Passing Notes.

Otago Witness, Issue 1585, 8 April 1882, Page 17

Passing Notes.

' : • s-> ; • r ni'j.. hi -;■' m,,, J ■ ' Bishop Moran must undoubtedly be reckoned a successful man.' '.' HHre r is establishing. schools and planting ( priests all over Otagq, ahd'' js 'rearing in punediri (slowly^itis^true^but'wilih |the'dogged persistence which characterises hifl Church) the. walls of a spacious, and' costly! cathedral. His • convent 'Seminary<t f6r ('girls competes successfully with the endowed High School, and commands the practical confidence of not a few Protestant parents. He reigns in solitary authority over a united flock who are' 1 enthusiastically devoted <to him ; pid <thiaweek,'on his return- from -'Rome; he, has made a Itin'd 'of triumphal entry info 'Dtine'din^ p r arading the streets at the' head of 2000' pro'"* .cessioners, l and receiving in the evening' >'a n J votive offering .of 1000 sovereigns, which he proposes to expend in bringing [otit more priests and planting, more, schools. (One would, like .'t;6"know^how ( the- 'tjfishop's evident prosperity is, to' be explained. „Truei blue Presbyterians— all the deeper shades- of blue, at any rate— regard Bishop Moran'asthe local 'manifestation of Antichrist: I ' "The -ote 1 ' day they were, proposing to appeal Professor Salmond in the Church Courts for admitting that Romanism was a part of; Christendom Yet in Presbyterian Otago , the. Romanist Bishop waxes strpnger and stronger, and is; spreading himself like a green bay^tree. .PrpbJ ably the true-blues will say that hisprosp^rity is the prosperity of 'the 'wicked, who f is permitted ; by a mysterious Providence to flourish fora' time, but is reserved for a bad -ending. • To the ' non-theological 'mind, however, this account will hardly seem satisfactory. ' Some, better explanation is wanted, and I fancy I can suggest one myself. The Melbourne Southern Cross, ' attempting to account' for Romanist growth in Victoria, has the following:—

'Romanism in Victoria is strong and well organised it has an able priesthood and >an energetic Press ; it avoids debate; it has, suffered from no conspicuous scandals ; it is not afflicted with an Archbishop , Vanghan— an ecclesiastical Prince Eupert; who makes brilliant charges, but loses great battles. Its rulers are silent men, and work, like the mole, out of eight. Id' has been, for the present at least, served,- com* pacted into closer unity- by the " grievance ".ot .the Education Act. And the exclusion of the Bible from the State schools is an undeniable gain to Kome in another way. Borne is strong against Secularism, bufc weak against Scripture. In the Bible-reading schools of the United States it dwindles ; in the Bibleless schools of Victoria it increases: Those Protestants tiavs unwittingly helped Rome who have assisted to banish the , Bible from the schools in which the children of Victoria are being educated. ,o ,* > > J-i i v i: I make the Bible-in-Schools Association & 'present of this witness, without myself subscribing to his last sentences. ■ I prefer to say that if the Protestant ministers did their work as thoroughly as the Romanists do theirs/ they would feel perfectly indifferent about getting the Bible into the State schools; ' Bishop Moran understands that if the Church looks ,well after the . children, the adults will look after themselves. Even the Freethought Lyceum understands that. It is only the Protestant denominations who would commit the children to the imcovenanted mercies of the State schoolmaster. Bishop Moran has used the Education " grievance " to whip his people up to provide schools of their own, and his quiet persistency along this line for eleven years is now yielding a very shining result * As Trollope's brickyard philosopher remarked to the Rev. Mr Orawley, " It's dogged as does it." Bishop Moran is not an orator like his co-religionist Vaughan in Sydney. He has not made himself felt in secular affairs, like the Anglican Bishop of Melbourne. If he is a and I think he is— his statesman ship consists simply in minding his own busi» ness and minding it well. ' I explain hU sue*

cess on the principle, "It's dogged as does it."

