The Waikato Times, THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE, AND KAWHIA ADVOCATE. Established Thirty-Three Years. THE OLDEST DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE WAIKATO. THE LARGEST CIRCULATION OF ANY DAILY PAPER SOUTH OF AUCKLAND. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1906. THE SECULAR STANDPOINT.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 7006, 10 May 1906, Page 2

The Waikato Times, THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE, AND KAWHIA ADVOCATE. Established Thirty-Three Years. THE OLDEST DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE WAIKATO. THE LARGEST CIRCULATION OF ANY DAILY PAPER SOUTH OF AUCKLAND. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1906. THE SECULAR STANDPOINT.

It is part of the ideal of journalism that the newspaper shall be free to comment upon any occurrence which interests its readers. (Jn this principle we should have something to say editorially on the misson now proceeding at the Anglican Church in Hamilton, for it appears to be at present the chief event in the town. But a halt is called by the consideration that a daily paper is not, and cannot be, a religious institution. Just as our system of primary education must be secular, because it is free and compulsory, so also, as well as for other reasons, a newspaper, which is the chief means of education for older people, and is almost free and practically compulsory, must also be secuhr. This, of course, means, not anti-religious, but simply non-religious. Yet there must be a secular side, even to a spiritual movement, and when Hamilton is the scene, for eight days, of the residence and labours of men like Dr. Neligan and his coadjutors, when several largely attended meetings are being held daily at unusual hours, and when these things are a common tcpic on the street, the secular side of all this may well be of real importance in relation to the general life of the community. The first consideration that presents itself is that a religious revival leads to moral improvement, which has quite incalculable aud altogether beneficial effects upon public affairs, local progress and businesss prosperity. Oue result of the Welsh revival of last year was the paying off of hundreds of pounds worth of long-standing accounts, which in many instances the tradosiaen had written off as bad debts. Even if such a happy phenomenon as that does not become manifest in Hamiltou, yet there will surely be no less real aud good, though invisible and untraceable, results. Those who feel that they cannot honestly take part in the services of the particular church in question, or it may be of any other church, should yet recognise that there are strong influences at work, and though they may not wholly sympathise with those influences, they would be well advised to think most of those aspects whereof they can approve. " All mental anil moral force is a positive good," wrote Emerson : "it goes forth from you wither you will or not, and benefits me, whom you never thought of. : ' That is happening everywhere and always, but it is especially notable on occasions like the prasent. Whether there is auy other force at work besides the mental and moral, it i 3 not for a secular newspaper to say.