PASSING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14447, 13 February 1909, Page 6

PASSING NOTES

It -aias tJia alleged opinion of Sydney nvnilh Hmt you should never read a," book before reviewing it; it prejudices you so. I have avoided prejudice bv 'not rending a. rerics of articles in the "(Jingo Daily Times by the. Rev. Father Cleary, 1>.1'., displaying the .Honuui Catholic view of religions education. Dot I know nil about, them. They are a demonstration in the high p'vinrf method thai without Honwn Catholic religious education human society must go to the bad. Their use is the convincing of the convinced and the building up of the true believer,—on whom be Peace! Not to be unfair, I have equally refrained from reading the counterblast series of articles by " 1!. W." In this as in all things my policy is that of the provincial mayor who hoped to avoid botli partiality and impartiality. Hut of these countertilast. articles as bf the others I may pay tli.it 1 know all about them. They vindicate the Protestant view of religious education; their vote is "No Popery!" They have a fine full-bodied flavour of Orangeism in the North of Ireland on or about the Twelfth of July. Each protagonist—the Hcv. Father Cleary, D.D., and the Protestant who conceals his identity under the in.itia.is "P. W."— is cool; of his own walk, be it understood; neither can do the other any harm—not the least in the world. Each is entitled to fln,p and crow on his own midden-h-'nd. Or, if a more savoury comparison be prepared, let each think himself the vine-wreathed warrior at the least, when Thrice be routed all his foes, And thrice ho slew the slain.

I have the impression from a casual glance (hat "R. W." is of Mncaulay's opinion that Roman Catholicism, ruined Spain, tint as, according to the cyclopedias, there are in Spain 10 universities and 25.000 public schools, the ruin of Spain is, from the point of view of education, far from complete. We have Mr Buckle in his "History of Civilisation " expressing the opinion that Scottish Christianity has ruined Scotland. So. where tiro we'/ and by what authority shall we swear? I have also an impression of "P..W." as enamoured of the religious education established in New Smith Wales by Sir Henry Parkes,—the "right, of entry" system, much debated just now in England. Some notion of this system and how 't works lias been given b\- the Wellington Dominion, Here is a' detail: During the year 1005 (he total numbsr of visits paid to Statu schools by clergymen or other rc'igious k-achers, for the purpose of imparting special religious instruction to children of their own denominations, nils '12,231. Detailed information is given in the subjoined table: 'v'nmber of visits Denomination. during the yc.tr. Church of .England 23.709 Jtonsaii Catholic 71)7 lVsbytcrian. 7.150 Methodist 7.;i73 Other denominations .. .. 3.3.57 These figures have a very lop-sided look. Can we imagine any such' system winning votes in. New Zealand 1 '

Another contributor to this impromptu syanposium is the Rev. 'X, A. Davis, whose <l"ctrinc as 1 make out is that religion and education should be kept separate in water-tight compartments, a doctrine apparently destined more and more t.i prevail, hut Air Davis interests me by his devotion to that fatal feiish tho' conscience: Though the keys of heaven and of hell limy have been given to tho church, to no church or State or men lias b?en given the key to the human conscience. Conscience is but the man's personal judgment, thai which lie thinks—merely that and nothing more. And that which he thinks is a rule to nobody but hiii)self. If an ignorant man and a fool, that whieh he thinks will be ignorant and foolish. And yet, forsooth, under the llama of ''conscience" it is to he held sacred and inviolable, of greater authority than Parliament and King. The Hindoo conscience demands the burning of widows; the conscience of Hindoo ividows demands, it is said, the same thing. To the conscience of the Hindoo I lie cow is an object of religious veneration: to the conscience of his Mahometan neighbour the i;ame cow is merely potential butcher-meat plus a pretext for breaking up in riot a Hindoo religious procession. With George Pox it was a point of conscience to substitute "thee" and "thou," the second person singular, for the mendacious" you," the second person plural. The peculiarities of the George Pox conscience further expressed themselves in his celebrated leather breeches: "I will to the woods; the hollow of a tree will lodge me, wildberries feed me; avd for clothes, cannot I stitch myself one perennial suit, of leather!"—Carlyle makes him say, soliloquising. The Anabaptists of Monster were impelled by conscience io maicli through the streets in ptiris naturalibus as an exposition of " the naked truth." And at the bidding of conscience Dr Clifford gets his goods distrained every six months for a seven-and-sixpenny education rate. "The sacral rights of conscience," indeed !—these are illustrations.

Whoever would get a clour and sane notion of the unemployment problem may read with advantage an article in (he Nineteenth Century, January number: " Unemployment from the 'Unemployed' point of vi.nv," by T. Cood, who has had, he says, "as much experience of unemployment's horrors a? any man." To Mr Wood belongs the merit of seeing that in good limes as in bad there must always be a number of workers idle, and' (his. strange to say, through nobody's fault. The unemployed—at any rule the real unemployed— aro not merely a by-product of a Canity industrialism. The unemployed are not a quantity that would vanish if the wicked capitalist were elimi-

nated. The unemployed are an integral part of cur industrial organisation, and as such lliey need consideration and wise treatment. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon that !lic unemployed (some of tfcem) are essential to enterprise anil pTo- • gress. Unless we have a reserve army of idle workmen to draw upon at will, our industries lose the. power of expansion. "The 'lighf-to-worl;' doctrine is an egregious lallacy," he affirms; "we might, as well imi-4 on our soldiers having the right to fight—that is, to be always fighting." Unemployment is inevitable, and the risk of it to each' individual worker should ha oovered by insurance. That is Mr Hood's doctrine; not new, perhaps, but to my thinking certainly true, ai:d also timelv.