The deputation of ministers and elders who visited the Hon. Thomas Dick in the interests of Sabbath Observance came away apparently with a feeling of disappointment. Their object was to invoke Government assistance in putting down Sunday concerts and lectures at which a charge is made for admission. Their spokesman, Mr A. C. Begg, laid especial stress on the charge for admission, having in his mind's eye, I don't doubt, though he didn't say as much, the Freethought Sunday lecture, at which, as I ,learn ,per advertisement, the entrance fee is sixpence. What the membera of the deputation expected to find in the Hon. Thomas Dick was the President of the V.M.C.A., and a "Vessel" of evangelical godliness. What they actually found was the Colonial Secretary, with a keen sense of official responsibility, a politician made wary by knowledge of the ways of the House, and a man full of obstacles. When Mr Begg dilated on the enormity of charging for admission to a meeting held on Sunday, Mr Dick remarked that JChurch collections amounted to much the same thing. "But they do it to make money," said Mr Begg. "And are not' the 1 organist, the precentor, and even the minister paid for following their trade on Sunday?" replied. Mr Dick; 'are there not seat rents in churches?" Mr Begg observed that seat rents were paid for, every day in the year, not for Sunday use only. Mr Dick : " But you would not make much out of them by sitting in them on week days.— (Laughter.)" For my own part, whilst I sympathise with the wish of .the deputation to preserve the Sunday from.being secularised, I think their arguments wire-drawn and disingenuous. What they really 'dislike in Freethought lectures is not the entrance fee, but the doctrine. They don't .object to sacred music on Sundays; what they object to is sacred music not provided by the churches. Would it not have been better to say out frankly what they were really aiming at ? I have no particular love for Freethought lectures, but I don't want to see them put down by law, as the Sydney Government put down Mr. Proctor. There are the "liberties of the people" to be considered, as Mr Dick remarked. One should remember, too, that in religion, as in some other things, what is one man ? s taeat is- another man's poison. An illustration of this fact comes to my hand in a cutting from the Scotsman. It gives a passage from a speech made in the Edinburgh Presbytery by- the Rev. Dr Begg (singular coincidence of names !) on the Scottish disestablishment question :— ' In many cases they had' full-blown prelacy in the Established Church— as witness a case<at Aberdeen the other day, where they had an Established phurch minister drillirijir his people in .the forms of the Episcopal" Chur6h. Here wag" some' of it : -Minister : •f Ldrd, have mercy upon us." Children : " Christ, have mercy upon Minister : " O holy Jesus i" but," said the doctor (dropping the paper he was reading from),; he dare not repeat it, it was such blasphemous stuff ., . Fancy .the blessedness of 'living in 'a country where the Begg ideas of what constitutes blasphemy, and Sabbath-breaking should be adopted by the. State and enforced by process of law !

\ "VVhile Mr, Gladstone has crowds of enthusiastic admirers, and lately received at Leeds and elsewhere a series of , ovations, he is as deeply^^oratied in other quarters.. The discs tabHshment of the, lrish Chuch inthe past, and the probable disestablishment of the Scotch and English' Churches always looming in the uture, have a very .bitter taste in the mouths of, many good.Churohmen. It has been his fate, too, to have to .severely repress the too exuberant'Hibernicisms of the Hibernians with one hand, while with the other hand putting down the landlords. The people's. William, therefore, has no very easy bed to lie upon at home, while on the troubled sea of foreign politics he has great, difficulty in keeping his crazy barque of feeble, diplomacy afloat. For my part I admire) this great commoner for his indomit-able-pluck his .enormous industry, and his apparent purity of motive, and for the many great reforms he has effected, but I don't thutfl foreign affairs his forte, and, .believe that his weakness in this respect will yet bear ill-fruit. The following lines, placed at my disposal by a correspondent, express epigrammatically the feeling entertained by many Conservatives of the old school that W. G. is the very incarnaion of the evil one. They were prompted by an announcement that the sculptor Woolner was about to execute a bust of the Premier the stone for which was sent from Greece as a testimony of regard from the grateful Hellenes :—

