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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 11131, 17 February 1886, Page 2

The Leader, the Auckland Temperance journal, thus refers to the demise of its Freothought contemporary: — "After air months of life tbe Rationalist has coaaed to appear. Certain persons have, no doubt, lo9t money over it, and in co far as they are out of pocket they aro entitled to some sympathy ; bat after making due allowance on that score, the community is to be con* gratulated on the disappearance of the paper, It did not do all the harm it wanted to durine its lease of life ; but that was not for want of will or of slapdash, extravagant writing. Its aim was simply destruction, the killing of the religious instinct in the haart of humanity. Its violence was such that it alienated a portion of the small circle of Auckland Freethinkers, who, being sober and moderate men, were disgusted at the indiscriminate abuse scattered round each week. Mr Stout, fr eethought champion though he is, came in for his share of sneeri:^ rebute, because he advocated temperance measures in the promulgation of the ie iota he upholds, and refused to agree to the extreno.9 course favoured by tho proprie'.ary of the Karons alist. It goeß without s tying, the Christian ministers of every denomination were treated with the lash j ihure was scarce a good word ever spoken for one of them. Bishops Oowie and Luck were two of the moat prominent butts of the paper's ridicule, while men of lower standing were dealt with in the same fashion. A a for argument, scarcely a shred of it could be detected by the most minute observer ; there was ox« ceedingly little besides an inferior kind of blustering declamation. The public declined to be charmed with this sort of piping and so the Rationalist 19 to bo published no more. As a motto for its tombstone iYb/t Memrgcurib. will perhaps suit as well as another.