The extent to which unemployment increased during a- year of bad t-rndo may be gathered from a review of London poverty in The Time; of December 26 tilling a whole page. The year kid been the worst since 1574, anil the "legal poor" of London—that is the poor "on th-3 vales "—had increased from 26.5 per thousand in December, 1907, to 27.2 in December, 1908. The " legal ooor "do not necivwirily include the " unemployed " ; but thu two categories arc related, both would go up or down together. And the difference between 1907 ar.d 1908 is the dill'cvencc between 26.5 and 27.2—less than one per thousand. Yet we were beiii" told the other day that this difference represents a calamity " \vor.-e than the Alessina earth(jiiake;'' Another page in the same issue of The Times is given up to reports ot Christmas >S(w.oivs—eharitv .sermons mostly—preached the previous day. For exaggeration.—the vice oi the pulpit, as I said last week—we may pick out as easily first Canon Scott Holland at St. Paul's. Compare his style of talk about unemployment with that' of the man r.ioted above who bad had experience of it. He appealed for alms fen- those for whrm we could find no room in the crowded markets—the unemployed. There were thousands of thciu drugging themselves about our fcrlorn streets day nftor day, offering their services in vain. Night -and day they were to he found '..■csiegir.g the gates of dorks, workshops, and factories, arid yet wherever they went they were met with o refusal. They were not wanted, there was uo room for them. That was the daily and claimiing answer that killed the hart of hearts in a man. Only the oilier day he had hcurl of one, and a good workman, too. who had heal 14 months out of work '.rudOTg up a'.xl down the street? of ]>n:l»n. and the poor fellow whs now everything pawned in a bare cellar, haKsiirvod, with a haK-st»r.ved mother.

If Canon Scott Holland knew of this case and left it unrelieved, liis Christmas dinner ought to have choked him.

The calamity of Mr John Wilkinson— fined 10s for illegally netting a trout stream during the intervals of a religious Convention—is certainly calamitous in a high degree,—another case of "worse than the earthquake." I have nothing but sympathy for Mr John Wilkinson, believing with the Sea Fisheries JJepartmerit that " it was not a case for prosecution." Evorybody sympathises. The worthy beaks themselves bad a fellowfeeling. Excepting only the delail of the Convention, the case might have been their own. Hut to sympathise is not to sny that we may not laugh. The tragedy is too comic for that,—no touch of ironic detail wanting.

On Wednesday, December 30. ill an interval between Convention meetings lit Potmtuvcu., seeing from the shore a net ready tor use on a. boat, two friends who bad never east a. net before said to me

"Shall we have » try just here?" It reads almost like a passage from the Acts of the Apostles. ! don't remember any mention of fishing with the rod, but the aposties were often casting nets. In this ease, unhappily, the. net was cast in the wrong place; it caught no fish, but was itself caught by n snag, thereby remaining in evidence for the ranger, who forthwith set about catching the Conventionists, and seems to have fixed on Mr John Wilkinson to bear the brunt as being both a well-known citizen and a man of law who best should have known what he was about. Not being n Police Court Gazette, I drop the. story here. But there is matter in it still, and Mr John Wilkinson himself will not grudge ns the merriment it yields. He is a victim of the Imp of Misrule, Who join? the (bits of Time and Chance Behind the prey preferred. And thrones on 'Shrieking Circumstance Tile Sccr;dly Absurd, The Laughter, voiceless through excess, Wove mute appeal and sore, Above the midriff's deep distress, For breath to laugh once more.

The ever-new interest in old stories may be explained by the ever-new supply of people who hear them for the first time. Each generation inherits in its turn, The Westminster Gazelle, on the other hand, thinks that as the general stock of good stories is limited "it is realised that if no da capo be allowed when the supply has been exhausted, we should have to wait tor years for a new lot." A poor explanation, me judiee. The essential of a good story is some one to tell it to. Find some one who will listen and laugh, and your old story is new again. The German professor who took his honeymoon solus lias been on the railways of Europe many a year now, but never fails to please a new acquaintance. When last I ran upon him lie was " near Vienna "— as good a place as another. "On your wedding lour, H'err Professor?—wlice is your wife? Let me pay my respects." "Oh, we are too poor to travel together, so I have left her at home." Thc'Westminster repeats that too often a respectable old joke is ruined by mishandling; e.g.—"Why was the elephant the last in the Ark? Because he nad to pack his trunk;"—which has been known to appear in the degenerate and unintelligible form—" Because he had to pack his portmanteau." Again, "we notice that c borough councillor yesterday, when talking about the dangers of the motor traffic in the streets, is reported as having ' quaintly remarked that it was a case of the quick and the dead.'" This qnaintness, however, involved a mutilation. It was a very apposite remark; but tho origin is the roal or imaginary answer of a boy in n country school, who, in a religious Knowledge examination, when asked what was the moaning of " Hie quick and the dead," replied that "the quick" were those who got out of the way of motor cars and " the dead " were those who didn't. In matters of this moment there is nothing like accuracy. Cms.