JOHN BLUNT AND MR. JUSTICE WILLIAMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14004, 13 September 1909, Page 6

JOHN BLUNT AND MR. JUSTICE WILLIAMS.

To the Editor of the " Timarii Herald." Sir, —Recently "John Blunt " wrote in your columns on the Sabbath question. May I ask vonr readers to compare carefully the two paragraphs which follow. One is an from ••John' lilunt's " letter: the other is taken from tho '/Otago Daily Times," of September Lstv of the present year. ".John Blunt —" Tho .Sabbath feeling is largely a Iliatier (if cliuiaii' and temperament. Step 'front the South of Europe into Germany atid France, and then into JEngland, and von feel tho change,out of fcunshtne .into gloom. Cross the Tweed and the farther .you get away from the sun .the worse it becomes. l'ut in a day at Sydney, and sec the happy- throngs enjoying the Sunday, as God'would have them. Cross to Auckland and tho pleasure is ' modified.. •; Move south,' and the nearer to Invercargill tho duller ; and more gloomy the Sabbath becomes, as you N nesir the Antarctic, and get away from the suii. A rigid and meiahcholy Sabbath makes for bad living and questionable morals." " Otugo- Daily-Times " (and Mr Justice Williams): : —lit addressing the Grand Jury at tho Supreme .Court at Invercargill yesterday (says a Press As-sociation-telegram), Mr Justice William;; expressed great satisfaction that there were no criminal ■■ The district had always been remarkably free front crinio, but this was the first time, in his experience that there was absolutely no criminal case, though in l!)0l and 190(5 when Mr justice Denniston presided, the same thing had happened. The Crown Prosecutor congratulated the towii, and the cleric of the court presented his Honour with a pair of white gloves. Mr Justice - Williams, in returning thanks, remarked th'at in that - part of the country they had not been blessed with such a solt and luxurious climate as in.the. north. It was a fact that the further north one wejit the,greater the amount of crime. However that might be, -it was clear that Southland had an honest, hardworking community, • in-.'which' tlie habitual criminal could fiud no place." In Auckland recently a Judge gave sentences of imprisonment amounting to two long lifetimes,- 1 (>'2 years as the result of the crime of a single quarter. Burglaries have been terriblv frequent there of late. Happy Auckland,, quoted bv John Blunt as possessing very liberal views on the-sabbath question! I'oor, dismal liivercargill, where the gloomv Sabbatarianism has so oppressed the people that they have not even spirit enough to get into gaol, and where unemplovment Jias become so fearfully rife that the very judges have sadly to complain as they mop their tear Rt.'tincd faces with thsir AvJuto "loves "I've got no work to <lo-o-o!'' ••John Blunt" ought very seriously to consider - whether, in his wild *^ttd nenrotic verbiage ho. is not fighting against the deepest interests ot the community. ARF CHIELS."