CALAMO CURRENTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7656, 5 June 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

CALAMO CURRENTE.

The " Law and the Gospel" are commonly supposed to possess a certain concatenation in theology, the dispensation of the law having led up to the brighter reign of the Gospel. But at Whangarei the benighted heathen ignore one of the first principles »i theology, and appear to regard them as inconaiitent, if not inimical. The question has come up in Presbytery, and though there is the frankest disposition expressed to ratify the relation, the reverend fathers appear to be greatly puzzled. The thing has arisen in this wise: A minister of religion finding his income insufficient, and being under the necessity of meeting the importunate solicitation of his butcher, and the harrowing demand of his washerwoman, and feeling that honesty to his engagements was a cardinal duty on the part of a teacher of religion, conceived the idea of supplementing his Inadequate income by the study and the practico of tho law, and accordingly qualified as a solicitor. But his congregation, unable or unwilling t"» afford him the requisite maintenance, with a spirit something akin to that of tho dog in the mAnger, took exception to his scheme of obtaining the requisite money for himself; and the domestic troubles of the congregation at Whangarei have been transferred to the Presbytery of Auckland.

Now there is something to be said for the people of Whangarei. They do not object to their minister earning a little money, but they draw the lino at law. To see him enrolled among " tho Devil's Own" shocks the religious sentiment, and Saul among the prophets was nothing to a preacher of righteousness in the Black Battalio The aroma of writs and summonses, they think, is not the savour of godliness ; and the «tndv of how to circumvent another devil and fleece his client, or how to join with a brother devil in the readiest way for fleecing both their clients, as the manner is, seems to the unsophisticated people of Whangarei an unseemly preparation for the dispensation of the Word.

Some time since, another minister of religion—he resided at North Shore—was enabled to supplement his income by adding to the cure of souls the cure of the bodies of his parishioners ; but the conjunction was not a success, and from the length of his accounts, and the urgency with which he pressed for payment of his medical charges, he came to be known in the district as the Oniithorli>fiic!iii< paradoxus, or "the beast with a bill." But what comparison would there be between "To medial attendance from so-and-so till so-and-so, so much," and that complicated, comprehensive, and aggravating document, known as a lawyer's bill ? It is a thing on which no son of Adam ever looked but with dismay, and a man with such & document in his pocket, and entering the sanctuary, and seeing the perpetrator of it in the pulpit, advising him to keep his treasure wheie thieves break not through nor at* would inevitably be inflamed with passion that would imperil his soul's everlasting welfare.

But the worthy pastor of Whangarei is happily not shut up to the necessity of joining the corps of the Devil's Own in supplementing his clerical income by secular pursuits. The great Apostle of the Gentiles was a tent-maker, and if the requirements of Whangarei do not present an adequate opening for the manufacture of tents, be has another apostolic precedent exactly suited to Whangarei. for a large proportion of the Disciples were fishermen, Now the estuaries and rivers of that rising district swarm with fish, and seeing that Mr. Eaton has frightened the City Council into silence, and his Dutch auction flourishes, the reverend gentleman has an unoccupied sphere of usefulness to which the most rigid disciplinarian in his whole flock durst not raise a word of opposition. There were Peter and James and John the sons of Zebedee, who were great at hauls, and I am sure that the Lake of Gennesaret never had such teeming ■hoals as the Whangarei Heads. A little finhing smack would be sacred with the Triost hallowed associations, and if Mr. Killen acids to their primitive appliances the modern resources of civilisation, and erects a fish-curing establishment, what with dried sohnapper, aud Mr. Eaton's Dutch auctions, ho may do well, combining in sacred association with almost miraculous draughts of f.shes, his ordinary calling of being a " fisher (f men,"

Another bankruptcy tins been added to the swelling list of those whose history is made to adorn th tale of colonial commercial morality. A small firm began business in t'ha auburbs with a few hundred pounds. It exhibited more than the usual enterprise, gave unlimited credit, sold at fabulous sacrifices, pushed trade right and left, and fore and aft, to the dismay of all competitors, leaving old and steady-going shopkeepers to titend in their doors and pare their nails, while it led a merry life and a short one, and then—died game. Who is the culprit now ? The creditors assembled round the ruin, and were very angry. They denounced the bankrupts as swindlers, and doubtless in I:h«ir heart of hearts they would, had they dared to show it, have torn them to pieces. They had showered their favours on the ■enterprising traders, virtually forced the goods on them, and encouraged them thus to launch out bravely, and carry away the ttra.de of those who were paying their •fray, and endeavouring by thrift and care to earn an honest livelihood, and to bring up their families in honour and respectability. And now they are very angry. Who are the culprits here Of the tempter and tempted in the ways of dishonesty, if dishonesty there was, who are the guilty? Is it those who, with their little jarninga, might have made an humble and an honest living, receiving such reasonable pralits on their sales a3 would have left a little margin for their keep, and for the legitimate increase in their business, after providing for twenty shillings in the pound ? Or is it not rather those who forced them into a ruinous competition—ruinous to their neighbours and ruinous to themselves - making it impossible for honest traders to make a decent living, and demoralising the community by the chance of fictitious bargains which were only thefts? Let us be just, messieurs, in our judgments. It is the man that beckons on the reckless trader on the broad way that lcadeth to destruction that besmirches our commercial fame. It is the recklessness with which credit is given to stimulate unwholesome trading; it is the heedlessness respecting honest trade and honest traders ; it is the all-devouring desire to take the wind out of a rival's sails ; it is the unhealthy and accursed greed of gain on the part of creditors themselves that is the root of the offending ; and let the brand of public infamy be fixed on the tempter, and not on the unfortunate bankrupt, who is oftener sinned against than sinning. The immediate case in point may not be exactly an apt illustration of the guileless victims of commercial usage; and the bankrupts being smarter than their tempters, may serve to show the other side of bankruptcy ; but it does not in any way modify the fact that the recklers fashion of indiscriminating and unreasoning credit, is tho root and stem and branches that bear the blossom and fruit of general insolvansy,

