IS IT TRUE?

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 11

IS IT TRUE?

ARE WE MORE WICKED A REPLY TO THE BISHOP. OE WILLOCHRA. TO IHB EDITOR. Sir,— "We wrestle not against flesh and blood but . . . against spiritual wickedness in high places."—Paul. The same Apostle Mis vis not to be drunk with wine wherein is excess. Some persons may become intoxicated with a desire to malign their neighbours that thereby they may make themselves appear the more righteous. The Bishop of Willochra at the Church Congress delivered a tirade against the evils of the day, deploring our want of morals and making the bold but appalling charge that the women becoming mothers for the first time each year, more than half had been unchaste. That statement is incomprehensible. There were 9147 firstborn children in 1920, and the marriages for the year preceding were 9519. ; If the Christian idea of marriage is out of fashion who is to blame? It is due in no small measure to the spiritual wickedness or failure in high places. Ministers have in many cases neglected or betrayed their mission, "giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of dsvils" for the regeneration or salvation of mankind. The Churches, at all events the socalled non-conforming Churches, are to blame in measure for the low birthrate in most Christian countries. Women are their best attenders. and 1 it is against them that the Bishop of Wjllochra rails. The women may do their duty to their church, but are they being taught and encouraged to do their duty to their homes, their husbands, and as bearers of another generation ? Their ministers are not scathless in this matter.. Our young people are to be encouraged to marry young ! Why, 77 per cent, of the women married in 1920 were under 30 and 86 per cent, of the men were between 21 and 40. Sixteen per cent, of all brides and bridegrooms were minors. , There were 28,138 legitimate ibirths in 1920—only 1414 illegitimate births. Our increase of population is 16.S per 1000, whereas in Great Britain it is 9.5. Illegitimacy was less than 5 per cent, of the total births. Is that an evidence- of moral decadence? And that there were a considerable number of children-born in wedlock "out of due season" is rather a tribute to the parents' determination to do the right thing. Besides, that is not the standard by.which the morals of the whole of the women of New Zealand is to be measured.

A decline in morals, if actual, would surely exhibit itself in increasing crime, drunkenness, and juvenile depravity. From the country's records the Bishop of Willochra has not even here grounds for his allegations. There has been a marked decline in criminality. The proportion of persons imprisoned after conviction per 10,000 of the mean population was m 1910, 32.66, and the number receded to less than half that proportion in 1920. New Zealand has probably ths lowest criminal record of any country in the world. Yet the Bishop of Willochra and other reverend persons declare in their righteous wrath : "We are all going to the devil," or words to that effect. As Sir James Barrie makes Sentimental Tommy say: "It is all flam."

. Doesn't the Bishop and other reverends see that if their declaration were true it is the severest criticism that they can hurl at themselves? The parsons *are declaring themselves failures if the state' of society is as bad as they aver. As to juvenile csime there does not seem to be much abatement or increase. In 1914-15 the average was 1.39, and in 1919-20 the average was 1.43 per 1000 of the population. It is not fair to all those agencies operating for the benefit of neglected young people that ministers should say thai juvenile depravity ia increasing when it is practically stationary. More than half of these offenders were discharged or ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, and 69 were released on probation. What are the ministers, of religion doing when the home-life of these youngsters is ■neglected ?

If it is drunkenness among men and women that is evidence of moral decadence here the Bishop oi Willoehra aijd riiany. other parsons ar« egregiously in error., This offence against public morals has been consistently diminishing. In 1908 (the year the last electorate went dry) the convictions were 11.23, and in 1920 they were 7.13 per 1000 of the mean population. As:to women and liquor, the proportion in 1908 was 1.62 and 0.87 in 1920—a reduction of 50 per cent, among women. Yet if we are to believe some people, who evidently wish it so, our women are drinking.! The consumption_ per head of population has not diminished : therefore, the people as a whole have been practising- in a greater degree that Christian virtue, Temperance. It is positively wicked to denounce the people, and especially our women, for wantonness and immorality. If there is any_ tendency in that direction, if we are taking all the pleasure we can out of life if we appear to be devoting more time to the material than to the ethical or altruistic, it is not that we are in the main unmindful of the things that really matter. As fashions cjiange so do the customs and habits of a/ people. We have { • undergone a fearful" social cataclysm. Our social moorings may temporarily .liave drifted. It is not for the ministers of religion now to cry, "Wolf! Wolf!" : when after 2000 years of Christian teaching they were unable to save the world from that awful upheaval.. If the good Bishop of Willoehra were right he should rather turn the fiei'ce fire of his criticism upon his Church and its weak and ineffectual ministers who are'neglectlng-_ to_ feed the sheep with that food which is meet for them.—l am, etc., J. D. SIEVWEIGHT. 2oth May.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, —Bishop White has shown himself a ready receiver of assertions reflecting ■upon the mothers of New Zealand. He is responsible for promulgating a statement attributed to the New Zealand Board of Health that over half of the ■women of New Zealand becoming mothers for the first time each year have been unchaste. A bishop more than .anyone else is bound by every law, and especially mindful, not to readily accept slanderous statements which can be easily tested. Eeference to the statement of births" given in the Year Book of 1923, page 85, shows how grossly the Bishop's authorities have exaggerated the'position. There were in 1921 10,635 jnai'riages, and there were first-born children 9387, there being 1248 newlymade wives who did not bear children. There were 2339 children born within nine months, of whom probably at least 139 were children of parents guilty of no irregularity, leaving, say, 2200 —say 20 per cent, of the number of the new wives, and, say, 23 per cent, of the first-born children. This may be bad enough, but is not so bad as over 50 per cent, of the first-born children, and falls far short of the exaggerations of which the Bishop is guilty.—l am, etc., T. W. HISLOP.