THE NEW MINISTRY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 17, 15 August 1884, Page 17

THE NEW MINISTRY.

«O the country has got a new Ministry — the Stout Ministry. How long will it last ? This is the question which everyone is asking ; and the enquiry indicates the estimation in which it is held by the public. Justice demands, however, that it be not condemned without a trial. True,, the antecedents of its members are not reassuring, but there is no knowing what modifications of opinion and retractions may not have taken place. It is certain these must have been considerable, else the present Cabinet could never have existed. The Premier, for the sake of office, must have recanted a good many of his faus, even those which helped to win him his popularity among the masses. For example, that fad about the nationalisation of the land is held in unutterable contempt by his chief colleague and others in the Cabinet ; so it is also with regard to that other fad, the unearned increment. Then neither Sir Julius Voasi) nor Mr. Macandrew believes in the leasing instead of the selling of the land, to which Mr. Stout has been so devoted, and which be so loudly lauded whilst on the stump. Iv fact, it is hard to say what the Premier has not abjured for the good of Mr. Stout,* if not for the good of the country. And it is much easier to discern in what the various members of the Ministry disagree than in what they agree. It is a combination of reactionary Conservatives, rabid Radicals, and godless Secularists. So far as can be ascertained at present, there is only one subject on which its members are thoroughly agreed, and that is the education question. Not one of them will touch the present godless system. They will not admit the Bible into public schools, they will not diminish the expense. The Premier thinks this a mere bagatelle. They are determined to continue the exclusion of the pupils of Catholic schools from all participation in scholarships, to the maintenance of which their parents are compelled to contribute, and from all share in the £500,000 annually voted for education. No matter in what else they disagree, thoy are unanimous in this determination. Unless, indeed, perniiracnlum, they have all changed since they arrived in Wellington. To be sure, Sir Julius Vogel thinks the expense of education too great, but then he stands alone ; and when the cunning ways of the Premier are borne in mind, it is safe to conclude that Sir Julius must have abandoned his economical views as to this point. It is idle to speculate on the policy of the Ministry as regards other questions ; thero are not sufficient grounds for forming any opinion at present, and at sill events it is not likely to live long. It labours under inherent elements of a speedy demise. We can hardly say we are sorry for this. For, in our recollection, there has never been a Ministry so hostile to justice to Catholic schools, and to Christian education, whick is, after all, of more importance than all other questions put together. Other questions may be postponed for a season without very much inconvenience or injury ; or a mistake in reference to them would not prove fatal. Not so, however, as regards Christian education. One generation of children reared in godlessaess would be an irreparable calamity.

We here beg to reiterate the advice we ventured to give a few weeks ago in reference to the registration of Catholic voters, and which will be in the recollection of our readers. This is a subject which should be attended to at once, without, delay. The time may come sooner than some expect when it will be ia the power of Catholics to inflict punishment oa certain people who are very busy earning it. And to this advice we ask permission to add another — an advice which a letter from a Mr. O'Connor, published in another column, renders very necessary. From this letter it is apparent tb/4, through some subtle influence, a few Catholics have persuaded themselves that the education is not the first and most important question for them. But this is an idea that must be combatted. By the way, Mr. O'Connor's letter is a carious production, and a study in its way. Amongst other things he says there is no money to help our schools even though the Legislature were willing to do so. This is truly comical. If all Catholic schools were closed tomorrow, four pounds per head would be found for the 8,000 Catholic children who would then be compelled to attend' godless schools. Mr. O'Connor's statement, then, is somewhat silly. A

