The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1882. THE DAILY TIMES STRIKES OUT WILDLY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume X, Issue 497, 20 October 1882, Page 15

The New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1882. THE DAILY TIMES STRIKES OUT WILDLY.

HE Otago Daily Times, having failed in logic, betakes itself to history ; and its historian is the Rev. Henry Leach. Who or what is the Rev. Henry Leach, what qualifications has he for i writing about Belgian Catholics? He is onknown to fame. But if his qualifications for

writing contemporary or any other history, be no greater then those manifested iD his article in Macmillan's Magazine, and to which the Daily Times sends its readers as if it were gospel, he is not likely to survive the fame conferred on him by our contemporary ! There is, however, one thing certain. — The Rev. Henry Leach, whose name very aptly indicates his nature, hates the Catholic priesthood as devoutly and as rabidly as the Otago Daily Times itself and exhibits as much logical acumen as our contemporary, The Daily Times gravely tells us,-—" In 1879 the Liberals being in a majority reverted to a system of unsectarian national education, which is one of the fundamental principles of the Belgian constitution, and had only been held in abeyance by the usurpations of the clergy." We are at a loss to know whether this is the statement of the Roy. Leach or of the Daily Times itself. But, be this as it may, it is in direct opposition to other statements of the Times, "No religious symbol," writes the Times, " was to be removed fiom the schools, but the priest was to be invited to continue, as pastor, the religious instruction he h»d hitherto given as master." W hat does this mean ? was the priest the master of the school ' We know he was not, — but the Rev. Henry Leach and the Daily Times state contrary to fact, that he was. So much for Number 1. The second statement is as follows :—": — " On his refusal," that is the refusal of the priest to give religious in • struction, " the official teacher might teach the latter, but not explain the meaning of the Catechism." Tins is rather confusing. We are told in one sentence that " The liberals, being in a majority, reverted to a system of unsectarian education," and a few sentences lower down we are told that the schoolmaster — " the official teacher might teach the latter, but not explain the meaning of the Catechism." Which is it ?—ls? — Is the system sectarian or unsectarian ? Let the Daily Times oxplain. But this is not the only difficulty presented in the Times' leader of Wednesday last. After having been told in the beginning that the Belgian " Liberals, being in a majority, reverted to the system of unsectarian education," we are assured further on in this leader that one of the schoolmasters under the new system reverted to, refused to desist from religious teaching, and this is stated as a reason for censuring the " inhuman" priest who asked him to desist. This is so very unintelligible, in view of the principles and censure of the Daily Times, that it is necessary for the satisfaction of our readers, and our own justification, to give the precise words of our very clever and logical contemporary. The Daily Times says : " It is marvellous that in a country where the i'hurch has so strong a hold, and can bring to bear such fearful pressure on the consciences and superstitions of the people, the State schools are not deserted. But in the majority of cases they are not. Teachers remain at their posts, and numbers of children are sent to them. One of these teachers on being vrged under pain of spiritual penalties to desist from religions teaching, pathetically said : * God is my judge, and it is impossible that He should condemn me because I teach children to know and love Him, for in that case Ha would no longer be God.' This is very pathetic, and

