CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 10 September 1909, Page 1

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE SPIRITUALIS-6 SEANCES AT WELLINGTON. TO THE EDITOB, Sir, — With regard to the paragraph ' headed "Spiritualistic Manifestations*'-' quoted in your Tuesday 'night's,- issue from the "New Zealand Tablet," may . I he permittedl to offer a few correc tions and comments? What is said 1 re lates to (1) the charge for admission t* the Charles - Bailey seances in -Wellington; (2) to the conditions 'and character of the manifestations;' and (3). to the teaching and educational value to be deduced therefrom. In each, of these'respects the "Tablet's" writer is Wholly: "at sea;" and his remarks' are : as" reekless and misleading as' possible. In Stock exchange phrase we." : . are told: "The slump in tho Spiritualistic stock continues in Wellington.""' The Bailey 'manifestations' bogan 'there at ' 25s a head. . . '.The- fee rapidly, dropped . to ss; aiid the show will .perhaps fozle out at 'front seats ls, back seats od."' I beg to contradict all this. - The fee was not originally - "25s a head,'.'- and it has not since been "dropped." The printed circular relating- to the conditions and terms ot fidm^siAon to the . Bailey seances, of which Mr McLean sent me 'a copy, stated expressly , that "tlhe fee for the six seances will be £2 2s, payahle on application for a seat, and "the maximum number of sitters will be 40." Letters received from. Wellington friends assure me that the maximum number of sitters was se-cured-long before the date of the first meeting, and that at two guineas each. - A few more than the stipulated .40 sitters were admitted to these Friday - night seances ; as by courtesy free invitations were given to the clergy. There was no drop in the price for admission to the series of six seances; but for the benefit of many who could not. remain in Wellington to attend the whole series piovision was made, by arranging additional night) seances.r atv a charge of 5s for a single .sitting." .-•_,Besides this for- the -sake of the masses, who could not afford' to pay 55,-Charles; Bailey has "given trance addresses ./ on Sunday evenings, when the charge was - "front seats Is, back seats. 6d. But ' to describe this as -a, drop in- the prices for admission to. test seances,* and as indicating a "slump-in rthe.Spiritualis; tic stock" is as far .rom : ,the:"tri-th;as possible. Tho fact is that -public, "in- '.', terest and wonder alike >have ; increased from beginning to end. - The captious ■ critic next proceeds to s-ie'er at' what ha calls "the pretence of test ''and conditions in connection, -with these -seances; .. and, while admitting that he has not attended any of* the meetings, he does- not, . hesitate to say, 'Not one ot vtheLmahfe f estations' has passod (ifr-it has' reached) the level of a third-rate, pu^ic^hou-e conjuring." The' critic .also' speaka of • 'the childish fallacy , and the • -vapid - ; 'flummery' of the alleged spirits," . find he complains of bad .but. ho says not one "word'toipdjcate^the^real .- character of . tha "apports" produced, which were brought under the strictest - test conditions and such as_ rendered "conjuring" of any kind impossible. The "apports" produced' through Chas. ■•.'.;. Bailey did not consist of .lions, .tigers, .-'.' elephants and polar bears,- which' some lef the sitters ridiculously : requested; >. 'but for the most part" they .consisted . ;of equally real specimens of hving orga- . nic matter, 'such ■ as^birds- and . fertile ; eggs, and plants rapidly grown._ Mate'rial objects, organic and inbrgnaic, were, i precipitated out of the invisible; and 1 somo of them were" subsequently dematerialised and "taken back" in a -way ' that puts in the shade .the highest-'achie-■vements of modem physicists, •to ; sa-J" ' "nothing of "pnblicjjouEo conjuring. ' . The wliole things concerns tho supremo ' problem of producing living organisms, and is closely related to the solution of the problem of the world's 'future-, food supply. "Yet this,' says the sneering '.'Tablet," in the third place, "is the. >Or. Of Ihing I_ia_ prtople. art «_!-«-- *.-o--accept as a new revelation of light and grace to a darkened world." Tho critio seems here to lose sight • entirely of . the • very object of these seances. ■• "In the ! printed list of terms'- 'and conditions ott\ ! u'hich sitters were accepted it was.-ex-prtss'y sl-jted "that these seances are purely for scientific demonstrations -othe passage of matter through matter by the higher intelligences." The ob- . !ject thus set out, I submit, even in th.6 light of the biassed reports in the most bitterly opposed Wellington newspapers, has been successfully accomplished; and it will be timo enough for unreasonable sceptics to scorn and; sheer when they can produce- under similar . test conditions a single 1 feather or. evena grain of sand. However apparently sinall and trifling may he the objects themselves produced through- Mr Bai'ley's mediumship, fhey realty involvelhe highest problems known to man, and with which physical science at its best is yet unable to successfully grap- . pie, viz.", the problems of spontaneously educing highly organic forms of living matter out of the astral or etheric world and of transforming and. transporting material objects from the ordinary agencies known to rcience, The burden ot ; proof now rests with the critics. Wld sceptics. If they still maintain that >. the apports produced' through, the me- .'.',. dium Bailey are dus to fraud Or con- - juring,-it is for them to say .how the v "apports" came to be" in Ballets " possession after he had been .completely enveloped and . securely tied, hp- in a couple of gauzy cages.. Had any; genuine signs of ■ fraud heen ..detectable, there were present- at the seances "plenty of persons sufficienyy interested iand" keen to expose them.'. . ' I ani, etc.", JOSEPH TAYLOR. . Sept. 9, 1909. ' ' ./_■-.