His Lordship the Bishop leaves Dunedin to-morrow in order to ,be present on Sunday at the opening of the enlarged church at Inver-' Hiß Lordship afterwards proceeds to QaeenstDwn, and will be absent from Dunedin for about a fortnight Owing to an accident we are obliged to hold over to next week the continuation of the lists in connection with the Venerable Archdeacon Coleman's collection for the Dunedin Cathedral Building Fund. At a meeting of the Bible-in-schools Association, held in Dunedin on Wednesday, the tenor of the argument was that unless j the schools were made denorai national generally by the introduction of the Bible, the members of the Association would agitate to have them made denotninatioual in particular. The regard for justice shown by such a threat was very characteristic of the assembly,' and more especially of Mr. A. C. Begs, by whom the threat was' jnade in as many words. Give our pietists all they want themselves,' and all their weight will be thi own into the balance of oppression against those who are not of one mind with them. i The usual fortnightly meeting of the Dunedin Catholic Literary Sjciety took place on Friday la&t. The Rev. President occupeed the chair. Mi. Drumm gave a short paper ; and Mr. Harris one on " Punctuality," which were both favourably criticised. The Bey President gave a first instalment of what he intends to be a series of papers on " Toleration " ; it was highly instructive and interesting, a hearty vote of thanks being accorded. Messrs. Dunne, Dean, EDunne, Power, Hayes, Harris, Sullivan and Carolin will give short essays at next meeting. Heue is an astonishing piece of information given to us, and quite a new revelation made concerning tha nature of lovely woman, by Mrs. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, who writes to the London Times concerning '• woman franchise " :—": — " The second mistake is to suppose that all women will vote one Vay. They will surely differ among themselves as men do." Will they not, then, excel men in their differences also ? But the union that binds the sex together in sisterly affection is proverbial, and experience baa made us all acquainted with it. -" AT a maeting of crelitow held at the officj of the Official Assignee in Dunedin a day or two ago, one of the parties present showed himself very lively — amonsrat the rest asserting his belief that his '• claim would be paid at the Resurrection." But suppDsin^ an angel, of one.kind or another, to mejt him there with the cash, the question arises as to how it might be expende-1. Will there, for example, be ai opportunity for laying it out on victuals— very much overdone ? We read an article the other day in our contemporary the Wellington Post, which, at first, we thought was meant seriously to take the policy lecommended by the Tablet to task ; we, however changed our minds when we came to thejpassage in which Mr. J. L. Tola is set forth as a repieaentative of the Catholic Church. The joke of exhibiting in such a character the d?ne davinee of the Auckland Orangemen was quite apparent, and did away with the traditional uecosity of writing the word "sarkasm" to show that! our contemporary did but mean to jest. A correspondent of one of our daily contemporaries gives the following question as having been put at a. recent examination by the Government Inspector to a class of children of six and seven years of ago. " What is the power of the letter T? " As a pedanlic curiosity this is unrivalled, and deserves to be preserved for a chief place among the lists of queer questions that now go the rounds o£ the Press. We evidently have an inspector in Otago whom it would be hard to beat, or, perhaps, even to match.

