ROUND THE CORNERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLX, Issue 8168, 20 August 1887, Page 6

ROUND THE CORNERS.

/From the New Zealand Mail, August 12,J ■ Surely Sir E. Stout will profit by the severe rebuffs ‘he has recently received. /He has occupied a most unenviable position, “ Betwixt two horns of a dilemma,” Is nothing to it, and that he wriggled out of the mess as he did is solely due- to-his astonishing special pleading powers. A cleverer advocate than he whom but the other day the people of the South termed “ our Rabbie,” is not to be found south of the Equator. And that same “Rabbie” is still the kind-hearted fellow as of yore, ready to do a good turn to anybody, charitable, and a most pleasant companion. And his faults are testiness and super-sensitiveues of public criticism. He can’t stand the extreme push of public opinion, and, in his efforts of resentment he gets out of his depth and flounders, and says those things he ought not to say, as he did ot the New Zealand Times. He may get over this as he gets older, retaining, all- the same, his special pleading talents. And then he will be a power indeed. Well, if I were in serious trouble, I know of no one upon whose aid I would rather rely than Robert Stout, barrister. At last the Wellington Woollen Manufacturing Company seem to be in a fair way of escape from their troubles. That committee of inquiry cleared up matters considerably; brought in “ not guilty ” to all the charges, and X should say, very much strengthened public opinion in the affair, to say nothing of the confidence of some of the malcontent shareholders who, even now, are only half-satisfied, and appear to have a decided penchant for washing their own dirty linen in public. They rejoice in exposing their dirtiness to the gaze of outsiders. It is well for the company that the uncleanness is all on one side—the side of the two or three who, out of sheer deviltry, would pull down the structure on the heads of all and sundry if they could. That little game, has; however, beea stopped, Tie Woollea Com-

pany has been placed during the past week or so in a very good position in public opinion, and its detractors are as much in the mud. It will be well if the company provides against any such scandals in future by holding all inquiries into charges against the administration of the company’s affairs as privately as possible. As it is, the company has received hurt by the dissemination, through the press of a lot of baseless charges formulated by discontented, evil, and envious men. A great industry like the Woollen Company will, it is to be hoped, soon be above such dastardly attempts to injure it; cut, in the meantime, it will be well to adopt precautionary measures. Once more Bishop Neville, of Dunedin, has placed himself in a most unenviable position. How aprelate, of his rank —or any otherfor that matter —could allow himself to be made the mouthpiece of malignant rumors, to formulate such damnable charges against the budding womanhood of his diocese, is one of those mysteries past unravelling. A wholesale sweeping accusation against innocent girlhood by people with very nasty ideas. Very likely nice people, as the saying goes, but then how does it go ? As an old lady friend, of many years' ago acquaintance, once observed : “ Ah, your nice men generally have nasty ideas. 1 ’ And there was a lot of truth in the aphorism. It has received further exemplification at the hands, or rather the tongue, of the indiscreet Otago prelate of morbid tendencies. No wonder the Otago people are up in arms about it. 1 should think parents would be full of wrath at such wholesale traducing of their darling girls. A shameful general charge of impurity formulated by the church. Fie 1 Bishop Neville, and at second hand, too. What people had told him 1 Oh 1 Oh 1 Bishop 1 Don’t you know that a man in your position ought to be all eyes and ears, and to verify by actual observation all that you hear of serious import before you give it the weight of your authority ? The wholesale character of the slander should have stamped it false in the opinion of an impartial, intelligent and discreet man. A pretty kettle of fish, truly, if it is as the Bishop says. A precious blue look out for the next generation. This one is bad enough, but that one will be saturated with knavery and unchastity. True men and women will have died out. Mr Wardeli, R.M., is distinguishing himself in a very undesirable manner. He has done so before, and has disclosed his unfitness on one or two occasions to be entrusted with the wide powers of a Resident Magistrate, His handling of the case against that young woman Nolan was an instance of glaring prejudice or glaring incompetence, and if the Minister, of Justice does his duty he will look into the matter, and take the Resident Magistrate to task. Or, better still, let him retire gracefully from the public service. I made a few comments last week upon the attitude of those persons who cannot, or will not, see any religious merit in the State educational system of the Colony. It was all through the absence of religious teaching in the schools that larrikinism is so rampart, and commercia morality at such low ebb. Now this “week I purpose adducing direct confutation of such assertions by giving a few extracts from one of the standard books used in the schools—the sequel to the third standard. This book has been brought under my particular notice because there is a little maid too delicate to attend school in the winter season, and to instruct her for an hour o’nights is my very great pleasure, and so we are plodding through Sequel to No. 3 together, and much astonished am I, not only at the high moral tone of the book, but at the reverence for a Supreme Being, named God, it inculcates, and also quotes the Bible. Example 1: Page 12. —“ Do you know what the Bible is?” “It is the word of the great God.” “She,took the Bible, ran her fingers over the leaves, and turned to the 20th chapter of Exodus, the sixteenth verse, and read,” “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” Example 2 : Page 13.—“ That little girl told the truth when sbe was called on to speak as a witness in Court. But we should feel as it we were in Court at all times when we hpen our lips to speak. This world is like a great Court and God is the Judge. ’ Example 3 : Page 27, —“ We. have a Father in Heaven wiser and stronger and better than that little girl’s earthly father was, and when danger comes or storms burst upon us we may be sure our Heavenly Father is always near.” Example 4 ; Page 28.—“ Kindness to God’s creatures.” “Trustin God.” “ Sheknew that God could guide.” Example 5 : Page 50. —“ lam sure that God will take care of us if we continue faithful to him and to each other.” Example 6 : See pages 95, 96, 97 and 99.: “Good for evil,”—-“ Without mercy I shall reach never heaven." “ Forgive and ye shall be forgiven; Luke 6-37. ” “If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses ; Matt. 6-15.” “ For if ye love them which love you what thanks have ye, for sinners also love those who love them. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful and the evil. BA ye therefore merciful; Luke 6-32, 35, 36.” Example 7 : Pages 158,159, and 161.—“ The valued old family Bible. “ Can’t God’s grace doit.” “But may we not think of the Love of God.” “ I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” And so on to the end of the book, for I have by no means exhausted quotations. Neither have I touched on the high moral precepts scatteied through its pages. To be charitable! truthful, forbearing, honest, to cultivate good temper. But I have confined my quotes to direct reference to the Supreme Being and the Bible. Is it not very apparent from this that the antagonism displayed to the State system of education has no true foundation ia_ fact, but is simply clerical, doctrinal, a veritable ■‘doxy,” and that the people will be worse than fools if they tolerate any tampering with the so-termed purely secular character of that system. For if one little book contains so much that is essentially religions, what will the whole series disclose if critically examined ? Why can’t parsons be candid and make free admissions, and church dignitaries see good, at all times, where good is? And why will laymen persist in following a blind lead?. Why will they not investigate and reason for themselves ? Why, indeed ! Asmodkds.