The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY MORNING. Tuesday, March 25, 1890. POLITICAL TYRANTS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 433, 25 March 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, SATURDAY MORNING.

Tuesday, March 25, 1890. POLITICAL TYRANTS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aiiu'st at be thy country's, Thy God's, and truth's.

There seems to be no limit to the length which some persons blinded by political prejudice will allow themselves to be carried. The all-powerful clique which has been allowed to get the uppermost in Hawke’s Bay political circles, but whose power is now ebbing out like the receding tide, has no scruples as to how the strength of political opponents mayj e be battered down or their influence undermined. One of the most miserable examples of the puerile efforts to which the clique will stoop is the case of Mr Hornsby, a journalist whose vigorous pen has often made these selfish politicians quail with fear. Mr Hornsby is fortunate to have a son who is clever enough and sufficiently diligent to obtain the right to a scholarship, but the force of circumstances made it necessary that Mr Hornsby should leave Hawke’s Bay and take up his residence in Christchurch, and he naturally wished to have the boy under the beneficent influence of parental control. The scholarship won was worth over and Mr Hornsby requested a third of that amount to pay the fees at the Dunedin High School. The Board absolutely refused consideration of the request, though at the same time a privilege similar to that asked by Mr Hornsby was granted to Mrs McAra, who could not be said to be in poor circumstances. Yet that was nothing to the after injustice inflicted on the deserving youth, because his father happened to have written severely on the actions of the ruling clique. By the time Mr Hornsby had received the letter notifying the Board’s refusal, he had decided to return to Napier, and he took the first possible opportunity of acquainting the Board with his intention, and stating'hat he should therefore allow the boy to take the benefit of the scholarship as originally awarded. Any person whose spirit rises above the narrow-minded and selfish disposition of a few political bigots would be unable to see this intimation in anyother light thanas a most reasonable one, but reason does not hold much sway with the majority of the Education Board when they have a political opponent under their heel. Mr Hornsby was coolly informed that the scholarship won by his boy had been withdrawn from him, and bestowed on someone else 1 It was thought Aai he would not bring the lad back from Dunedin 1 When the true position of things was discovered, the Board offered Mr Hornsby 12s—as a kind of charity, no doubt ! In a letter to the News Mr Hornsby states :—“ I reject H e offer, and I tell the members of the Board that they have done a cruel and unrighteous thing. Were lin a position to do so, I would fight the matter out, but as it is, I am compelled to submit, though net in silence. I refuse to receive from the Board one farthing less than my boy so deservedly earned, and if those who have robbed him of his rights feel anv particular pleasure in what they have done, I congratulate them upon their uprightness and their exalted notions of fairness. I say that the money won by my son should not have been touched until it was definitely known whether 1 could send him to Hawke’s Bay or not, and for any one td presume that he would not come, was totally wrong. Although my lack of means prevents me from forcing the Board to do my son justice, it will not deprive me of the opportunities that will present themselves for the exposure of such unrighteous'conduct as a majority nf the Board have been guilty of. I say the majority, because undoubtedly Messrs Tanner and Harding both acted in a manner deserving my best thanks. The most grievous thing to me is that my boy is put back a whole year. He must return to the state school, when he should be entering upon a different course of studies—deprived of an advantage gained through his own industry and perseverance.”

Mr Hornsby may rest assured that the tyrannical conduct, for which his son has to suffer, will imbue every reasonable p’rson with a feeling of resentment, and from our hearts do we pity those erring mortals, who have proved themselves capable of such paltry actions. Let them beware lest the day of retribution is nearer than they imagine.