A FUSS is being made in Scotland and echoed among ourselves on the descent of one Dr. Browne, a Catholic priest, among the ranks of the Presbyterian clergy — of some sort or another, though we cannot particularise it. It would be just as well, however, for the sake of their own reputation for understanding and information, if the particular sect of Pre3byterian.3 in question were to refrain from publishing the reasons given to them by Dr. Browne for his change. Were they, for instance, in any degree instructed concerning Catholic matters, they would know that no priest could take offence at the Monaco case, since he must always have been well aware that the Pope had the power of deciding as to whether, in any given case) the conditions necessary to constitute a valid marriage had been fulfilled, or whether, those conditions not having been fulfilled, the marriage was null — as the Monaco marriage was declared to be, because Lady Mary Hamilton had resolutely withheld her consent to it's performance, and had been forced to go through a vain form. There was no divorce, properly so called, since there had been no marriage, and no contradiction of infallibility, as Dr. Browne, supposing him to retain his senses, must know perfectly well. As to the rest of the apology, it is cobbled up in a most ludicrous manner from antiPopery tracts. It may, however, be coi.sistent with the cunning of a lunatic, and, for the sake of Dr. Browne's honesty, let us hope it is so. No excuse, meantime, can be offered for the gross ignorance and credulity shown by the Presbyterian ministers. The question of the payment of membsrs formed a chief feature ot the National League Convention held at Wexford. on June 25. The Nation gives us the following particulars : — One of the resolutions submitted to the meeting pledged those present to the principle of recompensing the representatives of the county and of the boroughs included in it ; and, as a means towards carrying out thia resolution practically, it was proposed that an assessment of 2d. iv the A should be made and collected every October. Father Doyle, C.C., of Duncannon, [in proposing these resolutions, stated that the valuation of the county was about £370,000, but he calculated that only one-half of thit could be assessed, as the tax would, of course, be aa entirely voluntary one. Such an assessment, he believed, would produce at the very lowest £1,200 per annum, which would mean £300 a year for each of their four members. A long and intelligent discussion arose, and ultimately the suggestion in the original resolution was carried enthusiastically. la the course of the proseedings the reverend chairman stated that WexEord begaa to pay its members so long ago as 1852, when the people paid the sheriff's fees for Patrick MacMahon. Matt Ens in Scotland seem still to be making fair progress. What would be thought if the following two resolutions, passed at Glendale the other day by the Highland Laud-Law Reform Association, were published in connection with a meeting held in Ireland ? 1. " That the president of this association, who was such an excellent disciplinarian in keeping members within the limits of the law, being now away from home, we do not feel his restraint in keeping from getting by force what was recommended to be passed into law as immediately necessary for our benefit by a royal commission, which iB the direct representative of Government, if the legislators do not pass these recommendations into immediate law." 2. ll That the young men o£ Skye and the Highlands generally, should amalgamate for the purpose of breaking up tack lands into goodly sized crofts iy force if they did not get the desired legislation in land reform." A Fbiend has forwarded to us a number of the Hawke's Bay Herald containing a letter on education from a writer who signs himself David Sidey — the Rev. David Sidey, a Presbyterian minister, if we are not mistaken. We do not see, however, that there is much which we need say concerning this letter. It is evidently the production of a long-winded, prosy man— a bigot to boot — and, it would seem, of very imperfect education himself, although he speaks So confidently on the subject with regaid to other people ; — who makes confident statements which are completely false — such, for instance, as that the " universal voice of history," whatever that may be, and wherever Mr. Sidey may have heard it, teaches that those whom be calls " sacerdotalists " give the poorest education possible, aa assertion wholly false and at variance with the teaching of history ; — such also as that Prussia had tried a purely secular system ; since the primary schools there have always been denominational. Mr. Sidey's argument, moreover, so far as it is possible to discover any argument beneath the .obscurity of the writer's prose, seems to be that of the persecutor and oppressor, who advocates the closing of schools. in which religious leaching that he condemns is given, — an argument that cannot, as yet at least, be urged by any responsible person in accordance with the toleration established by the laws of the empire. We do not s. e that this letter, then, is of any importance whatever to us. We do not know whether it is calculated to produce any effect upon the public mind. A Scotch philosopher has told us that the British public consists of people who are mostly fools, and, if it be so, no doubt they, or any portion of them, can be influenced by such productions as only fools jcould find suited to their mental status.

