LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 168, 9 April 1908, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

MAL DE MAYOR.

Sir, —I am not one of those who attacl: much importance to the Sinking Funds'allegations, and I regret their introduction intc tho. present Mayoral contest. Tho worst thai can ho said in tlioir-connection'is that Mr Hislop's action was an amazing blunder foi so sagacious and astute an individual. Whal dcos astonish mo* however, is thai Mr. His lop, .having been in office tlireo years at, a: ho, says, considerable porsonal monetary loss should bo so keen on still a further term o: self-sacrifice." Obviously, his real' well wishers cannot conscientiously vote for hin under tho circuni stanccs. Mr. Hislop nuts bo saved from' himself.—l am, etc., , . ' CITIZEN. ' April 8. PACANISM OR CHRISTIANITY—WHICH IS IT TO BE? Sir, —Seeing so much' of your space has been devoted to what somo ',- clergymen' hes to, say on tho above, I ask .permission'".as ; member of tho community to say a wort from my standpoint. I think I am correcl in stating that the main objcct which the Bishops .have'in view is to strike a blov present system of education by seek' ing. to get. theßiblo into our Stato schools which effort will be most sincercly opposed by every person who ■ loves ' freedom oj speech—notwithstanding tho one-sided reports of tho clergy both in tho Dominior and at Homo, by which they seek to lowei the standard of our democracy. The awakened consciousness of the masses wil. bo. further strengthened, and not weakened thereby. It is gratifying to know thai among the clergy/as a whole there is a wide difference of opinion on tho subjcct-. ' I an: as seeing the principles of true Christianity, not •'churclianity, taught and practised by--:overy man alid-woman as the Bishops are. • Nay, I am so much moro sc that ! would propose that tho clergy unite in- .'conference,-'and sot about revising -'the Bible so as to make it morally suited, to be taught our children,' which would be a step towards settling up tho kingdom of peaco, purity, ~'and happiness or the Kingdom,.oi God- on tho earth. , ( But, sir, they do not want that.. They want tho continuation and application oi tho old; dogmas and ' creeds borrowed froir the ancients. They-t-cll us'that because om chijdren cannot repeat those dogmas ,'anc creeds, they aro heathen, and' not Christian. Now,;'sir, which of the two men arc really Christian, the oncj who teaches his child self-reliance, self-rosporisibility, and that no evil thought or action can go unpunished, either hero.or on;tho' othor side: or the man who teaches his child that if ho obeys tho bidding of his church ritual, lie can shift the responsibility?—l am, etc., : April 8, 1908.. \ : THE PAID UNIONIST SECRETARY. ■ you'say'what has/becomo of the Minister for 'Labour s clause in tli'o Arbitra : ■tion-. Act Amendment Bill, whereby it, is decreed /that all, secretaries' of industrial union's shall bo members of tho unions tliej -act. for by, virtue of ..having been, employed at that particular labour or trader Timoiand trouble are wasteel by the member; of i tho courts in listening' to and dealiuj) with, (1) A . sailor-secretary of the 'Tramway s .Union; j (2) a/watchmaker— secretary of an Engineers' Union; and various other curious combinations.... .. . . ■ .',' t- . I am not penning you these-lines, out oi curiosity, ana am sorry for troubling you, but 1 1.have 'lost somo timo. in treating with the/secretary of one' of our lccal .unions ' iri re ■ some demands he was. making, and arc fully satisfied'-thai...the difficulty could have been got over in ono'quarter tho time,-and perhaps .with more, ad'vantago 'to tho meii concerned had, a -practical "man, with'Hechnical knbwledgo; had tlio handling of tlieii case/ instead ' of a paid outsider who-knew nothing of what' hp was talking about. -. The clause as' './proposed by- Mr. Millar, should become) law,, and would work with equal success for both- sides. ; I hear-that certain bf,; thesesecretaries,' have '.' worked' quietly until they succeeded.in' winning .tlio Minister' over to their side,, but, as an old Un : ionist. himself,.l trust Mr. Millar knew their gaino 'sufficiently well''to, : baulk ' it,—l am, etc., ■ A BLOATED CAPITALIST. .< -April 7, 1003. "ONE WHO PAYS HER BAKER." " Sir,—Tiio writer- abovo has a very small outshell for tho credit, problem. " Any man who has bjoeii'any time in business ought tc know his good arid his bad marks, and how to write off the latter," is her simplo summing up of-the whole art of how to succeed in business. Well, your columns' are pretty expansive, but. not enough so to deal 'with her trouble. In the first place,, live business is not,stagnant, and it would need "to bo to fit'hervproposition.' 'In the second place, tiio " bad pays "■ always appear to better advantage '.than' the'"good pays "—that is their little'way. Thirdly, you cannot tell the difference till" they have paitj.