When Woolner's band in classic mood, " , Carving , the Premier's pate is ; Hellas.to.show her, gratitude,, ' ' ' Sends him her ( Glad Stone gratis. . Ah I .could this country, stone for stone, . Return , the gift genteely; < ' And doubly grateful .send her own Gladstone to Hell as freely I I don't admire the sentiment, but an epigram is an epigram, and this is not one of the worst I have, seen on' that side of the question; It is* wonderful.to note the untiring energy of this , " old man eloquent," now in his seventy-third year, and the hero of far more than " a hundred fights," sticking to his post to the last, speaking with .much of his old fire arid vigour, and "exuberant verbosity," strugglingwithdifficulties innumerable, abused and execrated by his enemies, but still borne on the shoulders of a> crowd of firm adherents and ardent admirers, doing his level best to pilot the ship of state through the shoals and quicksands that beset it. I don't think he deserves to be consigned to Gehenna; and so far disagree with my epigrammatic friend. ' But sitting over my pipe and pint, I sometimes wonder what such men do it all for. Is it only from " a sense of duty," or is it partly from love of fame ? To scorn delights and live laborious days, But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears . And slits the thin-spun life. I suppose there are compensations, but the lot of a Prime Minister of England is just now by no means to be envied. There are perhaps only two more uneasy posts— that . of Prince Bismarck, and that of the unhappy Czar.

That was a grim joke which was gravely forwarded by cable the other day about the Russian Press having unanimously affirmed Mr Gladstone's clSture proposals. Ido not in the least doubt the fact, but poor Mr Gladstone may well say, "Save me from my friends." That the gag would be looked upon by the censorised Press of Russia as quite permissable for the purpose of strengthening the hands of the Executive, I can well believe. Not that the Press itself likes the gag, under which, in the country of the Czar, it suffers occasionally severe penalties. But' it is a well-known institution in that benighted country, applied in divers manners, and with varying degrees of severity; and doubtless the .Russian Press would like to see the benefits of the system extended, not only to the Parliament, but to the .Press of England. That the cldture is un-English we have often heard, and that is one of the strongest popular argument against it; but that it is approved in enslaved, and down-trodden^ but cruel and Jew-persecut-ing Russia, is damaging in the extreme. The impudence of the thing is scarcely less striking than its inopportuneness. Here is Mr Gladstone, who Js regarded with bitterness at Home as the

Friend of every country but his own, and who is specially accused of truckling to Russia, patted on the back by the Russian Press because he is trying to put a curb on the British Parliament. 'Why they don't understand what a Parliament is in Russia, much less how to manage it. They have not the shadow of a ghost of representative institutions, and they presume to have an opinion about the proper way to work ours. By my halidome, 'tis too much ! And this in a country whose representative the other day refused to transmit to his autocratic master what the British people had respectfully to urge about the persecution of the unfortunate Jews throughout the Russian empire. I had begun to think that cldture, objectionable as it is in itself, was* perhaps, a necessary evil ; but, since it is approved in Russia, I' am inclined to hope that the British people will have none of it. It has come to a pretty pass if Mr Gladstone has to be supported in his hateful task of putting the curb on a spirited, but too restive, British Parliament, by what they say in Russia, of all countries in the world.

