 meeting of the householders an a of tie unanimous condemnation of the Committed «fioP- All we want to see is fair play, and this Mr K 9el,nt H °±4? certainly not had accorded him. 00 the members of the Committee theme es confessed that the charges against that gentleman were not true, and there has been an attempt to throw the blame on the Education Board. View the Committee’s action in any light they cannot escape from blame. Mr Maclintock, on the other hand, has not had an opportunity to discredit the charges made against him, other than that which he had at the public meeting, when the unanimous verdict was in his favor. Therefore we consider there should be a proper enquiry before the resolution of the Board has been carried into effect. As it is, the high-handed action of the Board, in ignoring the resolution of the householders, is treatment that was quite

undeserved, but with the statements before the Board, the householders could only have anticipated a snub in reply. If this kind of thing is allowed in this case, there is no telling to what grave abuses it may not lead. Then let the Patutahi householders see that there is fair play, and not each wait for the other one to first raise his voice.