The Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1894. To-Day.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5084, 18 October 1894, Page 2

The Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1894. To-Day.

The editor cf the Star has received from the authoress, a small book of poetry entitled "In the Bongh." A notice of the production will appear shortly. It is stated that " Bull's-eye's " last letter has created quite a commotion among hotelkeepers. His former letters should serve to show that, piior to the passing of the Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act, the funds of every, local body in New Zealand having jurisdiction, had been moet flagrantly defrauded of their just revenue. Instead of ordering an artesian well boie to be put down in Latimer Square, the facirig of the concrete bed, together with the erection of a simple fountain, the Worts Committee of the City Council has had the concrete broken up and carted on to the roads as metal I The cost of the breaking up of the concrete and the epreading of it on the roadways, will be fully as much as the beautifying of the Bqnare would have been. "City Council management in Christchurch, or how not to doit!" If Mr W. H. Dacombe is correct in his assertions, then a very improper thing is being done with the money subscribed to find employment for necessitous men in this city. With reference to Mr Dacombe' s opinion that new blood should be got into the Council, it may be pointed out that all chance of such a thing has disappeared for the time being, and the people of the colony have their own Liberal members to thank for it. Municipal Councils will never be modernised until the householders' franchise is bestowed. Our Caahel Street morning contemporary fretfully remarks this morning that "an accident, which just escaped result- j ing in the death of three men, happened at the Bouth camp, AlderBhot, on Sept. 5, under the eyes of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught." It was certainly very bad taste on the part of the balloon, or the men, or the mishap, to cause such a thing as an accident to happen under Royal eyes. The greatest sympathy, we may all be sure, will be felt for our dear old Cassandra in this untoward affair. In another column of this issue is given another example of the pitiless conduct of the Charitable Aid Board authorities of North Canterbury. If this does not prove to be a moving cause to bring about the inquiry that has been demanded again and again, the Government itself must stand j convicted of aiding and abetting the heart- 1 lessneESV the abominable cruelty over which members of the Charitable Aid Board shrug their shoulders and laugh contemptuously. Commenting on the case aB it ia Bet forth in the columns of the Star to-day, the Ashburton Mail forcefully and righteously declares :— " With such caaea as the abovo, little wonder is it that the people of Christchurch are agitating for an enquiry into the system of charitable aid aB at present administered. Many times assertions have been made that high salaried officials consume an excessive amount of the charitable aid grant, but whether over paid or under paid it is evident that the management is anything bub what it should be, when a letter sent by a police sergeant with reference to such a case receives no answer. That any reason should exist for the last line of that telegram ia a foul stain on our civilieation. To think that a woman who has probably spent some of the best years of her life in the colony, and who at last through old age and ill-health is unable to earn a living, can only be kept alive by being charged aB a criminal and sent to gaol is simply monstrous. The telegram referred to will probably have the desired effect in this instance, but that the whole system cf chaiitable aid needs a searching inquiry there can be no doubt." Will this be sufficient evidence on which to compel the authorities at Wellington to hold an enquiry forthwith ? More priestcraft ! This time from Auckland. The Church of England in New Zealand is evidently becoming an aggressive body, and it will soon be necessary that the people of the colony should consider their position, with a view to ascertaining how far the attitude assumed by the Church is likely to prejudice the inte- ! reata of the bpdy politic by curtailing tis chances of enlightenment and by hindering its mental progress. Yesterday in Wellington, Archdeacon Fancourt threatened the Stata with the awful anathema of his Church if it dared to run counter to the " laws of the Church and God" (vide telegraphic report) ; and he branded with illegitimacy the children born to parents who have accepted the provisions of an enlightened and just law. At Auckland yesterday, also in an Anglican Synod, we have the spectacle of the clergy refusing to grant women the privilege of the franchise in Church matters. And, not content with this denial of a great and good right, one of the clergymen proceeded to slander and scurrilously attack the women of this colony. He "condemned woman as not being possessed of any sense of justice, and being incapable of ruling or directing the affairs of government." Doubtless if this same clergyman desired to carry hia point in any matter in which numbers would tell, he would not hesitate to ask the assistance, to even beg the help of the women of his and other congregations. But in the " coward's castle " of the Synod he has the cool effrontery to speak of women in. an unjust, untruthful, and unchristian manner. "Woman is not possessed of any sense of justice," cries this priest. Perhaps he is right. Perhaps if woman had realised long ago what she is beginning to get a glimmer of at present, her sense of justice would have been aroused, and her outraged feelings, her deep sense of the wrongs inflicted upon he* age after age by prießt and lawmaker, would have caused her to rise in revolt, when she would have swept out of her path the obstacles which have reduced her to a position of dependence, to the condition o{ ft mere piece of social machinery. 16 is matter for regret that a large? number of ministers of the Gospel did not j put in an appearance at Mrs Besant's lecture last evening, for surely they could have and would have applauded warmly and been much gratified to hear the words (from the lips of one who bad for years preached the negative doctrine oE ' Mftteiialism) • " I not only believe, but I know that man's soul lives for ever." . There may be those in our midat who attach no importance to such a declara- ' tion, but it was more refreshing to hear than any other parb of the lecture, brilliant and echolarly, and marked by a masterly earneitneßS though the whole of it was. But to the thinking man or woman whe desires to reoeive more light, who 1b not satisfied with a negative position, the workings of Mrs ; Beaant'a mind came aB a soothing and at ' the same time powerful influence. The jreateßt possible' sympathy must be felt ' for those who, having heard, went away not understanding; who, having listened, ! still remained, as the talented speaker put 3 it, "a self-aßsertive, large piece of 3 ignorance." It may be Bald that we are • not concerned in. the results of Annie ' Besant's inquiries. It is said, we under- ' stand, that her inquiries only interest people in another part of the globe. But, < surely, her mission is to all men. Surely [ her discoveries are of value to everyone on earth. She has spoken to millions i through the. mediums of the platform and ]

the Press. She has spread the prindnloo of materialism, and now that she ha??™! vmced herself that the aoul of mLTu immortal, and that we do not die as a doe dies, she wishes that all men may hearTier newer and better message. It is a thousand pities that anyoni should question the necessity for her deliverance of last night; rather should everyone rejoice in the fact that a cultured woman, a woman who has ever been an earnest seeker for the light, has come to tell us, even in tins remote corner of the earth, of a new goßpel of good tidings. Men may not altogether agree with her, many may smile and shrug their shoulders at her concluih^A m ¥ t \™£ h . out "8 h t they will at the dreadful discipline which she has, in the past, put upon herself; bnt they will at kast respect her words and admire her wonderful enthusiasm.