JINGOISTIC PATRIOTISM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1911, 5 December 1918, Page 2

JINGOISTIC PATRIOTISM.

THE local State* School Committee has created a little diversion from the morbid topic of influenza by directing attention to the subject of patriotism —or lack of it,according to light and understanding—in connection with the purchase of a piano for school purposes. A somewhat hysterica! outcry has been raised by certain well-meaning but possibly overwrought individuals against a majority of the School Committeemen who decided to purchase a sec-ond-hand piano of German manufacture. The facts are as follows: The old piano (which we are informed was of German make) was destroyed by lire, together with the school building, A local resident

offered a piano to the Committee to replace the one destroyed. The vendor's offer was unsolicited, ami made with the object of assisting: the Committee’s funds. Whom the offer came before the Committee it was decided to engage an export to report on the instrument, and if Ids report proved satisfactory, to purchase it. The expert valued the instrument at double the price asked bv the vendor, and said it would be Mutable for school Avork, and the fact that it was of German manufacture was no detriment. The piano, like hundreds of others, was purchased in this country from a British firm at a time when there was no thought of war with Germany, and the owner of the instrument is as truly British in life and sentiment as any one in the community. Strange to say, the objection to a piano of German make for the school was raised by Committeemen who are guilty of (he “crime” of having German pianos in their own households! Of course, they are. not prepared to carry patriotic sentiment to the extreme of destroying such valuable personal properly. To them it is an unforgivable, nay, a heinous offence, to place a piano of Gorman make in (he school. While at the same time it is (pdle alright to be afforded pleasure and amusement from the si rains of a Germanmade instrument in their own homes. The Scriptural mote and beam is surely applicable. In fact, one objector offered his piano to the school for £3O! Such objectors have yet to learn that Britain and her Allies have not been waging war against German piano manufacturers, or that the piano in question was in any way responsible for the war with its horrors. Neither is it to ho permitted that any teacher will be allowed lo teach our children to hate the German people,.and this for obvious, reasons. Those responsible for tiie war will be punished, and the punishment will meet the crime. The Committeemen may have erred for not advertising for an instrument, hut (here was no immediate necessity for one, and they dealt with the offer made on its merits. if objectors are desirous of displaying practical palI'iolism, there is nothing lo hinder them from presenting the school with a British-made instrument. Let them, however, not mistake jingoism for patriotism, and avoid charging members who supported the ppurclmse with nnpalriotism as such charge may recoil upon their own heads to the point of being snowed under.