THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2020, 10 November 1892, Page 24

THE WEEK.

■■ Kanqaun allnd natnra, allud laplentla dUlt."— Jcvaiuii 11 Goodnature and good ieau musl.ev«r join."— Pon. The Presbyterian Synod has once more re» corded its conviction that A Faith gambling and impurity are (j lire . increasing in the community, while religion in the borne life of the people is rapidly failing in its influence. We bave little doubt that the conclusions arrived at in all these matters are correct ; and the community would gladly look to the synod for any practical means for ooping with the active evils which all good citizens deplore. It is to be regretted that the discußßion of the report was taken in committee, as the time has gone by when a clerical assembly can successf ally olaim the blind faith of the community in its power to invariably do the right thing, or take the most efficient steps to check the wrong one. The public would • have liked to see if. the members of the synod, or any of them, possess any really valuable ideas in the direction of improving the social and spiritual life of the people. It is vain to begin by declaring that a state of deplorable social decadence exists, and then to proceed in secret fco discuss a cure, the bare lines of which are afterwards, disclosed in a " deliverance." This is a proceeding t which corresponds to those of the compo'unders of certain patent medicines, who avow in their advertisements thai thek bottles con tarn some particular drug for whioh the public is supposed to have a fancy, but pretend that their particular secret process of " making up " the article is the thing the pablic will find ib worth its while to pay for, much more than the drug itself. It would seem that pulpit influence ii», after all, the only thing the synod proposes to rely upon as an antidote. But if any clear explanation was made during the debate as to why, if this is efficient, the evils complained of have grown and increased under the preoise conditions which it is now proposed to apply for their suppression, the explanation was lost to the public through the unnecessary secrecy observed in the discussion. ' ' \ We congratulate the sypod upon what we presume may already be Follonors called the general ' adoption of of the Deolaratpry Act on the Irene Confession of Ifaith' throughout 1 ho. province under its control. Tbe precise theological 'eigni6cance of this proceeding is not what most invests the public, nor, indeed, do most people take the trouble to fully understand it. The successful disposal of a stumbling-block upon wbich many wounds and bruises have been incurred, and which bae' caused the loss of immense measures of time and temper is, however, a thing to be much commended, and the manner and meaning of the act ia of secondary importance. True to its preference for "a phraseology not hackneyed by much secular [me, the synod "declares the new departure to be "irenic," and we tru6t very justly so. So long as io is •? irenic "it will answer its purpose, or at*any rate the purpose most debired by external friends of tbe church. The Declaratory Act as submitted contains, all the same, much matter fpr critical comment, which, for §ufficienfreasons. we do not propose to accord. • The fame opinion, and the same reticence, for probably the game reason ("jrenio," we will say) was indicated in more than one sppecb. in' the synod itself. There was a decided cote of triumph— not altogether as irenic as it might bave been- in the Rev. Mr Gibb's speech, and a tendency was distinctly observable on the part of .the rev. gentleman to crow (crowing is distressingly unirenic) over the "auld lichts" who had found the undiluted confession good enough for them. "The liberal and. more progressive mcD," "the more liberal men," "tbe yourjger and more progressive men in tbe churcb," was how be referred to," our noble selves ;" and tbe expressions did not go unchallenged. Mr Gibb had an old score to wipe off, and opportunity lured him, as it has many a better man. . . There is room, among the opinions expressed (irerjic and otherwise) in the debate, for that of the Rev. J. M Fraser, who (as we understand him) thinks there are shorter ways of amending a creed than "declaring" it to contain certain principles hitherto supposed to be absent from it, and not to contain others wbich bave been preached from it as a text for a century 01? two. "If they were going to alter the Confession of Faith by a Declaratory Acfc " this incoavenientlydirect-speaking minister said,

" they should be honest and do what they intended honestly in the light of day, and not indirectly, or as it were, by the sidewind of a Declaratory Act." In which deliverance on the Rev. Mr Frasers part tbe sentiment is sounder than the metaphor, and the sense more ironic than irenic.

Since we wrote last week on the Shops Bill and its beneficent effects, the " Concilia- Saturdayites and the Wedtlon." nesdayites have got a little *"" further. The Wednesday shopkeepers duly gave their assistants a half holiday in the middle of the week, and very naturally, having done so, kept their shops open on the Saturday night following. Whereupon the Saturdayites, or more probably some misguided people who pretended to represent them, straightway organised a series of howling mobs, who set to work to harass peaceable tradesmen, and hoot and jeer anyone bold enough to purchase goods from the offending shopkeepers. We pass over the window-breaking and egg-throw-ing episodes as either the work of mischievous boys or low blackguards whom no true man would tolerate for a moment.

