AN OFFENSIVE STORY

New Zealand Tablet, 17 July 1913, Page 34

AN OFFENSIVE STORY

A week or two ago we felt it our duty to indulge in some plain speaking regarding the actiun of a wellknown Christchurch weekly paper Canterbury Times respect to the appearance in its columns of a particularly outrageous story bearing the grandiloquent title, ' The Awakening of Alphonse Legrand.' The central character of the story was a drunken priest, who dishonored ' a half-witted village girl' ; made her 'pay and pay and pay for absolution'; stabbed her to death in the confessional when she could pay no longer; and finally, when the 'truth' came out, committed suicide by putting a dose of poison in his wine. Our comments were brought under the notice of the ' Lyttelton Times management.— at whose office and under whose control the Canterbury Times is published—by our Christchurch correspondent, through whom they have forwarded a frank and full apology. Our contemporary admits that ' the very dignified castigation ' administered by the Tablet was entirely deserved; that there could be no excuse for the publication of this wretched story; and that the only explanation that could be offered was that the story, which was purchased along with others from a London agency, slipped in through sheer inadvertence. We are assured that for the future there will be a more direct personal supervision over the ' fiction ' columns, and that the Canterbury Times will ' take no further stories from the author of this abomination under any circumstances.' That is as honorable and creditable to the Canterbury Times as it will be satisfactory ?nd gratifying not only to the Catholic readers of that paper, but als? to the Catholic body generally. We felt sure that an office with the high standing of the Lyttelton Times could not be guilty of want\n and deliberate offence to Catholic faith and feeling and we are sincerely pleased to find that our confidence was not misplaced.