Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9026, 12 April 1888, Page 4

The assertion of authority is to some minds a very pleasant thing. It matters not particularly whether the ostensible object is great or little, the luxury of saying "no" is an assertion of manhood, and a man can bring himself to feel all the larger for it. Indeed, the smaller the-occasion,and the more trivial the importance of the point at issue, it is all the nicer, because then—without any particular reason leading either way—the exercise of caprice arising from one's own mere motion is a purer exercise of sovereignty. That was doubtless how the City Schools Committee felt, when they refused a half-holiday to the boys of the two top forms of one of the city schools that they might accept a challenge to football from a lot of lads from the Thames. It would have been SI) awful stoop for the dignities of the committee to . have evjnc&J any sympathy with the boys." No ! life is too stern and too short to be wasted in such trivialities. Men and women must work, and why should boys play 1 No, let them stick to their books, and mind their work ; duty must be done. What a grand thing it is for Auckland to have men impressed with such a grave sense of their responsibilities, that they can put their foot down in this fashion and teach the young idea how to work. But now that these wiseacres of the Schools Committee have asserted themselves, we trust that the boys will assert themselves too, and that they will take the holiday, and we hope that the parents of the lads will have a sufficient appreciation of the grot-esqueness of this paltry little assertion of authority, and that they will back the lads up in taking the holiday; and we would further suggest that when the day arrives on which the Thames lads are to try conclusions with our youthful champions, that the other boys in the school, and in all the schools of the city will make common holiday, just to cheer their mates, and to show the Schools' Committee that they appreciate t'- 'mpotence of people dressed in a little brief authority. This utterly needless and absurd assertion of authority on such trivial grounds deserves such a retort, and we trust the schools will take a general half-holiday, and that the boys will have a real good time.