The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1881.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 454, 23 December 1881, Page 15

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1881.

A WOETHY UNDERTAKING.

UR Chnstchurch correspondent returns this •week to a very important subject, already ably touched upon in his correspondence : that is the frequent cases of cruelty to animals that are among the worst features of our colonial life. In the letter to which we refer there will be found the statement of one or two cases which seem exceedingly gross, and which cannot be heard of by any man of common humanity without causing him to feel both disgust and shame. The matter is one which nearly concerns us all, for there is nothing that has a more brutalizing effect upon the human character than cruel treatment of the lower animals. If it be true, as the old proverb says, that the "merciful man is merciful to his least," no less true will it be found that the man unmerciful to his beast has little tenderness towards his neighbour. But if the education of the school be influenced by that of the home, the education of the home is also influenced by that of the street, and the child who constantly witnesses a disregard for the sufferings of animals will, if he does not actually come to delight in them, at least learn to regard them with an indifference that must produce a hardening effect upon his nature, and counteract in some degree, more or less, the influences of the best home or the most carefully managed school. We would, therefore, very earnestly second the proposal of our correspondent that some Catholic society already formed should adopt among its objects that of the prevention of cruelty to animals, or that some society with such a special object should be formed by Catholics, and extend its branches throughout the colony, and we feel the more anxious to advocate such a cause that it enters into our particular province, being intimately connected with a thorough Christian education, to the advocacy of which our columns are above and before all other things devoted. We, therefore, appeal to our readers every where to take this matter into their serious consideration, and we further will remind them of how fitting a subject of consideration it will be at this holy time held in memory of that in which there was proclaimed by Heavenly voices — " Peace on earth to men of good will."