Pin-Pricks '

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 22, 1 June 1905, Page 1

Pin- Pricks '

In one of his letters to his son, Chesterfield tells of a man who had not enough to do to get through the day. He found it ' labor dire and heavy woe,' and at last hanged himself for sheer ' weariness of putting on and pulling off his shoes and stockings every day ' Sundry young men ' cm town ' that are drawing salaries in some of the Public Departments in Wellington seem to be spoiling, in a similar way, for lack of sufficient occupation to keep them sweet. They may yet furnish work for the coroner unless a 'paternal Government sees that they have enough to do to keep out of mischief. In one of the Departments referred to, the now notorious "bogus ' Catholic ' address to Father Hays was 'drawn up during business hours, typed by Government machines on Government notepaoer, and hawked around in search of signatures. We have sufficiently exposed the cowardly and outrageous calumny invented by its author to cast discredit upon our co-religionists throughout the Colony. From time to lime (as we learn from reliable sources) pamphlets, tracts, newspaper cuttings, etc., of a kind more or less grossly offensive to Catholics have been industriously circulated during working hours through certain of the State Departments in the Empire City, to

the annoyance of members of our faith employed there. In such cases the prompt reporting O f the matter—followed, if necessary, by a proper investigation— would speedily abate the nuisance. For those pin-pricking enthusiasts of the 'yellow' variety, who are not open to considerations of fair play and decency In regard to the feelings of others, are commonly a bundle of raw anS palpitating nqrves where their own comfort and well-being are touched by the cold finger-tip of authority. It is the occasional necessity of such an appeal to tihe lower instincts— where there are no finer ones— that makes the cat-o'-nine-tails wholesome for the back of the garotter. If these lines should meet the eyes of some of the guilty ones for whom they are intended, they may fake a gentle hint from us that such conduct as we have described cannot be permitted to continue with impunity, and that a repetition of It will {to use a fortune-tel-ler's .phrase) be likely to mean ' grief In store ' for them,. We shall return to this smbject in our next Issue,