Truth THE PUERILE PARSON.

NZ Truth, Issue 141, 29 February 1908, Page 4

Truth

THE PUERILE PARSON.

PUBLISHED EVEBY SATURDAY MOBNING AT LUKE'S LANE (OFF MANNBBSr street), Wellington, N.z. SUBSCBIPTION (IN ADVANCE), ISS. PEU ANNUM. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1908.

A Reputation pf parsons recently waited on the managing committee of. the Auckland Educational Institute, asking for the assistance of the Institutfe m making an emphatic ; J>XQr test against- the proposed cadet encampment. According to a> Press Association/ wire : "The deputation pointed out the moral danger of taking great numbers of young -boys into' camp, and considered the ■withdrawal of the hoys from home influences *aii(l the continuation of the camps over Sunday was most undesirable. The committee explained to the deputation that the Auckland teachers bad already condemned the holding of camps for several reasons, and had informed. the Board -of their objections, The teaQhers were m sympathy with the clergy In this matter-, and "hoped the Board would see fit to consider the position." The. teachers objected to the encampment because it mieant working after hours, and so long as Education Boards" pay their slaves less than is received by an ordinary navvy, it is difficult to take exception to their objection , to do more work. - But "Truth" desires particularly to express, its horror of the smifflesome parson class which discovers imanbralitv m the vigorous, healthy, disciplined, manly life oj youths under canvas. If boys have any tendency tpwards that sort of thing it is quickly knocked, out of them by contact with tie robustspirits, whose ideal and mainspring is physical exertion an.d superiority m athletic exercises, If it is desired to raise a stock of manly men no fetter method could be adopted- ttoantp permit the. young beggars to give tfee •exuberance Qf youthf«U play at bath ing, swimming, running, jumping, any form of exercise, m fact, "nut nockUnßs. Qn," or olothed In, so little that the covering is hardly perceptible. Haid "Truth" its own way, it Would decree that the urchins should, beitave like young savages, who iWO.W immorality, who live the. simple life, and have no. knowledge! o.f. the "moral danger 1 ' raised up by ghostly Clerics whose unhealthy mind.s see sin and impurity m every departuvc from the straigiht-laeed cpnventipr;'*. It isyour pious, pampered youth, taught to, regard a wpinan's. ankle as a • tahQoed ysubjeot fraught with §infulness, who is apt to aUOW hit? thoughts to unwillingly stray or immoral pastures. Such boys blush When they get into a . bathing . suit, and their lives are cursed by the shadow of "moral danger," which is created for them by prurienVroinded parson persons, whose perverted principles^ permeate the pornie pillars of "purity." Pure-boy Bligh, advance agent of the White Cross Society, was apt to get boys together and talk to them ' about sexual sins they had never heard of and did not understand, but which they started experimenting with as soon as their attention was directed to the vice b_y the purity lecturer. It is probable that Bligh was responsible for more immorality of a vicious nature m this Dominion than any other cause known to man, and it would be an advanced step towards purity m the community if such humbugs were brought under the Chinese Restriction Law, or some such Act of exclusion. "The continuation of the camps over Sunday" is the real reason of the parsonical indignation, wh'ch is inspired by fear that the ' Sawbath will bo unduly secularised and the practice of -dropping 3d into tiro plate will become increasingly rare. Is there no law that will compel these northern neurotics to restrain the beastly impulses of their unhealthy minds ?