Though Bishop Moorhouse refuses to pray for rain, he cannotjbe accused of indifference to the value of water. His lecture on " Irrigation," delivered in one of the districts suffering from drought, was an attempt to show indirectly that the Bishop was really more anxious to improve the water supply thanniost other men, but that praying was not the way to do it. "In crossing this plain," said the Bishop, "I haye. r witnessed such,, a scene, of desolation as I pray God my eyes may never more rest on. As I drove in the heat and glare and dust, I have seen plains almost as bare of green ' grass as the high road ; houses deserted, and the windows nailed up; vast stretches of country without trace on them of man or beast. Among the few cattle remaining I have seen such signs of suffering in the dull, staggering skeletons that I was.obligedto.tuni away my eyes for relief. The scene is terrible. The land seems [as if it j had been blasted by the breath of some destroying angel." The Bishop at any rate realises what a water-famine means. If he refuses to pray for a miracle, it is because he' sees how ' the evil may be cured without one. Plenty of water falls from the sky, said the Bishop; plenty more descends in drainage from the Australian Alps, but you let it run past you to the sea. Help yourselves and God will help you. To perma- ( nently cultivate this plain, he continued, you must have manure. To have manure you must keep stock. To keep stock you must grow lucerne, hay, and root crops, and to do that you must irrigate. If you refuse to irrigate all the praying in the world won't enable you to live here. The Bishop's lecture reminds me of the story of the French priest who was employed to bless certain barren fields. (I have told the story before, but it is so apposite here that I must tell it again). The good man went through three or four with the due riteSj till he came to one many degrees worse than the rest. "My friends," he cried, breaking off — "praying is no use here; this must have manure." A most intelligent and discriminating priest ! All good Proteßtant Christians will agree in extolling his excellent common sense. • Why, then, the hubbub which has arisen about Bishop Moorhouse's precisely similar deliverance ? Praying is no good here, says the Bishop ; . this wants an irrigation system — dams, canals, windmill-pumps. And all the good Protestant Christians are ready to stone him 1

The more one reads about Spiritism the greater grows one's perplexity. It is still a puzzle to me, as I daresay it is to a good many people, why the spirits, who are commonly supposed to be elemented of light and radiance, should have such a partiality for darkness in their dealings with earthly mediums. This is, to be sure, an old difficulty, but it is one extremely hard to get over; and it is really too bad that no disembodied gossip has ever deigned to set our minds at rest on the subject. Pending an explanation, I must have leave to ask, with something of mistrust and indignation, why they cannot rap and spell in broad daylight? If they are honest spirits, and not of the nether world, they really ought to try and bear good candle-light at the very least. The poor spirits, too, seem never to get beyond their spelling-book. There is always a great demand for the alphabet at a stance or Spiritualistic hatching. It is noticeable also that spirits of all ages and climes seem to have learnt one alphabet, from which it may be reasonably inferred that English is the universal tongue in the other world. Even Abraham calls for his A.B.C. — written proof no doubt this that we are his Anglo-Saxon offspring. Here is a little narrative) condensed from Miss Houghton'a

"Evenings at Home with the Spirits":— " When quite dark, the spirits spelt the message, 'Put all your pocket-handkerchiefs on the table,' when, after another call for the alphabet, the following was also spelt:— ' John, you are to give the juice of the spirit to the whole world, and pure wine to these dear friends to-night — we will bring the wine. And then the alphabet was again asked for. ' This is the grandest stance ever known'— what capital showmen these spirits are !— ' and your house is indeed blessed. We, have brought it.' 'What?' 'The wine.' Upon obtaining a light, they were astonished to see all the handkerchiefs grouped in waves in the centre of the table, and upon them a mass of beautiful purple grapes ! ! ! A Mr Bennett was ordered to divide them, when it was found that there were exactly seven for each person. The spirits required them to take not only of the inside of the grapes but also the skins and seeds, so that they should literally eat and drink. They likewise insisted on each of them consuming his or her portion then and there, although we,would gladly have kept some to show to our friends ; thus in all points fulfilling the sacramental directions (and that given to the Jews with reference to the Passover), that none shall be carried away or kept to perish ! " Miss Houghton inquired if they would kindly tell them who bought the grapes, and in response "God's messenger" was spelt, They then inquired "Gabriel?" "Yes." On which I remark that the lot of. that respectable Archangel cannot be a very enviable one if this is the kind of work he has to do, to fetch and carry at the will of a few idle and curious people.