Our contemporary the Dunedin Evening Herald is very properly disgusted at the indecent and blasphemous language which, as he says, is commonly to be heard from the mouths even of little chil. dren.— Our contemporary says, moreover, "We suppose it is compe. tent to schoolmasters, even under the present secular system, to teach children the impropriety and indecency, if not impiety, of such a manner of speech." — And, no doubt, something might be done in our secular schools to check obscene language— but, as for blasphemy, how shall its prevention be taken m hand there? Do not the very wit and wisdom of some of those who are the chief upholders of secular schools depend, in a great part, on their power of blasphemy. — We are sure that, it is so in the case, for example, of the famous Colonel Kobert Ingersoll— amongst whose most admired productions we have read choice passages, all whose force consisted in the outrage they offered to the feelings of the Christian. And had we not here the other day, under the patronage of our present Premier, a lecturer in who3e Jpraise it was reported that his style wa3 framed on that of Colonel Ingersoll ? Shall blasphemy, then, be protected on the platform by the highest patrons of the secular schools, but checked in the schools by the teachers, their servants and dependents ? And if, indeed, there be no God, and no devil, as the secular schools would seem to signify and as certainly some of their patrons most undisguisedly proclaim' how shall there be such a thing as blasphemy at all 1 Let it pass' for mere unmeaning exclamation as fit for the expression of excitement as anything else. "Where religion does not exist it is mere harmless babble in the mouths of babes and sucklings. 11 PARNELL denounced by Davitt"— So runs the heading of a paragraph published by several of our contemporaries containing a telegram to the New York Sun and giving a sensational summary of an exposure supposed to have been of the Migration Company and its founder, — Mr. Parnell. Unfortunately, however, for those who wish evil to the Irish cause, the whole thing is a sham resting on the slenderest foundation possible, that Michael Davitt had expressed an opinion that too high a price had been offered for the laud near Tuam bidden for by the company. On the day before the telegram was seat to the Sun, or pretended to be sent to it, as it seems most probable, Michael Davitt acting in company with Mr. Sexton at the Leitrim convention had drawn up among others a resolution contain* ing the following words—" that we declare our unqualified confidence in the leadership of Mr. 'Parnell."— Onr contemporaries, then, may thank the New York Sun. for providing them with a mare's nest They will, nevertheless we have no doubt, be very sensible of their debt to a newspaper that haß furnished them with the means of calumniating Mr. Parnell, and generally doing a little more to blacken the Irish canse. We shall not find them contradicting the falsehood they have published. A presentation of a purse containing 175 sovereigns was made on Wednesday to Mr. Thomas Bracken, who ie about to leave Dunedin, as a testimony to the high place which he has long occupied in the estimation of hia fellow-citizens. It is a matter of much regret to as all that Mr. Bracken should have made up his mind to remove from our neighbourhood where his talents and genial and obliging disposition have done so much for the benefit of those among whom he lived.— A<j a journalist, he hal long since attained to distinction ; his parliamentary career was creditable, and its termination was caused rather through accident than anything else ; his relations with his fellow-townsmen have been at all times of the most friendly nature, and in all respects he has deserved, and gained the good opinion of the community in general, made up though' it be of various elements. Under such circumstances, it is needless to add, he carries with him the good wishes of us all and our best aspirations for bis success and happiness in the new sphere chosen by him. — As well as the presentation made on this occasion by the general body of our citizens, the Oddfellows presented Mr. Bracken with a handsome diamond locket, and the New Zealand Engine-drivers and Fireman's Association with an address accompanied by a pair of diamond earrings and a brooch for Mrs. Bracken. The Auckland Star, we see, has also made a joke or two on the Tablet's policy. Our contemporary says, in conclusion, that, " fortunately for the community at large, the people are a good deal wiser than their would-be leaders." What I wiser even than, those anonymous wiseacres who aspire to lead them through the profound and brilliant columns of the daily Press ? Surely not. Does the fact that special police protection has been removed in Ireland mean that the country has now been sufficiently cowed, or that the soldiers taking the place of the police so employed may be required for the Soudan ? There is decidedly a doubt in the case which it would be interesting to have solved. Fob the especial instruction of the Rev. David Sidey of Napier we give the following extracts from a letter of the Archbishop of Gniesen and Posen, re id i:i evidence before the Royal Commission |of Inquiry into Primary Education in Ireland, held in February, 1869 : " The mixed system has never been applied in Prussia to elementary schools. These have been, and are at the present day , w purely denomj* '

national." " From what I have said, you will understand that our elementary schools, if Catholic, have Catholic books and Catholic teachers; if Protestant, their books and teachers are Protestant." The following extract from a speech made by Mr. Gregory in the House of Commons on May 15, 1866, was also read. " Some of the normal colleges are for Protestants, some for Roman Catholics ; but while all are under civil surveillance so far as testing proficiency goes, the heads are generally ecclesiastic, it having been admitted that these institutions should have a religious character. The result of this system is this — an admirable education pervading the whole community, only two out of every 100 not being able to read, write, and cipher, and a thorough and cordial acceptance of it by every religious denomination." Before the Eev. David Sidey, then, writes his promised letter on secondary education, it might be as well for him to learn a few facts by means of which to qualify his fancies. They certainly need some kind of an improvement.