The Rev. P. B. Fraser's Invective. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2398, 15 February 1900, Page 19

The Rev. P. B. Fraser's Invective. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — It is hard for one to 3it down and pen a calm leply to a letter so bitter and personally abusive ?s that of The Rev. P. B. Fraser in your last issue, and if one were to consult his own inclinations he would simply treat it with contempt; but a public man has to perform his duty, and my duty just now is to remind the school committees of Otago that no man has ever been &o untiue to his promises as this self-constituted censor has been to his. This rev. critic, in his usual reckless fashion, makes two false statements regarding me — first that I wrote the letter signed committqeman, and second that John MacGregor was the author of mine. Were it not that I know that Mr Fraser knows better I might feel flattered at being able to write a letter which is worthy of John MacGregor' s pen ; but 1 know that Mr Fraser is fully aware of my ability to write letters ; I know that he knows that he is writing what is contrary to fact when he makes those assertions; and I feel sony J co think a man of his supposed culture ond education should stoop so low as to make such unworthy accusations. He is, I believe, an M.A. of Edinbuigh or Aberdeen University. 3 obtained what little education I possess in one of the small country schools for which he now professes such regaid; yet I venture to say that I can hold my own either m debate or controversy with this graduate of a Home university, and it ill becomes a man of his attainments to stoop to such practices os to make accusations he knows to be untrue. If that is part of the university

education of Scotland, it was not part of the I educ.'tioa I received in the "old tin school" ' at Hyde, and it is as un-Bntish as it is old , womanish. I

I do not intend to follow Mr Fraser's letter j thiough its varied long-winded windings; suffice it to say that Mr Fraser went on to the board with as great a flourish of trumpets before, and proved to be the most unworkable, impracticable, and long-winded man who ever sat there. He was like Tennyson's brook, one perpetual babble, ?nd I know that at one sitting he made 40 of the bitterest speeches ever delivered inside the walls of the board room. A.s a matter of fact, the man has a. ' snarl in his voice, and cannot speak pleasantly if he tries; so that one can't help feeling more sorrow for his infirmities than anger with the man. Indeed, Sir, one's risible faculties are tickled when they see this dapper little parson standing up addressing a body of sensible men as if they were Class X children. He is entirely wanting in sense of proportion, but not in sense of self-importance. I impeach the rev. gentleman on the following grounds : — 1. That he is utterly regaidless of facts, and does not care a brass farthing how he makes a point agpanst an opponent. 2. That he will piomise everything to gain a seat even if he 3:nows it will be impossible to fulfil his promise. ! 3. That to serve his own ends he will throw j ever and desert his friends, and after he has done so, abuse and misrepresent them, and ' stick at nothing to §am his own ends. | 4. That when a member of the board he J biokc every piomise he had made, and toadied to the officials whilst it suited his own purpose, just as he is ready to abuse them now to win back the lost confidence of the committees. 5. That, an old teacher himself, Mr Fraser proved himself a bitter and tyrannical prose- \ cutor in every case that came before the board, i and from being the teachers' hero he became detested by the whole teaching staff of Otngo. ( 6. That occupying a position such as he does, he ought to have been "the guide, philosopher,--and friend" of his colleagues, instead of which ' he ran foul of nearly every member of the board, turned its meetings into a pandemonium, and ended by being tiusted by nobody and rejected by the committees.

Lostly, Sir, J <*ay that the Rev. P. E. Fvaser's public actions prove that no living man is ever certain at what tangent he will fly off. His career has in every way proved tha,t he is "everything by turns and nothing long." "Unstable as water,'' every man's critic, and no man's trusted friend — is it any wonder that he should abuse tTiose who value a true friend as one of God's best gifts, and who are not to be turned from their friendship by the sneers of would-be mischief-makers? Mr Fraser will never be accused of sticking too closely to a friend, for the only friend he values is P. B. Fraser. This is the man who admonishes us! This is the man who preaches good will and biotherly love on Sunday, and slangs his fellow man in an offensive manner

on Monday morning. This U the great 3 AM, who stands on sv pedestal and haiangue-s all and sundry, puffed up with a sense o3 self-importance. "What has he done. Sir, to' warrant his assuming this tone of self-i!npor-tance? Echo, from the bairen records of his past career, answers back "Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!" Nothing but abu.se his fellow man and make things unpleasant. What a pity this rev. critic- cannot broaden with age. One can excuse a man of youth and meagre education for a good deal, but a man of the Eev. P. B. Fraser's education and reading, and occupying, as he does, a position which demands from one a certain amount of dignity, should be above writing such stuff as he floods your columns with. The veriest balderdash where it is not a tissue of misrepresentations, I have. Sir, found it necessary to unmask him; I have tiied to do so without descending to the level he has chosen. Ido not do so for any purpose of revenge, or with one feeling of anger. Ido so because I believe that Mr Frpscr's return to the board would be a public calamity, for he has shown by his past career and by his present correspondence that his whole aim and object is to glorify and advertise himself. He the fiiencf of school committees, forsooth! His whole friendship is self, concentred, all in self, and he cares not how or in what manner he accomplishes his ends. He has gone out of his way to attack me and try to hurt me in the eyes of the public, but my public career has been oiie of steady growth.. I never went in on a fireworks policy, but I flatter myself the committees trust me because they know I run straight and never deseit my friends. If Mr Fiaser wants to achieve a like reputatioa let him study well and carefully Proverbs xii, 8. — I am, etc., J. J. H»MSA V . P.S. — There is just one statement in his letter worth replying to, und that is, io give our reason for voting against Mr Fraser's proposal to bar any teacher from applying for a school in which he was relieving. We found that If this was cariied it would be impossible to get good teachers out of work to relieve, as they would all be applicants, and so much has this been so that in the case of Papakaio the other day the board was forced to deliberately burst up this so-called fair regulation. As chairman, I have had the utmost difficulty this month to get suitoble teachers to fill vacancies, and we have no right to compel a teacher to go out relieving, and then bar that teacher from applying. It is a rule that etils both ways, and has prevented several good teachers from getting schools, and it is now a dead letter. — J. J. B. . — — m A few enthusiasts on the war have started collecting money at Greymoulh so as to b« able to send a small gold brick to Genera" 1 White for his pluoky holding of Ladysmith The brick -will be made so as to hang on i watch chain, and will bear the following inscription: — "To General White. You're a brick for holding Ladysmith. From a few Greymoulh admirers."