FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 101, 20 July 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By "THE LOOK-OUT MAN" N.Z. IN THE SCILLIES

Pohutakawa, karaka, puriri, puka, kowhai, cabbage tree! They grow .all about, in native profusion. Is this New Zealand, when we know it is not? Or is it "The silly season?” No; it is the Scilly Isles: yet with this wealth of the native growth of Maoriland surrounding him, the New Zealander might well imagine himself to he ill his own country. Sir James Gunson, writing to liis brother, Dr. E. B. Gunson, relates this experience—like a swift flight home upon a magic carpet! These trees, says Sir James, have been planted in the Scillies for SO years; by whom he does not mention. The story would be worth the telling'. Does any SUN reader know it?

MURDER AND FORGIVENESS “Merciful” rebuked The Look-out Man in the Citizens’ Say column for having expressed the hope that the murderers of Kevin O'Higgins would be brought to the gallows, and, mentioning that O’Higgins forgave his assassins before he died, he urged the abolition of capital punishment—ill the hope that it would so soften the hearts of murderers that they would abstain from murder! If “Merciful” would study the murder figures of those countries which provide capital punishment and those which do not, he might change his views. Excepted, of course, is the United States, where murderers have little fear either for the electric-chair or the gallows, because they are so seldom apprehended. The fact that Kevin O’Higgins forgave, his assassins before he died shows only that he was consistent in his religion, which insists that one must forgive one’s enemies before one can hope himself to be forgiven. But that did not absolve the law front its responsibility of hanging the murderers for the protection of society. Killers of this cowardly type will kill again when they have another victim marked and think they can make another safe escape—they are dangerous beasts at large, and the only way to render them harmless, and to deter others of a like murderous mind, is to kill them. Certainly they cannot be permitted, knowingly, to wander around looking for fresh victims. ANOTHER IRISH ASSASSINATION

The callous O’Higgins murder recalls another black tragedy of Ireland —the assassination of ‘Lord Frederick Cavendish —which was touchingly retold years after by the widow of the bright Englishman whom Gladstone had sent to Ireland as Chief Secretary, Lady Cavendish’s marriage had been a most happy one. When the news of her husband’s murder reached her. she related, “all ray blessed joy of many years was wrecked in darkness.” Gladstone came in. He took her in his arms, and his first words were; "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Then he said: “Be assured it will not he in vain.” "And across all ltiy agony,” wrote Lady Cavendish, “there fell a bright ray of hope, and 1 saw. in a vision, Ireland at peace, and my darling’s life-blood accepted as a sacrifice for Christ’s sake to help bring this to pass.” It is related that a priest in Connemara read these noble words from the altar, and the whole congregation spontaneously fell down upon their knees. But the assassins of the dead lord were not there. The only time these gentry fall upon their knees is when they do so to take a sure shot, unseen, at some unsuspecting victim from behind a hedge. THE BEST OF AIM,

How refreshing, after hearing so much locally regarding the “decadence of modern youth” and the “prevalence of juvenile Wickedness,” to meet a great evangelist who champions the youth of this generation. Mr. Jesse M. Bader, who has just arrived from America, says the youngsters of today are not half as bad as some people would have us believe, that they are, in fact, the best of any generation. The wonder, says Mr Bader, is that they are half as good as they are, seeing that they are subjected to 25 temptations where only one existed a generation ago. Mr Bader “speaks a mouthful,” as his countrymen would say. The fact that there are so many temptations is perhaps one of the safeguards of youth. Where there are fences to climb, traps to dodge, creeks to cross and the possibility of a hard chase, youth will go to steal apples off the trees. He wouldn’t be petty enougn to steal them out of a box in front of a greengrocer’s door. In the same way, the normal boy passes a hundred tempta tions to easy sin in his spare time, and goes in for the greater excite ments of sport: