A STRIKING SERMON.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 326, 13 October 1908, Page 2

A STRIKING SERMON.

criminal statistic^, CAPITAL AND LABOUR, IMMIGRATION POLICY CRITICISED, (ar TELEGRAriI—rRESS ASSOCIATION.) Palmoraton, October 12. The Rev. C. C. Harper, vicar of AH Saints' Church, in an address at the annual church parade of.tho Manawatu Mounted Rifles yesterday, said of late years it had been tl\e custom to assert that crime was rapidly decreasing in New Zealand, but the governor of one of tho gaols had informed him it was ridiculous to say crime was decreasing. On tho contrary, the wore full and many convicts were colonial youths. Ho had also been informed by the police that they were exhorted only to arrest people and obtain convictions when unavoidable, other-, wise our criminal statistics would be unsatisfactory and wo would get a bad name, In other words, we had shut our eyes to crime. We refused to see it, and then we said it did not exist, . • Class Domination. In reference to the commercial, industrial, and financial position of the country, Mr, Harper said he believed generally our laws wore good and on'the riglit lines. Ho considered the wage-earners shpuld have a large? share in the profits of their work 1 than had often been the case in past years. Employers and property owners we're -often sirapl' selfish possessors of money, and gave an entirely inadequate return to those who helped them to earn their money. Now they had by legislation altered this very largely, am? rule by tho property class,' which was often, but by no means always, a selfish rule, ha? given place to rule by the wage-earning class, which also too often, and generally, was purely selfish. "Wo have not got rid of olasg domination. We have merely transferred ii fropi one class to another, and it. is still exercised with disregard of the needs of those outside that class. The result is twofold. First, tho class possessing capital has withdrawn to "a great extent from tlie: country, and a class ; below the ruling class find themselves cut off-'-from avenues of work and face to face with chance earnings and-an enormously enhanced rate of living. If this country has determined to live without attracting capital from the Old World, and to regulate the cost of -production without any regard for the markets of the world; which it cannot influence or control, it" may do so; But wo must • acoept the consequences, and rise to our responsibilities. , • Immigration.

"But what is happening? Our represents* tives, by a course of misrepresentations and concealment of the truth ofthe. industrial position out hero, are attracting to our shores hundreds and hundreds of single men and women and people with families. These poor deluded people are given to understand they are coming to a country of high wages, cheap living, abundant work, and : unprecedented prosperity; and to-day they are in their hundreds 'up and down the Dominion struggling with poverty, disappointment, and wretchedness, and cursing the day they set foot on our shore. Our prophets in England are prophesying falsely, and our people here love to have it so. What is going to be the end thereof? A year or two ago several people spoke out in this way, and they were howled at, not because what thej said was untrue, but because tbey_said. it. At the bottom of this evil is selfislihess and pride.. However, we have created it, we'are all responsible; The Moral Aspeot. ■ ' . "What are wo going to do?- While this markets of the'world woro propitious what our representatives said of us was in th& main true. Now those markets aro not propitious, and depression is the result, and.the statements of our representatives are false. 4re «'e going to allow the false statements because , our pride, is toucjiod? And' yet I see no .effort on tbe part' of responsible, men to contradict them. Are we goiug to."cling selfishly, to what we' have "gained,"and letthose drawn to our shores' by these false statements continue to suffer? . Yet I ; seo no effort on the part of men in power, locallj or generally, to apply themselves to relievo that suffering. The financial and commercial aspect is not my business, but the mora! aspect is, and X, declare solemnly that .this shutting our eyes to the true position,'-this refusal to recognise our, responsibility ! and to seo' our, selfishness, is a grievous moral wrong and fraught with great danger. Let us not be like Israel and Judah of old, and refuse to see our bad points and .the weaknesses of our country, but let us,thank God when these are brought to our ■ notico apd humbly> examine ourselves to.find out in what degreo we are individually responsible, and how far we are ruled merely by selfishness or pride." '