A settler in a distant outpost has appealed to Pollex for redress, I know not why, but the tale he unfolds may adorn a flying sketch and show the petty tyrannies and wrongs that may be perpetrated by monopoly, where the Argus-eye of the Preas sees not. Be says: " The men work ten hours and twenty minutes per day, which means in winter from before daylight to dusk again. The company keep a store, at which the employes are expected to deal. They are paid once a month, and what they have murchased is deducted from their pay. matters are if anything worse, as the company keep store, butcher s shop, joardinghouse, and bakery in their own '•and* and the four-pound loaf is mnepence, ' tf .d many of the store things double A uckland prices. We have sheep inspectors and ship inspectors, but there also ought to ho inspectors to see that no such abuses of the liberties of the people should exist as this. When times are good the mills derive a good profit from the natural wealth •of the country, but they should not be permitted to extort another profit from the bard earned pay of the workman. A fellow • settler lately was ordered off the ground, when trying to dispose of his produce to the people, ims

he wou'd not comply with, and the manager, seeing he could not compel him, said it shall be w->rse for those who purchase from you ; thui the people are in dread to purchase from tbe settlers." - Now here we have the truck system in all its vigour and with all its most reprehensible features. That it is entirely illegal everyone knows, and its admitted prevalence should not escape the notice of the police, if they had only the courage to do their duty. Of course the convenience of having a store provided in a district where, without the aid of the proprietors who boss the district, a store might not exist, is undoubted ; but where its existence develops the features of the cruel and tyrannical truck system, it should be promptly brought within reach of the arm of the law. It is in remote rural districts where dependents feel their helplessness, and if Pollex is the means of giving utterance to this pitiful cry from the wilderness, he will be happy.

It is interesting to watch the oscillation of the Temperance pendulum. It swung swiftly to the height of almost absolute suppression ; it is swinging rapidly back towards tho level of triumphant grog, and the time will come again when it will swoop away to its former height, and the bit of blue will hold the sceptre of authority. Leaving metaphor: There ia an evident desire with many of what has been named tho moderate party to try how far they can go in reversing the action of their predecessors who donned the blue, but exhibited such a singular self-restraint in keeping their principles in abeyance, and in bowing themselves in the house of Rimnion. This evident longing on the part of tho " Moderatts" appears more overt in those who from the outside seek to profit by tho change of constitution, but even on the Licensing Bench, there is an " I would an if I could " that shows that, given but the power, the old reign of freedom to the liquor traffic would bo reinstated. People are taking a note of this, and though the tendency to reverse the action of the past is kept steadily in hand, the ominous requests of eleven o'clock opening, and for the re-licensing of suppressed hotels, and tho admission of insido and upstairs bars, all mark tho rapid swinging of the pendulum, and its approach to tho height of the turning point. People liavo not forgotten the reforms effected by the Temperance party when in control of the trade, and though teetotnlism is not yet the public faith, the solid sentiment that gave such a triumphant victory to the reformers requires but a little more provocation to show its overwhelming force again.

The legislative faculty is innate in the colonial mind. The education of surrounding circumstances develops it, but that it must be a natural gift appears in the fact that very on a has it; and from the construction of a by-law to the framing of a constitution every colonist is all there. Some of the cleverest of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce have devised a means of facilitating and rendering pleasant the punishment of trivial offenders. At their instance the Chamber have memorialised the Government for an Act to enable tines to be imposod and collected without the intervention of the law Courts. The cry of " llaro" in the Channel Islands is a simple means of effecting all the purposes of an injunction of the Supreme Court, which anyone can exercise on his personal volition in the open street; yet the simple process must be followed up in Court. But, according to the new proposal, anyone transgressing the minor laws, can be fined and released without the intervention of the Courts. "That persons accused of offences against the city by-laws and trivial police regulations, may, if they do not dispute the charge, pay the tine prescribed without the necessity of attending a hearing ci the Magistrate's Court." There is a fine field here (or black mail; and what with the freedom with which charges can be laid which are cot to come up for review, and the unwillingness which any man will have to appear in the Court at all, the officers entrusted with keeping watch and ward over offenders will drive a roaring trade. Every one knows that it is appearance before the magistrate, and not the possible shilling tine, that has a deterrent effect ; and with this gilding of the pill of punishment, the fence that guards the law will be broken down, and all that pass by the way will pluck't, and the boar out of the wood will waste it, and the wild beast of the field will devour it. It will maks sinning pleasant to the man that has the money, and will differ in nothing practically from bribing the ministers of law, and going scot-free through buttering the hand of Justice. Pollex.