OTAGO EMERGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26637, 6 December 1947, Page 6

OTAGO EMERGES

FAMILY CARES Rise at 6.30 a.m., roll call on deck at 7.30, cleaning and scraping and polishing till breakfast at 8.30, morning worship at 10.30, school at 11 “ or rather, immediately after worship dinner at 2, afternoon school at 4, tea at 5.30, evening worship at 7.30. So the diary of the Rev. Thomas Burns relates the ordering of the day on board the Philip Laing. He adds, perhaps a little superflously, the state of discipline . . . became very thorough ”! A “ court of law," consisting of Captain A. J. Elies, master of the ship, Dr Ramsay, the surgeon, and Mr Burns, conducted trials and administered justice. Sometimes “ public rebuke ” was given in the presence of the people at the close of divine service. One such rebuke is pictured by an eye-witness, James Adam, on an occasion when someone insolently questioned Burns’s decision: “I have known Dr Burns as a preacher for 5 and 20 years. I have heard from his lips splendid bursts of eloquence during that time, but never did I see such rage in such a grand and dignified attitude—the. grey locks, the eagle eye, the Roman profile, the right hand stretched forward, the clear voice, the impassioned eloquence, and the profound silence of the onlookers made up a picture which it is impossible to reproduce.’’ , Punishments were designed, so far as possible, to meet the crime. One youth, guilty of improper use of a knife, was ordered to have his head shaved, a sentence which, at the earnest request of his parents, was modified to a close cropping of the hair. Another criminal was imprisoned for several hours in the coal-hole. Another was ordered to carry water for the cooks for a week. Keeping order was most necessary on such a long voyage in limited quarters, and in the stringent test of leadership which has revealed weaknesses in many commanders, Burns proved himself fully adequate to his task. He tried to preserve discipline by the creation of a right spirit, but perfection was not to be found even in a Scottish Utopia, and when necessity arose he did not shrink from strong measures for punishing evil-doers in order to maintain the welfare of the little community under his charge.—G. D.