Daily Circulation, 1640. The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1894.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XIX, Issue 6049, 14 September 1894, Page 2

Daily Circulation, 1640. The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1894.

"Not a Patriot," etc., returns to the charge re Mr Burn's dismissal. The difference between our opinions is as wide as ever, and will remain so, though the argumentation should be carried on ad infinitum. What our correspondent persists in alleging is that, nc matter what the Waitaki High School Governors might do, no one has any right to object. They might decapitate Mr Burn, but "lawabiding citizens" would say that "the public interest called for his removal." They might appropriate the funds of the institution, but law - abiding citizens would be lulled into complacency by the conviction that "the public interest called for their removal." It is only a question of deeree. The underlying principle is precisely the same. The Governors have, in their great mercy, not taken Mr Burn's life—they only seek to take away his bread and butter; but, even if they had taken away his life, they would not, according to our correspondent's view, be criminals—they would still be the " nation's judges " entitled to ignore an outraged public and to justify the murder on the grounds that Mr Burn wore tan shoes j that he was a vice-president of a Labor union ; that he donned knickerbockers and a cap; that he and his wife ate no meat ; that they lectured on advanced social subjects in Christchurch to admiring audiences ; and that Mrs Burn wore a dress which was not exactly like that worn by most | women. But, stay, there is another reason they have alleged for turning Mr Burn out in the cold—it is that Mr Burn was in the habit cf imbuing the boys' minds with certain advanced notions of which some of the parents wished their boys to be ignorant. This charge was made to the Governors, however, in secret, Mr Burn has no knowledge of it " officially " ; and is not to have any, lest he should be able to turn the tables on his calumniators. Yet the men who gag Mr Burn—a man accused of offences which are of such a nature that he is not to be permitted to earn his bread by pursuing a calling for which, by industry, enthusiasm, and superior knowledge, he is admittedly eminently fitted are the " nation s judges," the "constituted judges," "the nation's publicly trusted representatives." What a farce ! Their true nature will not be disguised or hidden from the public gaze though wrapped in all the mystery and verbiage of a special pleader. Our correspondent harps suspiciously on the strain, "Labor Union." There are worse things than labor unions in this world, and "those are the evils which called labor unions into existence. He talks of the appeal to the " ' friends,' or labor union partisans of the malcontent official," etc. Our correspondent did not suppose that the pastoralists were going to take up Mr Burn's cause, did he? It is lucky for certain of the Governors that Mr Burn is guilty of other departures from the beaten track of preconceived notions besides allowing himself to be made vice-presi-dent of a labor union. It would not suit the Governors to avow that their deadly animosity had been aroused against Mr Burn because he had joined a labor union. It would not, indeed, suit them to give any of their reasons for dismissing Mr Burn. Our correspondent is mistaken in his idea that these reasons are not known. We know them, and have enumerated them. What do the public think of them 7 Are they not silly in the extreme % They are so inexpressibly absurd that the Governors and their friends—for Governors always have friends—repudiate them. Yet they are the reasons why " the nation's judges," "the nation's publicly trusted representatives," etc., told Mr Burn that he must either get his livelihood in some other way than by teaching, or else starve. If Mr Burn had worshipped at the shrine of the golden fleece ; if he had regarded the religious beliefs of the Governors with reverential awe; if he had respected the cut-and-dried moral code, the social whims and the prudish eccentricities of his masters, which are more binding than divine injunctions, or the lessons derived from Nature ; if he had imitated the cut of their pants or duly regarded their knickerbockers as sacred patents not to be infringed by an understrapper; if he had hidden his light under a bushel; if he had accepted everything as gospel; if he had never made any inquiries for himself; if he had never attempted to enlighten others ; but if, steeped in selfsufficient ignorance and pride, clothed outside in orthodox garb, lined inside with orthodox religion, and surmounted by a tall black hat, he had strutted and swaggered, he need not have been much of a teacher, and yet he would have basked in the smile of "the nation's judges," " the nation's publicly trusted representatives," But the Waitaki Governors have, though unwittingly, donethe "nation" a great service. They have, by making a shocking example of themselves, drawn attention to the necessity that exists for abolishing the system to which they owe their position. There need be no revolution. The public—the supreme human arbiter of all will quietly, through its representatives in Parliament, so amend the law that it will be impossible for the managers of such an institution to be led, by vaunted independence and mock dignity, like beggars on horseback, to the well-known goal.