THE New zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1875.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4128, 5 February 1875, Page 2

THE New zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1875.

Wk may .assure ourselves that wo shall fall ilium evil days and troublous times when it comes to pass that what is understood to be all intelligent and respectable section of tlio newspaper Press makes light of all religious observances, while it meets with 110 protest from the communities among which all that wo hold in reverence, as our fathers did aforetime, is subjected to ridicule. " It is an appalling fact," says the Sydney P>st, " that, at tho lowest estimato, there tire not less than 7~>,000 sermons preached every year in New South Wales, and it is but natural to ask ourselves, why is it that our peoplo do not seem to live better lives than they did a year ago, or even than thoy did ten years ago ? Thousands of sermons are weekly directed against our vices, and yet the mass of our people seem to bo as far from the real spirit of Christianity as they were in years gone by. Our criminal returns have not shewn any decrease ; prostitution is not less common ; larrikinism is on the increase ; our rich and poor do not drink less ; our money-grubbers are not less grasping, and 110 cb ss seems to be less extravagant. Religiously and morally wo seem to be in exactly the same state as wo were ten years ago, and in all probability as we will bo in ten years hence." Tho inference to be drawn from these utterances is that sermons do no good ; that holy observances are a sham, and that religion may as well be abolished from tho land because criminal statistics shew 110 decrease in crime ; because that many women continue to lead impure lives ; that street rowdyism is more rampant than ever, and that money grubbers still continue to be grasping for tho world's wealth. All this is neither moro nor loss than a vulgar address to vulgar minds ; and for this reason more likely to meet with a. wide-spread approval. Who, we would empiire, di.re be sufficiently presumptuous to declare what has been the moral and religious outcome of all tho many thousand sermons which have been preachcd in Now .South Wales during the year not so very long passed away i Aro we to suppose that had 110 sermons been preached, no churches thrown open to the multitude of worshippers ; that if there had been 110 ministers of religion to exhort, to pray, and to read ; are wo really, Ave ask, to suppose that communities would have been no worse ; that wo should not have had an increase in tho number of offences against religion and morality? No man of reflection supposes anything of the kind. who go to churches do not rob, nor plunder, nor swindle, nor commit outrages upon society. Tho exceptions which may bo mentioned do but go to establish the general truth of the assertion. If statistics show :n a community where religious observances are honoured, that of every thousand persons ten ofiend against tho laws, how much larger will the proportion likely bo if all that is looked upon as sacred and holy be cast to tho winds ? Let the writer of the articlc from which wo havo quoted answer this question. Ho tells his readers that the criminal returns do not shew any decrease. This is true, but statisticians will shew him upon indisputable data that po-

pulation has increased; and if _ there have been no increase of crime, it will stand to reason that the world is better than of old, as we really believe to be the case. "Were we to allow our religious establishments to be swept away, what would become of the many charitable and benevolent institutions which secure so large a measure of support through tho advocacy of their ministers' We house, clothe, and educate the orphan ; wo provide refuges for tho aged and infirm ; wo build hospitals for tho reception of tho maimed, and wounded, and feverstricken. We endow schools ; we provide asylums for the insane, and Magdalens, for those who have gone astray and desire to turn from the error of their ways. The world is full of charity, of kindliness and brotherly and sisterly love. There is not a sinner, be ho ever so wicked a one, there is not an unfortunate, be his misery ever so great and his state ever so degraded, but that there is some asylum to afford him shelter and lelicf.

