Uniforms and Patrictism.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 67, 21 June 1912, Page 4

Uniforms and Patrictism.

By E. K. C. RIDDER. Many tlhii.'is cniii inue in cum. , <-n light which go to :<h(-(v (hat what is generally untii'i'Mood h\ ' '|i.ii rioi ism" i,s fast, being piaycd out. T.h«.H - « is a great outcry against tin , garb of the. senior conscript- cult , ! , . and consequently, (In , same now spapers that, for obvKins reasons. once purposely lgr.or-cd and oven openly opposod live "useless ihilliiiPi'.y and excrcswiKX't," urn now engaged in a c<llllllloll. demand for the conscripts' ornamentation, to save the conscript scheme from further disrepute. 1h« greatest consternation, however, is among the ranks of the sons of the privileged class of "cultured intelligence.' 1 The cadet corps of high schools and colleges, of which these youths and young men are. members, and which in the. past have been allowed to wear special distinctive uniforms, have now received orders that they must wear the uniforms of the common herd. It will mean tlio lowering of their status! It will ine.aii the, ruination of all tradition! It will mean that their use as a measuring rod to the "lower orders'' will have vanished! And, worst of all. it may mean the. end of that, class distinction and snobbery so absolutely essential (f> the maintenance of present society! And have you ever noticed flit , altitude of a lighting rooster ni'f.'r In , , has been deprived of his tail-leathers ? Or of the untutored .savage. when minus his warpaint? . How curious it is that they invariably 10-e fheir "patriotism." Can it I>e possible that such could happen to the New Zealand conscripts P The marv.:l is that so many men are st;!l willing to comniit, whilst, decked out in soldiers' garb, deeds which, if done under cover of the uniform of common humanity, would brand tin ni a? osithi'vs and t)be lowest of criminals. And when we are told by the licv. Chaplain-Captain Burton, of_ St. Mi<liaxTs. Christchurch, that "his experience of war was that the man who made the best soldier was the man who was tJh« besi Christian," {and that during th«? Boer war, under both of these disguises men were engaged in burning derm th« Boer homes, and hounding the women and children into concentration camps (where they died off in thousands, like so many Hies), we begin to wonder whether such conduct was d;ie to the fact* that they were er that, for the lime beir.-', their common humanity i)roptitutcd H>.V '■'patriotism"— decked in soldiers' garb. And in 4 J»ifi iTistar.cif! w hare .\ most truthful verification' of the. l';url of Shafteshur/'s stat,«rrwr:t, wheuin he says tl'Ut "by a email mi.sgmdjv.e.c of ■ t;ho affection a lover of man'ii: d becomes a ravager; a Aern and deliverer ihcconics Mi oppressor aud , . destioyer."