touching to the heart of the Daily Times, and bo indignant is said Daily Times with the priesthood that will not accept the Belgian Government system of education, that its editor hesitates not to write these words : " And such men are held up to scorn by an. inhuvian priesthood ." These are the words of the Daily Times itself, and with the true instinct of genius, our contemporary writes these words whilst warning " our Roman Catholic fellow-colonists to have a care lest they put a yoke upon their necks, which so many of their Belgian coreligionists find themselves unable to bear." But, seriously, what is it the Times intends to convey in this article, or what is its object ? or, again, what idea does it really entertain in reference to the new Belgian system of education ? Our contemporary is evidently in a fog, or, it may be, is so blinded by its " inhuman " hate of Catholic priests that it does not perceive the ludicrous contradictions into which it falls. At one moment the public are told that the " Liberals " being in a majority reverted to a system of unsectarian national education ; and in another elaborate pains are taken by our contemporary to prove that the system to which they have reverted is not only sectarian but intensely so. It is quite clear the Daily Times labours under profound ignorance on the subject, and that if the Rev. Henry Leach's article is not likely to produce a better effect on the readers of the Times than it has produced on its editor, said public, if it wishes to escaped being laughed at, had better not put their faith in the Rev. Leach's tissue of folly and falsehood. We perceive that the London lablet in its issue of the 19th August has noticed the Rev. Henry Leach's article. We subjoin what the London Tablet has said on the subject : The Rev. Henry Leach, whoever he may be, has undertaken to enlighten the British public through the pages of Maemillan's Magazine upon what he calls " a straggle of unusual severity, which," as be informs them, "baa beeD raging for two years in Belgium " : namely, the primary education conflict. It is the first time that we have heard of the Rev. Henry Leach, and, if this article is to be taken as a specimen of his literary work, we hope it may be the last. There is an excellent old precept in the Talmud which enjoins " First understand, then argue." We incline from Mr. Leach's paper to infer that he has not acted upon this very salutary rule. And the reason why we incline to this theory is that the only other hypothesis at all admissible is that of an amount of mala fides which we should be sorry to find in any gentleman who styles himself reverend. What is certain, is that the English reader who relies upon Mr. Leach for a knowledge of the educational struggle in Belgium, will derive from the pages of that divine's article an extremely false and perverted notion of the matter. And, ignorance being a tooiv charitable explanation than mendacity, we give Mr. Leach the benefit of it. Let us explain and justify what we have said. All the world knows that in 1879, the so-called " Liberals" of Belgium being in power, as they still are, the moment was held by them to have come for making a change in the system of national education in that little kingdom. What was their object in making that change ? People do not make changes in a great system of public machinery without an object : a considerable object. And it would be an insult to the Belgian Liberals, who, whatever else they are or are not, certainly are astute enough, to suppose that they had not some very cherished end to gratify in insisting upon the revolution in primary education : a revolution which threw the country iuto an agitation whence it has not as yet recovered. It was not pretended that the primary schools of Belgium were unsatisfactorily conducted. It was not pretended that the Belgian people were dissatisfied with them. It was not pretended that anybody wanted the change on other than sectarian grounds. The offence of the Belgian National Schools was admittedly this : that the Catholic religion and the morality which rests upon the Catholic religion were taught in them. The education given in them was religious. And that was the sole fault even so much as alleeed against them by the faction which had obtained a slight majority in the Belgian Chambers. The object of the change which the law of 1879 made, was to render them irreligious ; and that in a degree which would certainly not be tolerated, in like circumstances, even in this country or in America. For, be it remembered that these schools were practically the only schools in a country in which, practically, the Catholic religion is the only religion : that the condition of things which exists here and in the United states, where side by side with schools maintained wholly, or in part, out of the taxes you find denominational schools, is unknown in Belgium. It is Hobson's choice for the poor Flemish peasant ; the communal school or none at all. Hence the tyrannous character of the measure, which was a direct blow at religious education. It attracted at the time, as was very natural, the attention of the Council of the Catholic Union of Great Britain, and was fully considered by a committee of that body, which, after careful study of the official documents, and considerable correspondence with leading Belgian Catholic?, ecclesiastic and lay, put forwaid an address to the Belgian Central Committee, the text of which was published in these columns and in most of the leading journals, English and Continental. Let us turn to this very weighty document, which, we believe, was drawn up by Mr. Allies, the Chairman of the Committee, and see the contrast which it exhibits between the condition of Catholics, so small a minority in this country, in respect of primary education, and that of the Catholics of Belgium. 11 The Catholics of Great Britain, being a minority which forms About five per cent, of the whole population, live themselves under a

