Catholic Young Men

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 38, 21 September 1905, Page 18

Catholic Young Men

A gratifying proof of the educational value of out Young Men's Literary and Debating Clubs is furnished by the striking success achieved <by Iwo of their members against all comers in last week's oratorical contests in Wellington for the Plunket medal. We tender our cordiaß congratulations to Mr. Fit/.gibbon and Mr. Kelly,, amti commend their example of persevering application, for imitation, to young Catholic manhood all over New Zealand. We commend it in particular to those youmg men who are inclined to treat their intellect like a txoarded-out child, or to feed it upon the mere husks of cheap and nasty romance. We can understand a young man occasionally — as on a journey — swallowing a doso of novel-trash for want of something better— just as the Laplander in a time of scarcity will eat blue clay, or a South Australian aboriginal turns. to Nardoo wihen opossum is scarce and kangaroo at a premium. In a famine even grass is not a bad standr by. But there is something amiss with the intellectual appetite When it devours earth and husks for choice, and loathes tonest and wholesome food. And there's something amiss with the young man who prefers the bar of a public-house and the street-corner to the opportunities for seltampro'vement which are offered to him, generally under pleasant conditions, in our Young Men's Literary and Debating Clubs.