A TEACHER’S PROTEST.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1016, 7 March 1912, Page 4

A TEACHER’S PROTEST.

A public school teacher in the course of a private letter to the editor of the Eyttelton Times makes a very earnest protest against what he calls the “degeneracy of party politics.’’ He is not concerned for the party politicians, he explains, “they may be left to their own devices without much sympathy from anyone,” but he is alarmed for the effect their shocking manners and disgraceful language will have upon the rising generation. He looks upon the matter in this way: “During the 30 years I have been a public school teacher I have tried to cultivate in my pupils a civic attitude, to give them a bias towards civic affairs and to imbue them with the idea of service for their country. At a general election I advise them to attend political meetings and to read the newspapers. If they do as 1 advise they find the very men who are endeavouring to serve the country vilified and slandered to such an extent that they think it is the wisest and safest thing to eschew public affairs, and if they do not eschew public affairs they come to look upon them as a passing game of no permanent importance. Such a state of affairs is a national calamity, and if our would-be-rulers do not set an example of good conduct in this regard, to whom shall we look ?” To whom, indeed ? queries the Times, which goes on to say: “Party politics, or at any rate the side of them that is attracting most attention just now, have reached a pass during the last few weeks which they had never touched before in the history of this country. Politicians are vilifying one another and newspapers are vilifying them all in a fashion that must give old people as well as young the very poorest opinion of public life and must make it more difficult than ever to induce men of fine instincts and delicate feelings to offer their services to the country. The teacher who has been encouraging his pupils to look lor better things well may be discouraged by what they have found.