Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: SATURDAY. JANUARY 27, 1883.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1260, 27 January 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: SATURDAY. JANUARY 27, 1883.

A fiend in human form entered Judge Prendergast’s stables and deliberately cut the tongue out of His Honor’s favorite pony’s mouth. And yet this is the boasted age of civilisation ! A more cowardly or dastardly action can not be imagined. If the miscreant felt aggrieved at any action taken by Judge Prendergast, that is no reason why an unfortunate animal should be tortured. We were sorry to see that there was no clue to the identity of this heartless wretch, and can only hope that in the course of time his crime will be brought to light and be punished to the full extent of the law. The penalty however is inadequate to sufficiently punish such a miserable wretch. Some of the devices adopted in the old days of the Spanish Inquisition would alone meet the case. How a man could commit so cruel an act is beyond our comprehension. At the breaking up of the Gisborne School, a prize was given for the best essay on “ Kindness to Dumb Animals,” and, we think, the donor of the prize acted most wisely in stipulating that his gift was to be competed for by the children writing upon the above subject. Children from the time they are able to leave their mothers knee shauld be inculcated with a spirit of kindly feeling towards all the brute creation. If this is done it must naturally follow that in years to come the spirit of kindness becomes so much ' a part of their nature that the little ' ones when they have grown into man i a«d womanhood, bear to all the human race a friendly and kind demeanor. On the contrary the boy or girl who is not checked when evincing pleasure at the pain given to dumb animals, either by intention or by accident, becomes callous and hard hearted, and iu future life their fellow-men can be ground underneath their feet without their feeling theslightest compunction. I A man’s character is formed at the I knee of his mother, and the words of Campbell the Scottish Poet, “A noble mother must have bred so brave a son,” are undoubtedly correct. Let the mother teach the child that which is right, and no such miserable wretch as the one who committed the brutal action which has provoked these remarks will be found throughout the Colonies. It is to the mothers we have to look, and it is by their watchful care over their offspring only that we can expect good men and good women.