EVOLUTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13543, 16 March 1906, Page 5

EVOLUTION.

TO THE EDITOR.

J.i & , IS '~ Tllc r <: are S°°d reasons for asscrtini? that thorp is no such, thing in the known realms of Nature, cither organio or inorganic. Phe fallacy has its origin in tho speculative tendency of ingenious minds and tho biassed interpretation of natural phenomena Tho Old Book states that thocart i brought forth the living creature after its kind" Nothing has yet been produced to negative this statement. All breeders of cattle accept the fact., and thev would bo surprised to hear anything to Iho contrary. Hippus, a fossil creaturo of the norse kind, is assumed to 'he tie origin or ancestor of our modern horse. That is as much as to say that an animal of tho horso kind developed into a horso, or «i creaturo oi line sheep kind developed into a shcop. if wo had anything olso it would bo a monster or a miraolo; it would bo contrary to fact. Facts and fancies are much, mingled in minds of considerable powt»' out Aature in our planet, so far as is \l;°n n ' doos not co «»iso them. Darwin, Wallace. Lamnrk, and Hacckel have not shown anything; different from tho Old Jook. In spile of them, "tho earth has always brought forth tho living creature after its kind." We arc told that hero is no apparent difforenc'o between the form of a man a dog, and an oak. \ Each develops after its own kind. >

' S i° far n? s man knows, tirao does not ovolutc. Iho evolutionist cannot supply an instance When, where, and how did evolution, cither in organic or in inorganic ex. lslcnce.take placed Take tho case of the dinornnfee, which can bo traced through the Indies from the cretaceous period to tihcso islands of Now Zealand. Tho connection and severance- of these islands aro of immense antiquity, and no mixture lias taken place in (lie fauna and flora. There have been no migrations from India into i\e\v Zealand since tho great laud depression. After tho entranco of tho marsupials into Australia the gap at Bali and Lombok flint them up. Bird life in New Zealand remained stationary over tho period of its occupancy § by tho dimoniis. Similarly, ffiffjintio life remained stationary in An?fralia. Tho birds were before Ihcm in time, but how lanpr cannot be stated. Tho fact, however, remains. The evolutionist pleads for time. Now, we ha-ve all tho period of tho great land depression and subsequent elevation shown in tho depesition of the gr?onsandF, calcareous freestone, and tho basalts, which (rive us incalculable) ages, in which the dinoniis continued tlio same creature. Development there was, but no evolution in the senso of the evolutiomst._ It was tho same with tho gigantic marsupials and birds, till both perished and became ©xti.net in the glacial disaster (hut occurred in tho Pleiftoceno of \ geology. J hero was opportunity for evolution in that Enormous stretch of time, hut there iV no evidence of any. The gigantic life of that period has no successors in any part' of (lie.globe. We ran even K o further back m time with the same result-down' through tho palreontological and recent' ages till T«stenlay without any transform*, lion. The four genera—Kbvnehonella, (.ronia, Discma, and Lint'iila-have been; I raced through the Devonian, Carboniferou.», Cretaceous, -Tertiary, and recent periods, and arc identical in all. _ Where is tho example of the transmutalion of species? Man an evoluted monkey from the I'llhecanthropus? We must have facts and not assumptions. Such teaching cannot bo accepted by intelligent breedera of cattle. It may bo swallowed by townbred youths, who are unable to distinguish between a slicsn and a pi?, or a potato shaw from a plum Iree. However, when, our scientific authorities can believe t.hafc the Maori? hunted and ate tho moa Ihov can grain over anything. Thev may as well affirm that the Maoris ato tho moSiS There is no such confusion in Nature as evolution would introduce. We have thousands, if not millions, of years. a 6 v.c havo shown, witbout any such thing, If wo multiply nothing by a million it is just a million limes nothing. Such is Evolution. Jt would be. easv to multiply argumon and fact against it. No doubt names o great and good men can bo cited as bclici ing in_ it._ We have great and good me: equal in inteHipcnc? and scientifi acquit ments who do not believe in it. if it wo true out faith in Nature would Ixi r stroyed. No man when ho sows oats g barley. Ho reaps as he sow?. If I am not mistaken, our Evolutioni arft not very clear on what Ibev arc about or what they would ho at. It see to me that the point they would liko prove ig eelf-origination. Wo have example. But, given the livinir organism, we km what variation* can be produced by tir and environment. But these changes a not, Evolution. It is onlv bringing out the organism what was previously in :' } Nature. Every breeder of cattle has t srround-work on which he operates, and h is able to improve, and we call that d< velopment. If that mears Evolution, thei we have no argument. Development, which no one denies, is covered by tht " survival .of the fittest and natural eelsoil tion." There is no self-origination in el breeder finding out. a different 6pot d 1 colour on a nigeon's wing.—l am, etc, Rcflyn, Mjtroh 10. •J, Chbistu.