Many thousands of sermons arc preached every year in all large communities, tho members of which subscribe liberally of their means to build churches in which these sermons are preached, wliile they support learned and good men to preach them. Are we, then, to think that no good comes out of all this ! As a tree is judged by tho fruit that it produces, so will a people bo known by tho good that comes out of tliniu. Should wo dismantle our churches, dismiss our ministers, and in their places build up temples to the worship of mammon and lust, are we to think there would bo less crimes, less of human afflictions, and less of charity J Thoroughly rotten are tho arguments of such writers like to tho one from whom wo have just quoted. Thero is much evil iu tho world but there is very rnich more of good, and the po .ver o: good lies in this, that one good mail will do mure good in a community than six bad men can do for evil. It is better for men that they should hear a sermon tlian that tliey should stay away, even if it hasmadono distinct impression. Se d thrown into the ground does not fructify in an hour. What conies out of that which is good comes generally by very slow, if not imperceptible courses. That which is bad takes no long time to show itself. It has become quite tile right thing of late for newspaper writers to cry down what luis so many years been held in reverence. A few great and learned men have done it, and small men think it looks well to follow in their wake. Fools living in this world follow the fashions of a Prince, however much they may offend against good taste, decency, and common sense. 8o there are fools of the Press, who, because some of much greater mental culibre than themselves scoff and ridicule at what millions have been taught to reverence from their infancy, think it very fine to follow suit.

It would bo folly to say that these sneers at religion do no harm. Wo are quite sure that they have done and will continue to do a very great deal of harm unless the respectable portion of tho newspaper Tress unite to rcsi.it attacks which aro a scandal and a shame to an honorable profession. Sydney lias very lately taken a bad copy from America by initiating an infidel Press. It is well v.'C should guard against the epidemic reaching our shores.

Tin: small, proportion of single girls as compared with that of single men and families which come to hand by eaeh immigrant vessel, has frequently been remarked upon, ami lias been the occasion of much trouble to housewives. The " wanted" columns of the morning and evening journals bear ample testimony to this fact, the number of families advertised fur being far in excess of any other "want," while females' wages have risen considerably during the past six months, instead of having decreased, as might naturally have been expected. We think we will not be guilty of the slightest exaggeration in asserting that from -.Till to 300 single girls would lind almost immediate employment in this province. The reason for this scarcity, however, is to some extent explained in the following extract from a private letter from England, published in a Southern exchange. The writer says :—" It is rather amusing to read of the outcry in the colonies' for domestic servants and labourers, and know that it is getting ain ost impossible to get a tolerable servant here at as high wages as they are paid in any colony, added to which, as I know well, servants in the colonies are expected to do twice as much work, with half the comfort, servants are looked to for here. A good female servant, where perhaps two, or even three are kept, gets say £20 a-year, cooks far more, then she has tea and beer money, say I' 4 a-year, washing out, say another £-t a-year, makes £2S a-year; then their living costs far more hero than it does in the colonies, and you may safely say that it takes two to do the work of one colonial servant. As to marrying, any servant girl here can many just when she pleases. There is no lack of eligible oilers, but the girls do not always care to leave such comfortable homes as they secure in service to go ard drudge for a husband who, in course of time, may take to kicking her, and spend all his high wages in liquor. There is work here for all who will work, that is in a manual way, for Mages. If you should dare to question the washing or getting up of your shirts, your laundress leaves word next time she ealis that she cannot be bothered with any complaints, and you will liml it very dillicult to get a fresh laundress. Servants can get situations without characters, so plentiful are places and such the demand for servants of every sort. Many cooks in middle-class families are 110 better than your fresh-imported damsels who seek service as cooks, never having sent up a dinner in tiieir lives, and they get high wages and allowances, leave at the least umbrage taken, and get a fresh place before they leave you. Mistresses are not allowed to enter their own kitchens except during reception-hours, when my lady cook has done her work and is at liberty, at any other time the visit of the mistress is looked upon as an intrusion. There are plenty of faults on the master and mistress's side\, but whoever may be now in fault, what 1 have stated is the result. Notwithstanding the comfort and good pay of menial service, every girl, especially if her mother was a servant, ' feels too good,' like the nigger, for domestic service, and will try anything rather. East week's Punch represents a cook enquiring of the lady of the house, who wishes to engage her, how manv servants she keeps besides, and when she hears in reply—'Two,' sho says: 'Oh, I must take a place where there are three others in the kitchen, as I cannot get on without my rubber' of an evening.'" Perhaps our lady readers will lind in this the explanation they seek in reference to the scarcity of domestic helps.

