The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas Et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1886. NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1363, 6 October 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas Et Prevalebit. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1886. NOTES.

We havethe unimpeachable authority of the Bard of Avon for the assertion that “ there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy,” a truism which is apropos to the lecture on Spiritism by the Rev C. D. Cecil, recently reported in our columns. The reverend gentleman is a believer in spiritistic phenomena, that is to say, he holds that the manifestations and developments recorded as occurring at circles and stances cannot be wholly attributed to trickery, sleight-of-hand, animal magnetism, or psychic force, but that certain of them are actually produced by agencies of a superhuman sort, are traceable to intelligences which do not belong to this mundane sphere. He further regards them as attributable solely to evil spirits, such as in ancient Biblical times were spoken of as “familiars,” and whose mission he regards as to deceive, if possible, the very elect and to lead men away from the knowledge and love of the truth. This, in a word, is the diabolism theory, and practically places the spiritualistic or “ spiritistic ” phenomena of the present in much the same category as the witchcraft of the past. If the reverend lecturer be right, and if there be any reality in either the one or the other, then both are alike to be shunned. But the world has long agreed by common consent that witchcraft, if it existed in ancient times, has long ceased to exist, and if there be no witchcraft in the present day then it would seem that assuredly there can be no spiritism, if spiritism be bur another manifestation of the same evil agency. It is, however, not our present purpose to enter fully into the discussion of the lecturer’s views or to attempt an explanation of the many curious phenomena developed, or said to have been developed, at spiritist stances. We refer to the subject because we know that in some parts of this district a number of persons are devoting a good deal of time to the pursuit of investigations which, judging from the results obtained elsewhere, are certain to end in nothing but disappointment. For in no single instance have we ever heard or read of so-called spiritistic phenomena producing ang good or useful result. Nobody appears ever to have learnt a single thing of the slightest value at any seance in any part of the world, and the spelling out of names and words, playing of accordions, ringing of bells, and writing upon slates, which form the staple of the manifestations, are, it has been over and over again shown by the Davenports, and others, usually, if not always, referable to trickery by human agents. Even were they not, we fail to see the slightest use in such performances, and indeed the whole business, to our mind, savors very strongly of simple childishness. In any case, then, whether the lecturer referred to be right or wrong in his theory as to the causation of the phenomena, we hold that those phenomena have certainly no practical value and hence that if it be nothing worse the pursuit of such things is pure waste of time.

Although it must be admitted that there was an unlimited amount of chaff to a very few grains of wheat in the speech delivered to the electors of Dunedin Central the other day by Mr Chapman, one of the candidates for the representation of that constituency in Parliament, he was unquestionably speaking the words

of wisdom when he pointed out j that under our present geneially admirable system of State Education too little, if any, attention is given to polishing up the manners of the rising generation. In these young free democratic communities we very properly abjure the abject| servility of the older world, and in a spirit of manly independence decl'n; to bow down or cringe before these who may be possessed by the accident of birth of higher positions or greater wealth than ourselves, but it is nevertheless a thing to be regretted if we push that independence to the extreme of declining to obey the Scriptural injunction to give honor to whom honor is due and eschew all reverence for anything or anybody. And there is reason to fear that that is precisely what we are doing, for an entire absence of courtesy and often actual rudeness appiirs only too generally to characterise our colonial youth. Take for example, the common mode of accosting their elders by children of all ranks. Instead of the “good morning” or evening, as the case may be, followed by “ Sir,” or “ Madam,” which is universal at Home, a rude “Hullol” is the almost invariable greeting, even from little toddlers, not unfrequently followed up if the passerby be another child or a decrepid and poorly dressed person by a bit of shingle projected at him, on the principle of the Lancashire bricklayer’s ’arf a brick as a salute to the “ stranger.” It may be a'l very well to look upon matters of this sort as of secondary importance, but it will not do to neglect them altogether, for as the twig is bent so the tree inclines, and the decorum and the courtesies of society and of public life, will assuredly not long survive if our children are suffered to be as ill-mannered as monkeys and as uncouth as young bears.

In a recent issue we deprecated the indiscriminate turning j;loose of vermin of different kinds for the purpose of coping with the rabbit nuisance, and expressed a fear that if this be persisted in the day will come when these vennio will, in their turn, become a scourge to the colony. T hat fear is, we perceive, shared in by not a few of our contemporaries, and recently we have observed several letters in the correspondence columns of our exchanges in which the writers express similar views. “Justitia,” for example, writing to the Mew Zealand Times, only a day or two ago, says; “Ihere is no doubt a great injustice has been done to this colony in general, and to the farmers in particular, by the resolution recently arrived at by the runholders to send home for 2000 ferrets and weasels. I do not think the people of this colony realise what this means, and what results must ensue from such a mad and foolish undertaking. In England we know what a pest these creatures are, how dangerous and bloodthirsty they invariably prove and how it is almost impossible to keep any fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, or small stock of any kind where these vermin are numerous, and in England we must remember their breeding ground is necessarily limited by the fact of the greater part of the country being under cultivation ; but who can place any definite limits on their capacity for increase when our immense area of waste land is borne in mind ? The introduction of these pests must mean the distinction of our native birds, totally unused, as they are, to the rapacity of these marauders. It probably means ruin to a great many of our small farmers, tor who can tell what phase of development these creatures may take or what size they may attain in this country ? I repeat a gross injuslic has been done to the interests of the small larmers, and one which if only fully comprehended by them would rouse them from one end of the colony to the other.” This is an emphatic and vigorous protest, and although it would seem that for thi present all our protests are in vain, we greatly fear that the day is not far distant when it will be a matter for general regret that these timely warnings have been ignored.