A Gentle Hint

New Zealand Tablet, 16 August 1906, Page 9

A Gentle Hint

• Several correspondents ', says an American Catholic contemporary, ' have just sent us news items which were written from fifteen to twenty days after the events. Their fear that anything fresh will not bear transmission by the mails should be dismissed. The Government does not require that church news items should be cured like diied herrings before being put in the mails.'

We have from time to time similar experiences in the matter of belated reports. Most of them, however, go by the shortest cut to that cemetery of procrastinated literary effort— the wasle-paper basket. Boracic and salicylic acid may preserve doubtful butter or fruit jolly, but they will not prevent the mildew gathering upon ' dead ' news and imparting to it the ancient and fish-like flavor that renders it distasteful to the aveiage reader's mental palate. News does not, like violins and wine, improve with age. Like eggs,' it is best when freshest. And the most welcome correspondent is he who has learned the art of making his tomoirow be to-day.