- I . myself tried the xoupon system about • eight years ago, and'found it a great convenience in working detail, but what killed it V/as the generalness of customers' demands for "the coupons on credit, after they had got hardened'to tho 30 per cent, concession ivhioh went with them—L am, etc., ' HENRY BODLEY. April' 7. '; ' v ' . "THE TERM CATHOLIC." Sir, —In spite' of your veto put upon the oontinuance of this correspondence,' may I be' allowed ,to call attention to some misstatements of facts as to the character of the English Church made in "A Genuine Catholic s "'letter of April G, which should not be allowed to appear unchallenged in a public, organ? - He refers. " Catholic .(not Roman) " to an article by ail: Anglican clergyman in " Tlio Weekly ' Register of September, 1897, and tells him from that to learn tho true nature: of his church. I might'point out that as in that article tho said, clergyman openly, declares his disloyalty to authority, it is as' unfair to ask us to accept his" dicta as 'representative of ' the irue nature of ' our church as'it'would be to ask "A Genuine' Catholic" to accept Father Tyrrell's dicta or any : modernist manifesto as an authoritative pronouncement on tho character.of the; Roman Communion.'. _ ' " ! Still 'I will examine his statements in detail. I must try to-analyse them as best I Dan. ■, ". ' (I) Ho states the Anglican's claim' to Catholicity, is an imitation of tho Roman Church, and began in 1833.' (II) Prior to that timo. it was agreed' our communion was a: ■ State department got : up/ to represent respectable -religion., . (III),' It; was'.sufficiently., wide and clastic in views ; '.to contain people of almost any or : of no opinion. (IV) That only in 1833 it began to. talk of: heresy. "/,. • Examination:— (1) ;Is: untrue!' Before tho Reformation 1 the Anglican Church / was pledged to the. threo creeds: Athanasian, -Nicene, Apostles'. At tho Reformation:'she mado . this pledge! continuously binding:(Article-VIII).. In tho. latter two Of theso three ■ creeds sho' expresses 'her belief.' in the Holy Catholic' Church;'in Article XIX she defines this term and applies it to herself.! The .definition involves the duo administration of tho Saeiramonts, i.e., valid orders arid valid sac-, ramonts" ■ In the introduction to the Ordinal the Church defines her orders as thoso of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. She does not there claim to initiate these orders, but says they are based on Scripture, havo been in Christ's Church from the Apestles' time, and are to bo continued, and that none other arc.to bo recognised. In Articlo XXV Sacraments aro dealt with; seven are enumerated; five are rejected as not personally instituted by Christ; two are retained; Baptism and "Tho Supper of the Lord." Neither of these described as ■ new institutions ; in Articlo XXVII'I the latter is treated as a continuance of the pre-reformation sacrament, but guardeel on the ono hand from Calvinistic or - Zwihglian doctrine, on the other from Transubstantiation and certain uses alleged to be uncatholic. I elo not think this is tlio placo to discuss such doctrines. I merely want to point out the clear continuity of intention of our Church; to

this end it _ may be stated tlmt the title of the service in our first prayer book was "The Supper of tho Lord and the Holy Communion commonly called the Mas"s"; that the form of service thero proscribed and upon which our present one, drawn 'up in 1662, is largely modelled, was compiled chiefly from thoSaruni Missal. Also that: the English Ordinal was modelled' upon 'the Snrum Pontifical. It is not true to say'. Eucharistic vestments were never worn in tho Anglican Church between the Reformation and 1833; and tho recent lioyal Commission left it as .nil open question whether "tiicy were ordered .by the ambiguous ornaments rubric of 1550 or not. Thus it is not true' to say that tho claims of our comnjnnion' to bo called Catholic either arose first- in 1833 or that they wero, based upon imitation .either in tho 16th or 18th Centuries. v (II) It was never at any time agreed'that tho Church was set up as " a department of tho State to represent respcctablo religion." None of the orders or formularies to which J. liavo alluded wore drawn up by the State but by the representatives of tho Church and by them, as I havo shown, not as things essentially now, but as old things retained, and in sorno cases reformed. Therefore, tho establishment means that tho State established as a national religion a church claiming catholicity and' strict continuity wjth the past. I am sorry I havo no space to show this by reference, to the recognition of-the King's supremacy, 1531, or "Act of Supremacy," 1559. But I am. willing to do so if called upon.. .