The first effect of the outrage— though in ODe or two cases it ba3 apparently been the means of a transferenca to Saturday — will doubtless be to stiffen the backs of the majority of tbe Wednesdayite* shopkeepers, and considerably lessen the chances of an amicable settlement such a3 ail reasonable people were still hoping to effect. Friendly persuasion, and the gradual adjustment of real difficulties, would in a very short time have caused an approach between tbe two parties, and what we. regard as the inevitable and proper end of the whole affair — namely,' a universal adoption of Saturday ac the shop halfholiday—would have been graduslly^and peacefully brought about. To yield to such influence is, however, one thing; but to "cave in" to mobs of shrieking larrikins and bawling bullies, armed with bad eggs and decayed vegetables, is guile another — a fact which we have no doubt will be practically testified to by tbe majority of the threatened shopkeepers next Saturday night.

The news that the strike at Broken Hill has collapsed does not cause surThe prise. From the first it was Broken Hill • only a question how long the Strike. endurance of the miners

would bold out against the passiveneEs of the shareholders. No doubt the end has been accelerated by the fate of the leaders, who were foun<!r"guilty at Deniliquin, by a pury of 10 farmers, a fellmonger, and a grazier, of conspiring to foment disturbance?. The severity of the sentences inflicted bad the effect ot completing the discomfiture of the striker?, but it has been characterised even by some of their most pronounced opponents as unnecessarily harsh.

Of course, under any and all circumstances, the law must be vindicated. Any man or woman has a perfect right to refuse to work if the conditions are considered unsuitable, but the law does not permit interference with anyone else willing to do it. Liberty has been defined to be perfect freedom to act according to the law. Tbe strikers interpreted it to mean freedom to prevent others from taking their places, and to*eoinpel the mine owners to accede to their terms. It did not matter that the terms which they sought to enforce were the outcome of previous -joint agreement. Between the mine owners and tbe miners it was agreed in 1890 that any alteration in the terms of working should first be submitted to arbitration, and the mine owners cannot be acquitted of having deliberately broken that agreement when they saw the unions paralysed. Ibat was not the only advantage they possessed. Silver is very low, and, having secured the mines against damage, they could afford to wait, while tbe resources of the miners were limited. The miners made the further mistake of under-estimat-ing the extent of free labour available. One of their number in the early days of the strike confidently asEerted that enough miners could not* be found in all Australia to take the strikers' places, and he added grimly that if they could be found they would simply bury themselves. Yet what was the experience 1 No sooner was it intimated that the contractors who took over the working of the mines wanted men than a perfect rush of free labour set in. The unions have made the capital mistake of making their organisations too exclusive. In the heyday of unionism just before the strike of 1890, a man could not join the Union Company's steamers unless he first paid an entrance fee of about L 3, and even then was compelled to wait bis turn. The privilege of becoming a wharf lumper in Melbourne cost L 5. The reason alleged for tbe imposition of such entrance fees was the largeness of the accumulated funds, but the unions see now that they would have been masters of tbe situation if they had ignored the seeming injustice involved in equal participation iv the funds, and absorbed into their ranks the army clamouring at the gates for work. No doubt they were deluded into an exaggerated belief in their strength by interested leader?, to whom a strike is meat and drink ; but they have been driven from point to point until they stood at bay at Broken Hill, only to be annihilated.

The tyranny of the unions is only, a shade less monstrous than the tyranny of the unscrupulous employer, and it blunts the edge of combination so that, as at Broken Hill, it is powerless even' against injustice. It is gratifying to observe that a more reasonable, a more humane, unionism is springing up ; a unionism which has conciliation on its, banner, and tbe social and. material elevation of its members in its charter; a unionism in which the members are not pawns to be played by self-constituted leaders;<a unionism which will hold liberty too sacred to be touched even in others ; a unionism, in short, which is not asbamed to admit that woful mistakes have been made in tbe past, and which is determined to profit by the lesson they have taught. The failure of the negotiations for settling the dispute at Auckland beThe Auckland tween the Tailoresses' Union Tronbles, and tbe manufacturers seems to be largely if not entirely due to the unreasonable attitude of the latter. Very great patience has been exer-

cised in dealing with the difficult questions involved, and on the side of the tailoresses negotiations seem to have been conducted in a spirit "worthy of all praise. It would appear tbat the union made no demand, or at anyrate did not press the demand, that only unionists should be , employed, so that the " freedom of contract " controversy did not enter into the proceedings at all. Rates of payment and the proportion of apprentices to experts were the only points in dispute. No one can pretend that these are not fair subjects for discussion between workmen and workwomen and their employers; and tbe employer who affects a lofty disdain of his employes 1 opinions thereon is a kind of employer who will soon be out of date. If by the final failure of the negotiations in the tailoring trade at Auckland we are to understand that a state of things now prevails there analogous to that which led to the formation of the Tailoresses' Union in Danedin a year or two ago, we have no hesitation in saying that the stubborn attitude of tbe manufacturers merits the serious reprobation of all classes. The maxim that everyone has a tight to conduct his own business in his own way has its due limitations ; and the experience of all of us points to the facility with which poor women who depend upon sewing for a livelihood can be reduced to the position of Blaves to rapacious middlemen where the right of the community to a voice in the matter is obstinately denied. Nothing could ' be , more generous than the terms of arbitration proposed by the Tailoresses' Uniori, and their rejection seems under the circumstances inexplicable. A3 to the remedy proposed by the tailoregges — namely, compulsory arbitration — that is a matter of much greater uncertainty. No arbitration can be sufficiently compulsory to compel workmen or workwomen to continue in their employer's service (after due notice given) where the award is against them, or to accept adverse conditions with contentment as a permanency ; nor can any court compel an employer to continue in business if conditions are imposed which destroy his profit. The compulsory arbitration cure may be worth more than appears on the surface of it, but we should have liked to note a more intelligent appreciation of its inherent difficulties on the part of those who propose to try it.

