Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/44

 country, and seeks shelter behind religious scruples that have never previously embarrassed him. They cannot, or rather, do not wish, to emulate the healthy Christianity of a Havelock or a Gordon. Oh that there were some means of putting these degenerates under German rule for a couple of years! Could we only catch them in time, and deport them to some primitive spot, where they would require to fall back on their own resources, or could we only place them under a severe and even cruel discipline for a limited time, it would surprise us almost as much as it would themselves to see the different beings who would emerge from the ordeal.

Pandering to the young to the extent of luxury is, to my mind, a criminal policy. Such attentions should be reserved for the old and infirm. To anticipate wants in youth is to create an appetite for grievances, and to create an appetite for grievances is to paralyse everything that is noble and self-reliant, whilst, on the other hand, it stimulates the growth of meanness and cowardice. This process is going on all over the Empire in the present day under the damnable activity of labour agitators, and as surely as it progresses so surely is the