(Ill) The Church was never sufficiently clastic to contain people of almost any or of no opinion. The order of 'Church membership since the first prayer-book has been ■unaltered; it is categorically laid down as fellows: (a) Parents are ordered to bring thoir children to be baptized for "the receiving of the. child into' the number of Christ's Church" (Ist rubric, public baptism of infants), (b) A pledge lias to be given on behalf of the child' to accept the Christian rule of lifo and the Apostles' Creed, (c) The godparents aro commanded to bring tho child forwftrd for confirmation, (d) It cannot be confirmed until it has been instructed in the Creed,' Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Church Catechism._ (e) Confirmation is imposed as a stepping-stone to Holy Communion, (f) All members of tho Church aro commanded, t-o communicate at least three times a year: Neither creed nor Catechism can bo described as of any or no opinion, therefore tlieso terms cannot justly apply to membership of tho Church of England. It would be thought that tho mero existence of ■ non-conformist 3 would show that tho Church lias not proved sufficiently elastic for all opinions'. Even in its slackest period—tho IStli Century—tho Weslcyans could not remain within it.' (IV) It is not true that the Church only began to talk of heresy in 1333. I cannot possibly summarise 350 years of Church history; I can but point put that after about GO | years of .Puritan effort to change her claims and character, tho canons of 1604 published by royal authority in 2—12, of which all people denying or ignoring the Church's institutions, .orders or regulations, wore declared, ipso' facto excommunicated. Finally a .like attempt of tho Prfisbcrterians at the Savoy Conference, in 1662 proved similarly abortive.. Tho Bishops in reply to one contention of the Presbyterians therein replied:—" Our Church doth everywhere profess to conform to the Catholic usages of the primitive times, from which; causelessly to depart argues rather love of contention than, of .peace) .and on contrary tho. most' necessary ordinances aro those • least restricted,".. _ I am willing and able to give chaptor and v9rso for all my statements.' I do not expect them to convince " A Genuine Catholic" of. the Catholicity of my own communion, but I do claim that yi view of these facts it is untrue and uncharitable to laugh at those who sing of "Faith of our Fathers" and say they are parading in falso colours. / Our faith, the .Anglican) conception of what the visiblo church 'should be,- is contained in our creeds; sacraments, Holy Orders, and liturgy. These at all events go hack .to 1549, and-those' who then enunciated them in our Book of Common Prayer conscienti- , ously claimed that they were. establishing that which went back by one continuous lino of many strands to the Apostolic Church.I object; to no ono attaeking-my'position, but\l' am sure no 'good; 'cause, can possibly be gained by facts, and 1 may tell "A' Genuine..'Catholic " ..that .only last Sunday/afternoon, I, spent, a quarter of. an hour in trying to correct in the mind of Anglican hoys gross and damaging misconcep-. tions of Romanism which issued from tho ignorant remark of ono of them.—l am, etc., : , ' AN ANGLICAN PRIEST.' April 8, 1908. . / ; _ (It ' is: perhaps only fair to publish the abovo: reply to the new matter introduced into "A Genuino Catholic's " . final letter. Wo cannot, however, accept any further correspondence . on this subject at present.), THE.ANNIVERSARY OF CULLODEN. Sir,-rThis is an age of anniversaries; we aro for ever,commemorating tho anniversary or ' centenary of somo great hero or event. During tho past few years, a legion of celebrities, who have . long- sinco passed away, havo been rescued from comparative obscurity, and received'the applause-and gratitudeof 'present-day admirers. Tho approaching 16th day of April.will bo tho-162nd anniversary of tho fatal Battle of Culloden. Tho memory of those who fought and died' on, that'day for Scotland : and I'rince Charlio is by no means forgotten, thanks 'to the energy ' of. Mr. Theodore Napier,, tho well-known Jacobito and Scottish 'Nationalist. During | the past few years, it has been the custom For a number of persons who cherish the Jacobite sentiment'and tradition, to.visit tho lonely Drummossio Moor and place wreaths ah the memorial cairn erected to tho fallen Highlanders. It is interesting to note that ivreaths are sent-from far and-near, tributes :rom America, Scotland; and England. For i Jib'" first time in tho' history of tho corariohioration a wreath has been sent from Now Zealand; it will boar a quotation from tho poet- Robert Buhls, and will be placed on the i'airn by Mr. Theodore Napier, tho wellmown Scottish Nationalist. ' Tho presentlay Jacobites, who are mainly responsible for ibo observance of Culloden Day, and who •ecognise as their lawful sovereign Princess ilary, of Bavaria, beliovo that they are keepng. tho old cause alive by fittingly comnomorating that eventful anniversary, which, mded so disastrously. Tho Princess.Mary of 3avaria has inherited the claims of the jtuart Dynasty, and represents tho principle or : which tho Highlanders in 1745 so frefely ;avo their blood. —I am, etc., C. C. BAGNALL. Feilding, April 5. ,