system of primary education which, on the one hand, secures to them the appointment and the removal of teachers in the several schools without interference from the Government ; the cboiceof the books nsed in them, whether for religious or secular instruction ; the training as well of masters as of mistresses for their functions in Normal Schools, into the course of which specific religious instruction f ally enters ; and lastly, the imparting specific religious instruction once or twice in every day in their elementary schools. While, on the other hand, the Government, examining both in Normal and Elementary School! only the secular instruc ion, gives a grant for each child in proportion to the result achieved, which may reach one-half of the whole cost ; and makes an annual grant to the Normal Schools, in which it examines only the secular instruction, amounting to seventy-five per cent, of the annual cost. " The Act passed in 1870 introduced a class of schools called Board Schools, and intended for that part of the population which was not already received in Denominational Schools. Bat their primary parpose was to be supplementary to the schools of the various religious communities, whether such schools were existing before the Act of 1870, or instituted afterwards ; and they have no jurisdiction Ovitr these scho >ls ; nor is any Catholic child obliged to attend them, but the parent has the right of selecting the school which his child shall attend. " The Catholic Union having examined the Project of Law, against the subtitution of which for the Law of 1842 Belgian Catholics are now contending, finds that if it were carried into effect it would expel religious instruction from forming a recojnised part of eveiy day's work in the parochial school ; that it would establish Normal Schools which are to have no religious teaching, and in which the students are to profess whatever religion they please, or none at all ; in which they are to be without acy common worship ; and the purpose of the scheme is stated by the Minister proposing it to be (Exposi des Motifs, p. 31), 'To re-establsh the State in its rights, and to give it the means to form for itself its teachers of both sexes, that is to say, its own functionaries, in its own Normal Schoola, completely secularised ; ' that, further, the Commune would be obliged to choose the teachers for its schools from a body of teachers thus ' completely secularised.' " The Catholic Union feels that the enactment of such, a law wonld create for the Catholics of Belgium, who form the immense majority of the population, a situation as regards Primary Education as unlike that which they, being a small minority in a non-Catholic country, enjoy, as can well be conceived ; a situation which, if applied to themselves, they would consider as injurious to their faith as Catholics, and degrading to their character as freemen. They would feel themselves c died upon to endure any sacrifice rather than co-operate with, or submit to, such a law ; and they address their Belgian fellow-Catholics in the earnest hope that they may be enabled successfully to resist such an infringement of their most Bacred rights both as Catholics and as citizens." Long as this extract is, we have thought it worth while to present it in its integrity, because of the masterly manner in which it draws the contrast. And now let us turn to Mr. Leach's article, and see the account which he gives of the matter through the pages of Macmillan to the guileless British reader. Here it is : — " The Church had obtained a complete monopoly of education throughout Belgium. This condition of things was not likely to be tolerated by a Liberal majority, and in 1879 it was determined to revert to the constitutional basis of national education. Absolute liberty of conscience was enacted, the authority of the State in official schools reasserted. The teaching of any dogma hostile to the creed of Catholicism was strictly prohibited. Mo religious symbol was to be removed from the schools, but the priest was henceforth to be invited to continue as pastor the religious instructions he bad hitherto given as master. On his refusal, the ofEcial teacher might teaoh the letter, but not explain the meaning of the Catechism." Such is Mr. Leach's account of the new Belgian law on primary education. — Rea ly a quite harmless and insignificant measure according to him. Indeed, as he adds, "it was pointed out that if the priests would only accept the invitation urged upon them to continue their catechising, nothing would be changed in the routine of the schools." Mr. Leach must rate the intelligence of his readers singularly low if he supposes that they will credit tne assertion that the change upon which the so-called Liberals of Belgium were so earnestly bent, and which the Catholics of that country have resisted and are resisting at such vast sacrifices, would really have made no difference at all of any practical importance if the clergy would only have accepted it. Is it possible that he is imposed upon by " the theory of religious equality," under cover of which the law was introdaoed, a theory, as was happily remarked at the time by one of the most distinguished Catholics of Belgium, which was " Constructed by Freemasons in that country for the use of imaginary dissentients, and | then made use of against an actual Catholic people." Very different was the spirit which animated the men who in 1842 drew up the Belgian Constitution. Speaking of tbis very matter of primary education, one of the chief of them, far enough removed himself from the Catholic faith, used the following emphatic words :—": — " Au fond noas voulons tous la meme chose. Notts voulons que l'enseignement primaire soit essentiellement moral et religieux. C'est si evident que I'homroe gui contesterait une semblable proposition meriterait plutot un brevet de demence qu'un brevet d'immoralite." So much as to the falsification of tbis great issue by the writer in Macmillan. Upon the rest of the paper it is not worth while to dwell, as it consists of mere tittle-tattle, gleaned apparently, for the most part, from the Belgium '■ Liberal " newspapers, about the strong things the clergy have said or done in their efforts to preserve their flock from the contagion of the " ecole sans Di< v." Of these so-called scandals some are thrice exposed fabl> s ; others are gross exaggerations ; none, as they stand in Mr. Leach's paper, can safely be accepted without further examination, if indeed they were worth it, which they certainly are not. A writer wh® is so egregionsly ignorant — for we adhere to our more charitable view — of the true character of the great issue about which he has undertaken to write is not worth following into the domain of gossip. If Mr. Leach will

take the trouble to ascertain the real natnre of the battle now being fonght out in the primary schools of Belgium, if he will learn, as he may even from the Liberal newspapers themselves, that the war which the party now in power are waging is a war, not only against Catholicism, but against Christianity, nay, against the very idea of God, we think well enough of him to believe — certain expressions in his own paper are our warrant — that he will be sorry to have posed as the champion of the cause of the devil.