Til:: A cm Zealand Tim' .*• is indignant because any journal shmtli! dare to express, or;illo\v to be expressed its columns, an adverse opinion upon tlio subject of tile contemplated change in the districts of our .fudges, and in taking to task the cm-re spondent of an Ota,no contemporary, it expression to tlio following opinions upon tlie .subject:—"This is, we believe, a fitting occasion to express freely faml unmistakably our deep conviction, which we know is universal with all disinterested people over the colony, that in this a 1 Fair of the shifting of the Judges' districts there must be 110 shirking whatever. And we freely acknowledge, that so far the Government shew every sign of a resolution to carry into efiVct the salutary recommendation of the Parliament. To set down one single man on the judicial Bench in a little town, to call that single man the Supreme Court, and to leave him there alone in that

solitary and dangerous glory, year after year, is a system so absurd that it needs but to state it to make its absurdity and its dangerous nature clearly seen and deeply felt. It | did not at all need experience to prove its j overpowering inexpediency; but the experience has come, notwithstanding, and the colony demands, and will have, by hook or by crook, this most necessary change. Such a position for a Judge is too much for human nature, and most unfair to any gentleman of high attainments and sensitive conscience. At the same time, our strong feeling is that the measure of change, now about to be effected, cannot be regarded with satisfaction in any other light than as a step in the right direction. In the right direction, we say, townrds the right thing, but not by any means the right thing itself. Xothing will satisfy the colony but the ultimate fixation of all the members of the Supreme Court in ho n c one permanent centre, and the establishment of circuits, covering .the whole ax* .f the colony. This is the only system rrliicii can guarantee at once a consolidated Supreme Judicature, and reconcile that first and prime necessity with the personal comfort of the Judges. We want to secure both of these objects, but the plan which keeps the Judges living apart, and periodically shifting their home, accomplishes neither the one nor the other. Still, we hail the change as a decided step in the right direction. . We may remark in conclusion, that there is is iu a certain part of New Zealand a little clique to which this shifting of the Judges' districts is specially inconvenient They see in this recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee, what Kdward I. saw in the answer of David of Wales to his demand of feudal homage—'some of the ugliest words that ever soiled paper.' IThic illic lachrhna'. From that source, from that inspiration, we strongly suspect, come these tears of spite and this indignant cry, tins ginger-beer froth and foam. The indignation may boil over, and the ginger-beer may effervesce, but the change of the judicial districts Will be carried out all the same." Our contemporary is, iu common with other writers, quite entitled to hold these or any other opinions upon the subject, but we fail to perceive that they arc bound to carry the weight he would authoritatively ascribe to them, nor do we see anything in the remarks of the correspondent referred to, as nearly approaching ''tears of spite''or " ginger-beer froth and foam" (to use the writer's own classical expression), as in the "retort courteous" of the Xta:Zealand Time*.

Tub Xciv Zro.huul Guvlte of tlio 2Sth nit., furnishes a statement of the land revcuue derived by the several provinces for the last quarter of last year. Auckland in this return ranks loiver than the smallest province of either island, the land sold amounting to only £137, while for the same period Otago disposed of land to the amount of £7S, 153 ; Canterbury, £70,1;">S ; Wellington, £.'10,970 ; liawke's Buj - , £2100; Iselson, £ISO 3. A.s a corollary to tho above we may state that the three provinces where the largest land purchases liavc been made aro tho same from which complaints issue as to the extreme tightness of the money market. Much of these lands have been purchased with borrowed money or advances obtained by mortgages, or through the favour of one or other of the banks. This fact has become quite patent, and the result is likcl}- to be that very few large areas in these three provinces will find purchasers during the ensuing quarter. A double event, which comprises a failing revenue and capitalists' money all locked up for a long date, will in all probability be followed by n still tighter tightness in the money market.

By the latest telegrams we had not heard of Mr. Vogel's arrival in England. IJut last night a wire message from our I'rcss agents informs us that the Tribun•• mentions Mr. Vogel as negotiating a new loan through the Messrs. Kothschild, instead of through the Crown Agents. Further, that Mr. Vogel's family will remain in England for sometime. This may be true respecting the new method of negotiating the four million loan, but hostile Tribune comes into possession of such information it is hard to conceive. The Government organs make 110 mention of the circumstance.