The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1917. EXEMPTION OF TEACHERS.

Taihape Daily Times, 30 October 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1917. EXEMPTION OF TEACHERS.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Waimarino News).

A spirit of crassness seems to have got loose in Parliament in connection with the exemption of school teachers from military service. There are undoubted indications that this question is not being - disposed of on the basis of its merits, and that the discussions thereon are not free from a sectarian bias that should, at least, find no place in our Parliament. The question is, “Have so many teachers been taken into the army that there is now a serious which, in the interests of our children, warrants, or necessitates, cessation from further enlistment of teachers?” That is broadly the question and why cannot Parliament and people discuss it calmly, without cunning or bigotry, on its merits? If it is shown that there are not enough teachers left in the country, Parliament should certainly cease sending them away; if there are ample and more can be spared, we should delay exemption until the irreducible minimum is reached but let us not have the charge of sectarian bitterness laid against us over the question. It seems that there are members of both' Houses who desire to exempt teachers in accordance with the true and real needs of our schools, but there is a “ewe lamb” belonging to somebody they would like to see slain first. Parliament will exempt last sons of farmers, will exempt last freezing works butchers, last railwaymen, last shepherds, last everything, even last teachers in State schools, but there are some members who with unreas--7 enable perverseness, draw the line at extending exemptions to the last teachers in Catholic schools, who are in the first division simply because they have rightly or wrongly vowed to divest themselves of all cares, so far as it is humanly possible, to devote their lives to the training of the young If everyone of these men who can pass the medical examination were taken they would represent only a small part .of even one company of soldiers, and yet Parliament is made to look ludicrous about it. Is there any question of principle involved as some seem to suggest? Letug for common decency’s sake be honest and admit that our Military Service Boards have already exempted hundreds of the first division, and yet we

would leave certain very excellent schools without one solitary teacher, because by virtue of a vow to the service of the youngj to the teaching profession, the teachers are in the first division. The most outrageously careless i easoner will never acuse us of religious bias on the side of the reachers involved, and will therefore voluntarily admit that what we consider it common justice to say can not I have the remotest relationship with anything but the secular side of the question. On the other hand we are no more free from the “Old Adam” than most other people, but we strive to steer clear of all that seems of doubtful benefit, and to stand against the wrongs that need resistance, and for the good that we can do. In their pertinacious attitude to the one phase of exemption of teachers a few men are making a very large proportion of the people of this country look ridiculous; it is another instance of the danger of one man or one sect usurping the right to speak for others. We distinctly refuse to allow either Jew, Mohammedan, Catholic or Protestant to involve us in what strikes us as an unjust, selfish, punitive campaign against a score or two of professional teachers, who, by the nature of their sacrifice to their profession, belong to the first division. No matter whether it is war, general local politics, or social questions of the merest import, might and bigotry should be 'eliminated; faction has proved a curse in every aspect of life. We want no faction; in the best interests of the world and every individual in it, we should insist that justice shall prevail above all methods of Prussianism Because of bitter illiberality the question of exempting school teachers cannot reach finality, as there are a certain few wfio would be entitled with others to be relieved of military duties. We are, it seems to us, bemoaned and belittled by the actions of a few sectarian talkers. Because the authorities did a contempt ible thing in unjustly censorihg a post office those directly involved should rise superior to any charge of spiteful action. The teaching of the young is a matter of supreme importance, and it should never be. allowed to become the shuttlecock of factious politicians. Let us refuse,., to have questions ‘of grave national -importance tossed about, and'made the plaything of extremists. So surely as the people wink the eye at anything of the kind, so surely will it. extend till it becomes an overshadowing bugbear, deterrent to harmony and progress. We want, very badly indeed, an extension of Christianity of the true Christian spfri't, but toleration of anything savouring of pre-reformation times let us ( assiduously eschew. Some are endeavouring to make ‘a mountain out ,of a molehill .and a few misguided zealots are magnifying a matter to a ridiculous extreme. Side issues and stupid difficulties are placed in the way of reaching a sane understanding of a simple question,Divested of all the factious nonsense that has been thrown around it, that question remains, “Has the teaching profession been so depleted by enlistment that it is now imperative im the best interests of our children and the nation that enlistments should cease.” That is the question, but there are those who, virtually, would exempt the teachers of their own children and of the children of parents who think as they do, but would take the last teacher from the children of parents who are not able to think as they do. If there is a teaching difficulty let us refuse to view it from the standpoint of any sectarian zealot. Let us be manly and just first and fight our religious battles afterwards. The ideal of one is the execration of another in such matters. We have a consciousness of what is right, and it is not understandable why we should wist to belie it. Parliament is no place in which to invent and impose religious restrictions, laws and exemptions thereof should sit on all alike.