THE ordination to the priesthood of the Rev. P. Lynch took { place at St. Joseph's Church, Dunedin, on Sunday last. The ceremony was a grand and impressive one, and was witnessed by a crowded congregation. Pontifical High jMass was celebrated at 11 a.m., the Bishop pontificating, with the Rev. Fathers O'Malley, S.J., and Newport as deacon and subdeacon, respectively. The Rev. Fathers MacEay and O'Neill were deacons at the throne. The Rev. F^her Burks was assistant priest, and the Rev. Father Walsh master ofjlremonies. The vestments worn by the Bishop and his clergy were extremely rich and handsome, and in union with the adornments of the altar and sanctuary made up a scene of great beauty. During the celebration of the Mass the Sacrament of Holy Orders was administered in the usual manner by the Bishop. The music rendered on the occasion was Haydn's Imperial Mass, the choir being under the conductorship of Mr. A. H. Norman, and enjoying the valuable assistance ot Mrs. Murphy, whose clear and flexible voice and artistic execution were very noticeable in the performance. The ordinary members of the choir present were the Misses Hill, Carroll, Norman, Walker, Faulkner, and Tobin ; and Messrs. T. J. Leary, Milner, A. Corrigan, W. Corrigan, J. Kelly, N. Smith, W. Williamson, and Lundon. Mr. J. C. Norman, as usual, acted as organist with his accustomed ability. On the conclusion of the ceremonies the larger number of the congregation remained in the church for the purpose of receiving the blessing of the newly ordained priest, which was first conferred by him on his mother and a number of the friends of his family who were present, — Mrs. Lynch having come expressly from Hokitika for the occasion. We may add that the Key. Father Lynch is son of Mr. Daniel Lynch, of the Occidental Hotel, Hokitika, whence he went Home some nine years ago to be educated for the holy calling he has now embraced. The collection made at the offertory of the Mass in aid of tne Cathedral Building Fund amounted to £35. In connection with the Privateers' Cricket Club, a scratch i match was played on Saturday week, on the Asylum Grounds, and resulted in a win for P. Hally's side by four runs. For the victors, Claffy and Hally were the principal contributors, while Griffen and Rowal played well for the losers. Gunning and Hally bowled splendidly for their respective sides. We have received towards the fund in. aid of the boy Webb, from T. S. Graham. Esq., £6 7s 6d, being the proceeds of the lecture delivered at the Temperance Hall, Dunedin, by Mr. M.Donnelly, ex. elusive of advertisments and the hire of the hall, which amounts in all to £7 18s 6d. We have received also from M. Fagan Esq., towards the same object, 10s. The report of the first half-yearly meeting of the New Zealand Hibernian Catholic Benefit Society, is issued as a supplement to our number of this week. The Melbourne Advocate in referring to the sentence passed on O'Farrell writes as follows :— " O'Farrell's aberrations were criminal and dangerous, yet he will be turned loose upon society in less than a year and a half. Neither we nor others had any wish that the unhappy man should experience the extreme rigour of the law, but we did expect — and certainly not unreasonably — that he would be so dealt with that he would not be allowed a further opportunity for putting his insane and deadly threats into execution. But as justice, in the first instance, has failed, other steps must be taken later to protect those against whom he has uttered his homicidal threats. The committal to prison of Mr. Edmund Dwyer Grey, of which Wednesday's mail brought us the full particulars, has certainly been chief among the many extraordinary and high-handed things done in Ireland throughout the agitation. A Mr. William O'Brien, it seems, who was a resident in the Imperial Hotel, wrote a letter to the Freeman complaining that on the night before the jury had returned their verdict of Guilty in the case of the Queen irnw Hynes, they had conducted themselves with gross impropriety, behaving riotously until a very late hour in the hotel where they were supposed to be kepjj^part for the consideration of their verdict. The SolicitorGeneral Accordingly, in the Commission Court before Judge Lawson, moved for an attachment against Mr. Gray, both because of the publication of the letter in question and certain articles commenting upon the selection of juries, from which Catholics had been rigorously excluded. Upon this Judge Lawson, without taking any evidence, sentenced Mr. Gray to three months' imprisonment in Richmond, and to pay a fine of £500 ; also, at the end of the three months, to give bail for his good behaviour — himself in £5,000, and two sureties in £2,500 each — which of course meant that the Freeman was to be silenced bo far as the national cause was concerned, Mr. Gray being