The Daily Times has revived a forgotten

piece of Hansard which Bricks possesses considerable inWithout Straw, terest for the much burdened ratepayer during the present —we trußt the term may pass aB inoffensive Charitable Aid Boom. It is quoted from Sir Julius Vogel's speech on the second reading of the original "Local Bodies Finance and Powers Bill," of which he was the author, and which he introduced with the avowed purpose of giving local bodies "an assured finance." "It has been said," Sir Julius remarked, " that the local bodies will not be secure of keeping these subsidies." (Now, just imagine anybody ever Eayiag such a- thing as tbat !) "It has been also said that gifts of this kind have been made and afterwards withdrawn" (who oould have been hinting to Sir Julius at anything so wildly impossible ?) " by Ministries, of which I am glad to say 1 was not a member." Sir Julius was a little premature in claiming this exceptional virtue. Thatrvery year he only allowed half tbe subsidies provided for in his own bill, arid he forgot to mention that he considered tbat fact very shocking, if, as we conclude from the above extract, he did so consider it. Moreover, the subsidy, eveu at the half, was again divided by two a little later on. However, let Sir Julius proceed : " Sir, it I strikes me tbat this subsidy will be tied down, and it is not likely that any Government would be able to remove it if once it is brought into effectual practice bylaw." Tbjp is really a most touching evidence of belief, in the good faith of New Zealand, Minis r tries and Parliaments. Sir Julius is, we believe, in a kind of way an apolo 7 gist for recent anti-enterprise, legislation^ ' and would have to admit now that his principles of 1885 were, so to speak, slightly | high-coloured to suit the requirements of the. daj. " Any Government that wished to dq so would find, I fancy, the wholeof the local [ bodies very much against any interference with what is" admitted to be a subsidy for a long term of years ; and if any borrowing took place, ad it may doj upon the security of these subsidies, it will be. a matter of particular diffipulty for any Government to upset them." Well^ we do not know that there has been any borrowing uDon the security of the subsidies; but they have, notwithstanding, been pledged upon the deliberate motion of Sir Julius Vogera own Government in an even more effectual way than by loans. They have been pledged as an assistance to ratepayers in meeting the enormous new burden of hospitals and charitable aid placed upon those ratepayers' backs in the same year; and yefc no sooner do the Ministers who were Sir J. Vogel's colleagues in 1885 get back into office than they hurry on the work of repudiation by what that leader himself would have called "leaps and bounds." The local bodies, under a Ministry which cares for nothing but fawning on the towns, are to make up their tale of bricks without straw; and if they corrplain, will be dismissed with a brief and contemptuous " Ye are idle, ye are idle." ' ( It would appear from the discussion on the report of the PresbyThe terian Synod Committee Bible with regard to the Bible in in schools that the chances Schools. of that movement proving successful have receded of late. Tbe Hon. Downie Stewart, who has been a consistent supporter of the principle of official Bible reading ever since he first entered political life in tbe character of its advocate, informed the synod that the present House of Representatives is more largely in favour of the secular system than the last one; while as regards the Legislative Council, his opinion is that the new appointments will greatly add to the strength of the secularists. We have little doubt that Mr Stewart is correct on both points. On the other hand the committee itself is not inclined to despair of the progress of denominationalism. 'Although our repeated effcrts" they report,

" have hitherto failed to accomplish the end in view, there is no reason to regard it as hopeless cf attainment. The present secular system was tolerated by many for a time, in order ibat it might receive a fair trial ; but all the experience of its working has only made it the more clear that the secularism of the system is evil, and its mischievous results are certain to be increasingly apparent." It is a somewhat uncomfortable thought that the principal hope of the denominationalists Bhould lie in what they regard as inevitable spiritual disaster to a large and increasing number of souls.

The difficulty introduced by the necessity of doing full justice to Catholics is polished off somewhat cavalierly by the committee. That objection to the Bible-in-schools movement " has been proved," they say, " to be utterly irrelevant, as it makes no difference to Roman Catholics whether the Bible is read or excluded. They demand terms of their own, and their claims can be dealt with by the Legislature apart altogether from the question of Bible reading in schools." It is quite true, of course, tbat the Catholics would still claim a separate educational grant even if the Bible were part of the State school course; but what the above quotation ignores is that in such a case their claim would receive an immense accession of moral strength, and would, indeed, in the opinion of most upholders of the present system, become quite irresistible.