ELEGANT VITUPERATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 233, 20 February 1913, Page 4

ELEGANT VITUPERATION.

Mr. L. (Jope Cornford tells the readers of the National Review that Ulster "is threatened with conditions precisely analogous to the conditions which, according io the Liberal electioneerers, menaced this country in 1006 in the shape of Chines,: labor." A Nationalist, in short, is as obnoxious to Mr. Cope O'ornford's brand of Ulstennan as a Chinese laborer is to a British working man. Ministers of the Crown are even less attractive than Nationalists in the i'yen of this champion of extreme bigotry. "Ministers have sacrificed every principle of honor. - ' he says. "No one any longer believes the statements made by the Treasury Bench. 'Ministerial 1} iug' has become a by-word. Personal gain is the single object of his Majesty's Ministers. Titles, awards and jobs are lavishly bestowed. And there is more behind—much more."' Arson and infanticide, no doubt, with a few murders and a little robbing of aged widows and motherless children. Mr. Cope Cornford really .should not spoil his vituperative ship for the sake of a little extra tar.

SHOULD TEACHERS BE CIVIL SERVANTS? Almo>l all the different societies and associations that are interested in one or another aspeci of education have been holding meetings recently in London. In some respects tlie most interesting discussion was thai which was opened at the joint conference of Education Associations by Mr. Michael Sadler, ViceChancellor of \jvi'd* University, on the subject. "Should Teachers be Civil Servants?" Mr. Sadler put the case against the change with great force, arguing that State effort in education was comparatively sterile in new ideas, and that if the teaching profession became a bureaucracy it would mean the sacrifice of independence, originality, and the \''i-:ili'" i'!ili-|j:-i ' that was the secret of educational progress. In Mr. Sander's opinion, to give teachers the status of civil servants would open up all manner of awkward and embarassing questions. ;:nd in particular it would import the religious problem into departments of education that were now free from it. Dr. Sophie Bryant concurred, contending that the Civil Service was worse for women under present conditions than any other branch of women's work. But she laid greater stress on the calamity lhai the nation would suffer if the vast mass of intellectual persons who were now free to speak their minds on any subject they pleased were withdrawn "into the silent shades of the Civil Service." Other speakers put the contrary case, and with great effect.

"A 11 ELI, UPON EARTH." The Siin Francisco Argonaut quotes Mr. E. (',. .Icllicoe. "ii prominent English lawyer and Radical politician," not unknown in lliis country, as its authority i for the rather startling statement that Xew Zealand is a "hell upon earth." According to the San Tranciseo journal. Mr. • Icllicoe eame to Xew Zealand prepared to find mi industrial and social heaven, but he found the opposite. Tie found that the Arbitration Act had brought about industrial chaos, and that labor legislation intended to victimise the capitalist had so far driven capital out of the country that development was at a standstill, and people had been reduced to the verge of want. The "Arbitration Boards" had evented a host of officials who had neither the character nor the inclination to resist the enormous and opposing pressures brought to bear on them bv interested parties. The most vemavkable result of Socialist legislation was a new mania fov sport and a hatred of everything above the sporting level. The superior mind was everywhere regarded ;is a hostile social force, una nnv head that raised itself intellectually or -oeially above the level became the target for kicks. The avowed object of the Labor Party was to drag everything and even-body down to its own coarse level. The result of this deplorable state of n flairs was to cuve Mr. .Tellicoe of all his Radical leanings. "I have determined hencefonvavd." he is iptofed as saying, "to resist to the utmost, tbe detestable and abominable crusade which is being waged in this country (Britain) to achieve a similar upheaval by fostering and making political capital of class prejudice and destroying the institutions of which the country is so justly proud."

Yet there are people who will be unkind enough to suspect that .Mr. Jellicoe's desertion of Radicalism in this country and of Liberalism at, Home was due to quite another cause than the abuse of opportunities and power by the progressive political parties. A CHAMPION 01' LIBERTY. A contributor to the January number of the Nineteenth Century mentions "the passionate affection" which is f"lt in both iServia and Bulgaria for Britain. '•'Notwithstanding some historic failures on our part," he writes, "we are still lin their eyes their traditional friend::. For we are the countrymen of Gladstone, the reverence for whom is to-day as ' great as when he thundered against their enemies and oppressors, and its the work of the Balkan Committee they see the spirit of Gladstone animating his nation to-day. The affection of a nation is not a treasure to be lightly held. In this ease it will, T believe, increase rather than diminish, but it is well that we should realise its existence and its strength, and the possibilities which lie therein." The British statesmen of the last two decades have not done, much to confirm the affection for Britain which was developed in Bulgaria and Servia in Gladstone's days. The tendency of successive Governments has been to demand the maintenance of the status quo, witty all its unpleasant consequences for the oppressed peoples, rather than- run any risk of a quarrel with powerful neighbors. But it is pleasant to know that the plucky little nations o? the Balkans still regard Britain as the champion of liberty.