Truth RIDICULOUS RAIN-MAKERS

NZ Truth, Issue 12, 16 November 1907, Page 4

Truth

RIDICULOUS RAIN-MAKERS

Published Eveey Satuedat morning at Luke's Lane (off Mannersstreet), Wellington, N.Z. SUBSCRIPTION (IN ADVANCE), 138, PER ANNUM.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1907.

When a great ' calamity overtakes a people, it is perhaps quite natural that, m their distress .and suffering, they should seek succor and solace from a Higher *Powei\ and that, in' their trouble and travail they should implore the help of the Supreme Being. This is natural enough ; but scarcely justified by human experience, or by the realisation of the fact that the inscrutable designs of that Being may be of such a nature as to render a prayer to Him for special protection puerile and presumptuous. The notion that the Regulator /of the movements of tboi_w sands of suns and their satellites should turn aside from His work m order to attend to the affairs of a little people, who, like the Australasians, are set iqruite apart, geographically, from the great masses of mankind, is extremely egotistical, and only/ worthy of men m a quite primitive state of culture. Such notions might have been expected m the days of the childhood of the human race ; hut m these days are generally found to flourish only among "Wowsers" and other members of schismatical sects.

It is, therefore, not astonishing that, now that the greater part of Australia is again suffering from a destructive drought, we find the "pastors" of the "wowsers" ordering their flocks to pray for rain. Presbyterian pulpit-pounders, Methodist mouthers, Baptist Bible-bang-ers. and Congregational canters are. just now, holding forth, m all paxts of the country, m favor of rain. This was to be expected, and nobody was surprised. People are surprised, however, when they find the head of a great Church, such as is Cardinal Moran, ordering prayers for rain. This his Eminence did at a clerical conference iheld at St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, on Wednesday, October the 24th. The action of Cardinal Moran m this respect is regretta/blc for more than one reason— rfixstly, because should the prayed-lor rain not come during the month of November, which is thc time during which the faithful are to pray that rain may come, such a failure is likely to injure thc prestige of the Church of which Cardinal Moran is the head, and, secondly, because it is not good to do anything that may lead a people to lie down, hoping for supernatural intervention, when it is their duty to guard against such occurrences as drought by the exercise of their own intelligence and industry.

What is more, Cardinal Moran is a man of high culture and a philosopher. H'c must know as well as the late Professor Tyndall knew, that prayers for rain do not ever appear to be "answered" by the Supreme Being. Professor Tyndall had so decided a belief as to the worthlessness of prayers, for rain that he challenged thc clergy of Great Britain to "offer up," at certain definite dates, prayers for certain specific objects, m order that he might construct what he called a "prayergauge" as to the extent to which such prayers were complied with. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to mention that the English clergy were sufficiently discreet to decline to accept the challenge of the eminent scientist Tyndall. Cardinal Moran should surely be as convinced of thc futurity and unwisdom of such prayers as Professor Tyndall ; yet the people oi the Commonwealth rejsret-

fully observe him suddenly jumping out of the fitting dignity of his position m order to put himself as the head of thc "rain-making" .Wowsers. So unexpected a move, so unexpected a change, i.s as perplexing as it is lamentable. * « a How much better would it not have been for Cardinal Moran to have done' as the late Anglican Archj bishop Moorehouse did when he waa asked to pray for rain. Archbishop Moorehouse very properly refused because, as he pointed out, although we I cannot get rain when we want «it, I yet we can, by judicious water conservation and irrigation, prevent droughts. The view taken by Archbishop Moorehouse appeared to be that, instead of going down on their knees, the Australians should take handle implements and proceed to construct reservoirs for the storage pf water, and aqueducts, canals and ditches for purposes of irrigation. Most intelligent people agreed wit.h Archbishop Moorehouse, and . thought he had taught the people a needed lesson. .One man cannot do much, however ; the attitude of Archbishop Moorehouse ; should have been also taken up by the heads of all the numerically strong religious denominations. If they all unitedly refused to pray for rain, on the ground that it was necessary for man himself to do his duty«\before appealing to the Almighty, much good would have been done ; perhaps civilised Australians would have by this time adopt- J ed systems of water conservation i and irrigation equal to those of the ! barbarous Peruvians, which systems were exceedingly good, and able to support the population of rainless Peru without any danger of drought. * * * The whining and howling of scmatters during the present drought is much worse than any error of judgment 'liy an eminent ecclesiastic. The squatters are a highly influential body of men ; they are powerfully organised m the Pastoralists' Union ; they possess political and pecuniary power : yet this power they prefer using for the purpose of preventing, if possible, their employees from receiving a* shilling a hundred more, for the shearing of sheep, to using it to induce Governments to carry out schemes of conservation and irrigation, without which the future of the pastoralists themselves can never he much more secure than that of a downright gambler. The squatters can afford, apparently, to pay away large sums of money to landagents m order that they may grab land that ought to he settled upon by a bold peasantry and sturdy yeomanry ; they can also afford to pour out money with which to fight the Australian Workers' Union and the | Labor Party ; but when they are faced with the duty of changing their own existence from a precarious one —although sometimes prosperous en-oughs--resembling that of a gamib'ier to one of permanent prosperity, all they do is whine and curse the La-Wor Party. * * * Wailing Wowsers and squealing squatters aire "getting on the nerves" of the Australasian people. . The former, however, are worse than the latter. Parasitical pulpit-pounders who are everlastingly pushing ths plate and banging the Bible when they ought to use what limited education they possess for the purpose of persuading the people to solve the pressing problems of . ' irrigation' or national; defence, and who, at a time of general disaster such as a drought can do nothing hut patter puerile prayers for rain are of . no more use to a community than the naked black rain-makers among the savages of West Africa. They should he made to "get work." They may be able to provide a- certain amount of entertainment for the sectarian savages of Methodism, Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, or Baptistry ; but the community as a whole looks with contempt upon their craf-' ty capers, and with amusement at their absurd antics as rain-imakers. As for the squatters, during all the years of good, seasons they had not a word to say, through their organisation, as to the imperative national duty of irrigation ; and they appear to have done little or nothing out of their own pockets-nwhich during the good seasons have heen well filled— to provide artificially for the watering of their own immense "runs." Consequently, they richly deserve their present losses. Unfortunately, however, others suffer as well as squatters ; a drought is a national calamity. The Government, therefore, whether the season be good or bad — that neglects, irrigation and water conservation is the enemy of the people ; and should be vigorously kicked into obscurity at the very earliest opportunity.