A friendly critic informs me that I was unreasonably hard last week on Longfellow's mixed metaphors. The poet does not say, as I insinuated, that " footprints on the sands of time" are produced by "sailing o'er life's solemn main." The "footprints" are on the shore, where they ought to be. We are to leave them behind us there, that another voyager, when he geta shipwrecked, may find them and be encouraged. Thus my friend, who contend^ that the metaphors are consistent. But if life is a " solemn main," how is it that some people are exonerated from the trouble of sailing ' over it ? Who are the privileged persons who merely walk on the shore ? When shipwreck has terminated the voyage of life, can onebegin existence over again as a pedestrian upon " the sands of time " ? I should be glad to see a- theory upon which the metaphors of the "Psalm of Life" could be read into harmony, but Longfellow himself, I should imagine, would have been ready to confess that the thing couldn't be done. Apropos of Browning and his obscurities, I have chanced on an authentic story which may have suggested to Besant and Rice the pleasant exaggeration which I quoted last week from their "Golden Butterfly." "Paracelsus," Browning's first acknowledged work, appeared in 1836, when the poet was in his twenty-fifth year. What " Paraselcus "is like may be inferred from.its effect on a contemporary poet, the writer of the " Song of the Shirt " :—

Someone sent a copy to Tom Hood, who was then confined to his bed by illness, thinking that it might " amuee the patient." Hood took up the volume, and,' having perused it'for a few minutes, banded it to his wife. "Read, my dear, read,!" he' exclaimed, with a wild look in his eyes. Mrs Hood soon appeared to be absorbed in "Paracelsus." "Well?" asked Hood anxiously, after a pause, " Well ?" " Why," replied, in doleful tones, Mrs H., "I can't make out a word of it." A sigh of relief burst from her husband. "Thank God ! " he cried, "then I have not lost my reason. '

A correspondent of the Star gives some curious information respecting the habits of larrikins. He says that the Dunedin larrikins are accustomed to " lay in the Octagon," and to " Bit in the Arcade." A reader new to the word might conclude that a "larrikin" was a bird, and would naturally wonder how a creature whose maternal instincts impelled it to "lay" in one place and "sit" in another contrived to perpetuate its species. There is authority, no doubt, for the use of "lay" in an intransitive sense, witness Byron's tremendous solecism —

Dashes him down to earth, there let him lay I —but I am afraid the writer in the Star was not aware that he was sinning in such good company, or that he was sinning at all. He might have completed his statement about larrikins by saying that however capricious a larrikin's laying and sitting, he is bound to hatch mischief enough if you leave him undis turbed, and that the police therefore should rout him off his nest wherever they find him. With these renrarks upon the incubatory habits of larrikins I beg to couple the following eggstrordinary paragraph from a 'Frisco paper, which may be left to go without comment :— Here is a sample of the perspicacity of interior local news : " Yesterday a gentleman who owns a chicken ranch about five miles east of town laid an eg«r on our table, which weighs all of four ounces." It is quite wonderful enough to think ,of the man laying the egg, without further recording the excessive lightness of the table upon which the curious exhibition took place. '

Our law courts are more frequently adorned by billingsgate between opposing counsel than by lon mots, but a rather good thing was said the other day, sub rosa, during a big case which had dragged its way through the Court for months. A reporter got puzzled in the course of the arguments, and went to one of the leading counsel for information. " What does this mean, Mr Buzfuz ?" " Well, I'll tell you," said Buzfuz, confidentially, "It means d—d big bills of costs to hoth sides" The lucidity of the explanation is only surpassed by its brevity and candour. Oivis.