a member of Parliament, however, Judge Lawson was obliged to write to the Speaker of the House of Commons acquainting him with the sentence, and on his letters being read a debate took place, in which Mr. Sexton read several affidavits made by persons belonging to the Imperial Hotel, and not e»nly bearing out Mr. O'Brien's ttatements as to the conduct of the jury, but adding several gross particulars not mentioned by him — and which drew from the Attorney* General an admission that, if the affidavits were true, they revealed a terrible state of things. He, further, promised that the Lord Lieutenant should enquire into the charges made. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy has, meantime, written a letter to Mr. Gray, in which he says he had read the proceedings against him with " nearly as much surprise as if they were a trial for witchcraft," and thanks him for the stand he had taken as to the systematic exclusion of Catholics from juries, and for " not suffering the best fruits of emancipation to be snatched away in silence." Sir Charles adds that he knows nothing about the conduct of the jury in the Hynes case, but that in Judge Lawson 's place he would not have first refused to hear evidence and then pronounced " a decisive and dogmatic opinion on facts which he had not investigated." He concludes by inquiring whether besides the law which dispenses with juries in Ireland there is also one to dispense with evidence. But as to the result of the enquiry into the charges against the jury, we are justified in supposing that it was their full establishment, since Mr. Gray, as we learned from a recent telegram, has been released. It is, however, to be hoped that the Irish party will not suffer Judge Lawson's conduct to fade from the memory of the House, where already in the debate on his letter> Mr. Mac far lane has stigmatised him as having obtained his seat on the Bench by a gross and shocking case of wholesale corruption in a southern borough. We have received from Mr. J. A. Maccdo, Princes street, Dunedin, a neat copy of A. M. Sullivan's " New Ireland." This book as our readers no doubt are already for the most part aware, contains a comprehensive history of our own times in Ireland, and no Irishman who desires to be thoroughly acquainted with the whole course of events relating to his country that have marked the century up to present day should be without it. The cost of the book is almost nominal. Owing to pressure on our space we are obliged to hold back several paragraphs of local news, and other interesting matter, including the report of the Canterbury Catholic Literary Society, which will appear next week.

A paragraph in the letter of our Christchurch correspondent has unfortunately met with an accident which renders it impossible to set it in type. Its general contents, however, were a description of the Catholic books now obtainable at Mr. O'Connor's Catholic book depot, Barbadoes street, and which are spoken of as being an admirable selection. The extremely low prices placed upon prayer books and books of devotion generally, are especially mentioned by our correspondent. Mr. O'Connor's advertismeut will be found in another column. Messrs Mackley and Leijon, Princes street, Dunedin, advertise the blasting and gun powder for which they received a gold medal at the Christchurch Exhibition, and which will be found invaluable in mining, quarrying, or the sporting field. The thirteenth annual meeting of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, lately held in Sidney, resulted in a very gratifying statement of affairs. The past year especially was found to have been exceedingly prosperous, there having been an increase in the Company's assets of nearly £49,000, which raised the whole amount to £237,096. The interest from invested funds bad met all the mortality claim 0 , and so enabled the directors to add all their premiums, as well as the income from new business, to their general funds. The great success of this Company will be for the benefit of all assurers, the Association being a " mutual " one, which involves the division of profits in bonus additions, or cash at stated periods. Mb. F. Meenan, Great King street, reports : — Wholesale prices, Oats, 2s lOd to 3s 2d per bushel ; milling wheat, 4s 3d to 4s 9d per bushel ; fowls' feed, 2s to 3s 8d ; barley, malting, 4s 3d to ss ; milling, 3s 6d ; feeding, 3s to 3s 6d ; hay, £6 10s per ton ; chaff, mixed, £4 10s; hay chaff, £5 10s; straw, £2 10s; bran, £5 10s; pollard, £5 10s; potatoes, £3 10s to £4 ; oatmeal, £16 ; flour, £11 to £11 10s; butter, medium to prime, lOd to Is per lb. ; salt, lOd per lb. ; eggs, 9d per dozen ; bacon, sides, Sd per lb.; rolls, 7id ; hams, 9£d ; pork, 4^d ; cheese, 8d to yd. Messrs. Mercer Brothers, Princes street, report :— Fresh butter (in £-lb. and lib. prints), best quality, Is 4d per lb.; ordinary butter, Is 2d per lb. ; eggs, 8d per dozen; roll bacon, Bdperlb. good salt butter, in kegs, lOd per lb. ; cheese 8d per lb. We are bo accustomed in England to bearing of the mammoth farms of the Western States, that it sounds almost unreal to say that, after all, America is really a nation of small owners and occupiers. The great farms of thousands of acres are the rare exception. In 1870 the average size of farms, according to the Government returns, was 153 acres, and the average since then has considerably diminished , In California, where most of the large holdings are found, 482 acres is the average. Even in Texas, where there ars many cattle ranches of enormous extent, the average size of the farms is no more than 338 acres. Iv New England the average is under 100 acres, and in Utah, a land of orchards and market gardens, the average is barely 30 acres. It is upon farms averaging 100 acres that the most money is made — farms, that is, which can be easily wdiked, and require no very considerable amonnt of capital. — Land,