CORRESPONDENCE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 370, 22 May 1889, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Under no ci;cn instances is the Editor responsible formatter contained in cosrespondence.}

{To tiie Editor.]} THE TWO T's. Sin, — There appears to have been some, agitation lately anent the compulsory teaching- of fcempeiance in our schools. Well, no doubt any procetss of schooling 1 tending to promote that end is commpmlable. But what of the inculcation of the oommsindment " Thou shalt not steal'?" It is a S((,cJ fact lhat in the arcadian i egiou of Waiorongomni, as far sis the experience of some hard working firewood cutters is concerned, that wholesome precept is ottentimes more honoured in the bn-ach than in the observance. It is a fact that stacks of firewood placed on the roadside ready for conveyance to market, dwindle in a steady daily, or nightly, 1 j dribble. Temperance and thieving are on- .': titheticul (h— 'don't go together in harnes--at all, If youngsters purloin the wood, it is hard to suppose the parents aciing up to the standard of their duty, if it is consumed on their premises.' An ordinary observation on their part should piomotly lead to a healthy application of the proverbial birchrod.' if, on the other lumd, unscrupulous adults take advantage of the* facility for thieving without much fear of detection^ then alas, the poor woodcutter has HttJe to do but " t^rin and bear it ;" indulging in the old English wish that '"he wot prigs wot isn't hisn, wen he's cotched must go to prison." — I am, etc., Plorkat, W'liorongnmai.