Our Palmerston correspondent writes:— "The Waverley Hotel (Mr Murray's) had a narrow escape of being burned to the ground on Tuesday night. It appears that the landlady, Mrs Murray, about 10 p.m., whilst en gaged in one of the bedrooms was called away on business, leaving a candle burning on the dressing-table. The candle must either have burnt down or fallen over, thereby setting fire to the bed-curtains. Some of the inmates of the hotel bearing a crackling noise and observ.

ing smoke, raised an alarm. t Constable Pascoe, who was on duty and noticed smoke coming from the window and the room all ablaze, rushed in and materially assisted (by closing all sources of draught) in preventing what at first appeared certain to be a serious conflagration. Willing hands also passed up buckets of water, and in a short time all danger was averted, but not before the entire contents of the room as well as a portion of the walls and roof were consumed. Had the fire not been discovered at the exact moment it was, nothing could lhave prevented the entire building, and very likely others, being burnt to the ground.

An 18-lb cabbage was exhibited in Mr Duncan's butchery at Waikouaite on Wednesday.

Our Wellington correspondent telegraphs as follows with regard to the San Francisco mail: — " The Penguin with the mail was delayed by strong head winds arid bad weather, and therefore did not arrive here till to-night (Wednesday). The Hawea with the Southern portion of the mail got away shortly before 11 p.m<, and will do her best to catch theafternoontramfrom Christchurch to Thnaru, when the mail will be forwarded by special to Dunedin, arriving early on Friday morning. If the Hawea does not catch that train, a special will be sent through."

Further good news comes from Melbourne this week with regard to the grain market, an improvement in prices being reported m wheat, oats, and barley.

Notice of the constitution of the town dis-| trict of Clinton appears in the. Gazette. Mr; Geoige Gray Russell is authorised to construe^ a wharf in Otago Harbour. Messrs J. 0. Ban-; natyne, John Williamson, and Richard Oraigie : are appointed trustees of Waihola Cemetery.

Sunday next being Easter Day, the offertories at all the Episcopalian Churches of the diocese will, in accordance with the diocesan regulations, be given to the clergyman of the respective parishes and parochial districts.

Australian News states that one of the lions in Wilson's Circus attacked Djerling, the keeper, causing the blood to flow. He escaped safely from the cage, however.

The usual monthly meeting of the Trades and Labour Council was held on Wednesday, when it was resolved to hold a demonstration for the purpose of urging upon Parliament the necessity of legalising the eight-hours system throughout the Colony. Mr C. J. Thorne was appointed a delegate to represent the Council at the Eight-hours Conference, to be held in Christchurch on Easter Monday ; and Mr Hugh Gourley was elected an honorary member of the Council.

A number of the Invercargill parishioners of Bishop Moran met him at the Bluff and presented him with an address of welcome.

Two additional policemen to supplement the force in Dunedin arrived, we learn, on the 31st ult. There is also some probability, we hear, of three additional men being sent down from Wellington, it having been represented that there is a strong need for increased police supervision in this city. ■

The Conference-of Committees appointed by the Borough Councils of Mornington, Roslyn, and Maori Hill to consult with reference to the water-supply scheme brought under their notice by Messrs Barr and Oliver, have resolved on recommending the scheme to the favourable consideration of the Councils, and last evening this recommendation was adopted by the Roslyn Council, the Maori Hill Council, after considerable discussion, deferring further discussion till next meeting. The prosecution of the scheme will supply a pressing want, and the promoters undertake to provide an ample supply of pure water for a population of 28,000 persons within two years from the passing of the bill, which is intended to be introduced in Parliament next session, and which will give the necessary powers to the proposed Company for carrying out the project.

Our Outram correspondent writes:— "Mr, F. Harper and party (four) had some splendid sport at the Serpentine,. Upper Taieri, on the Ist. They returned with a bag of 86 ducks, 74 of which fell to the guns of Mr Harper and Mr W. B. Grant. They report the birda to be plentiful, but rather wild. To a stranger the country is a rather difficult one to travel over, and without some guidance a visitor might find himself in an awkward fix through the swampy character of the ground. As, however, birds are very scarce in the Taieri, I have no doubt it will be visited pretty often this season. The nearest way to reach it is by Mr Welsh's hotel, Deepstream."