THE DAILY AND WEEKLY NEWSPAPER PRESS, AND OTHER MATTERS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 77, 17 October 1874, Page 8

THE DAILY AND WEEKLY NEWSPAPER PRESS, AND OTHER MATTERS.

At a public meeting in Boston lately, v Presbyterian minister made the annexed remarks on the comparative power of the daily and weekly l>nper. I commend thorn to the proprietary of the N.Z Tabeet They seem to mo to be ju«t and important. The Catholic Press will never command its legitimate influence anywhere so long as we have only weeklies to represent and defend the Catholic cause. Tn Ene» land there has been some tallc lately of haying a daily Catholic paper and the proprietor of the Catholic ' Universe' says that, so far as the mere printing of it. is concerned, his establishment is fully equal to that. Still the project hangs fire ; there is a want of the necessary funds and support. There is a time for everything, however, and the time is obviously near wheu we shall see a London daily Catholis paper in existence, now they have got a London Catholic University. la Dublin there is a powerful Citliolio daily, for to all intents and purthe 'Freeman' is a Catholic paper, though in Protestant, hands, and its influencejinust tell accordingly. The Protestant dailies have in times past done the Catholic Church and her adherents a world ot injury. True, their power in that way has of late greatly diminished, and is* still declining ; yet it is great notwithstanding, everywhere/ Your paper as a Catholic weekly has had a success beyond all precedent and expectation. Surely the Catholic body in this Colony with such encouragement might manage to start a penny evening daily, to be conducted on the principles of the Dublin ' freeman ' j^nct as' a aecturian paper in the usual sense, yet Catholic so far that it would in a spiiit of moderation uphold the the legitimate rights and interests of the Church and her children, and defend them ogainst unjust and injurious attacks. For that end the entire proprietary, or two-thirds of them at least, must be Catholias. The Irish of all creeds are notorious for their partiality to politics, journalism, and literature of all kinds. A large proportion of the literary stuff ou the London and even the Colonial Protestant journals are Irish, and not a few of them Catholics. Of course these latter are mu2zled so far as the defence of Catholic principles and interests are iv question. In a free journal sucli as that I suggest, they would be " emancipated " from such degrading restraints. Though we have not very many Catholic gentlemen of large means und high social standing in this Colony, we have some j and we have still more Protestant gentlemen of means, character, and 'position who are animated bj a religious and thorough Catholic spirit— a spirit of justice, humanity, and patriotism. All these might be expected to j rally round a well-conducted unsectarian journal under Catholic tnanagement Indeed, with such men as the Marquis of Ripon, the Marquis of Bufe, Lord Duncairn, Lord Gain sb rough, and others of that, stamp, not to speak of so many noble and devout ladies almost daily entering the Catholic Church in England, it does seem strange that they cannot get up a daily Catholic paper in that great country, which, sooth to 6ay, hits never ceased to be Catholic at heart since the dnys of St. Augustine, for the present English Church is more Catholic than anything else. It cannot be for want of money now. The great political leaders, including Mr Disraeli, seem to be becoming more and more impressed with the conviction that Protestantism us a political system, is dying ; and that there is new no defence against the spread of the most, pernicious revolutionary principles, ending in downright Atheism except the Roman Catholic Church. Mr Disraeli the other day, in the Home Rule debate in the House of Commons, bore strong, and no doubt reluctant testimony to the growing power of the Roman* Catholic Church. A fear of that power in her was the main ground on which he based liia opposition to Home Rule in Ireland. This power, however, he cannot arrest, not even by denying Home Rule to Ireland. Mr Disraeli is au acute man and a great" debater, like Mr Vogol, but his attempt to reply to Mr Butt's pithy and logical speech in favor of Home Rule was a lame and impotent affair. The Irish will get Home Rule us sure as ever they got Catholic emancipation, or the dis-estab-lishment of the Protest aut Church. If not, they will get from the Imperial Parliament such a measure of justice as will render Home Rule unn«ciß<ary. Failing any other mode of establishing a daily paper under Catholic control, I would suggest that the various branches of the Hibernian Association take the mutter in hand, or under their patronage. For the present such a step mny be premature; but the subject veil merit* their serious consideration. Even as a tnonrymaking affair wo look no higher. There is a power in numbers. With these societies, in my opinion, the best interests not only of tlie Catholic public, but of the people generally, are bound up to a great extent. Whatever tends to elevate the character of the Catholio body generally in a religious and moral point of view, must tend to the benefit of the entire body politic. The establishment of these Hibernian, that is Catholic, Benefit Societies, and their rapid growth uuder eccle^astical patronage, shows that the Catholic community are now fully alive to their best interests, and are resolved no longer to occupy a mere subordinate position in the toci.il scale. We are often taunted with belonging to a Church whidt aims at " biipremacy." In one sense the taunt is just. Catholics and their Church do aspire to supremacy — to a supremacy in " goodness,'* as> Mr Froude expressed it.^ By the power of goodness, by pmyer, and heroic charity, the Catholic Church subdued the freeborn aud bold barbarian races who overrun Europe on the downfall of the Roman Empire. By a similar power she is now subduing the educated masses of Europe und America, and such association* as the Hibernian may help her in the work — and are helping her. Let them above all tilings look to the young of this community, and see that they are not being swept dowu by that torreut of irreligion and vice which ia running with such force through the land. '1 here is a great rage for education in our day ; but what are moral and religious results of it all ? The Government school inspectors in England tell us that the children are nut becoming more thoughtful, obedient and truthful, but very much the i c verse. The larrikins of these Colonies tell the same tale, and we have Catholic larrikins not a few. The legislature ut last is forced to interfere. to put them dovtn. Bat boys and girls are not to be made good by Acts of Purliament. Let the Hibern*auit look to Cuthoiio s hool-, where alone the manner*— that is, the religious and moral

habits of their children can be properly formed, so far as schools can form them. These schools are not all perfect j but the Hibernians by their joint influence might do much to increase their usefulness. The following is the extract above referred to : " It is only the daily paper that is generally read, and, being Hsued every day, it has the advantage of being able to present a given subject in a series of short articles, the brevity of whicli will ensure their being read, and to repeat a thought, keeping it before the readers until their attention is attracted to it and it is fully impressed upon their minda, thus conforming to a well-known law of our mental nature, with -which all are familiar. The discussion, too, created by so many persons reading the same tiling so nearly at the same time, has a strong tendency to heighten the effect produced. The religious paper loses much of its power because of its being issued at such long intervals, not being able to strike with sufficient frequency, and because it is thus -compelled to give so much upon a given subject at once, more than i b readers can thoroughly digest. Then, not being strictly a newspaper it is not generally sought after, and being professedly religious in its' character, it is supposed by many to be biassed, and they being thus thrown on their guard, it has fur less weight with them than it would otherwise have. What the interests of Christianity require is a union ZT*r Pc V f M***™***™*** ofapwerful daily secular journal with those of an influential religions tveekty, and one of the speakers **p™?eda hope of living to see such a paper as that iifull operation. Jae said that it such a one were in existence now, and it were open to i,? 1 " C T he /' oul< ? have free »«*■■. a religious writer, to the columns of one of our leading dailies, he could exert a greater influenco with his pen than the most talented minister in the State, acting amply as a preacher and a pastor, could possibly do