SNUG BERTHS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIV, Issue 52, 22 April 1887, Page 17

SNUG BERTHS.

(From Modern Society.)

Next to a snug berth in a Government Office there is nothing equal to a comfortable post in one of the many religious societies in London. There is, for instance, the British and Foreign Bible Society, the cost of conducting which, in office expenses, salaries, and travelling is something enormous. The annual report is very instructive, and benevolent old ladies would do well to make a full inquiry into the mode of conducting the business of the society before giving so freely to an object with which so much sentiment is mixed up, in order to work upon their sympathy. Highly-paid officials, of course, have an interest in keeping up the enormous income absorbed every year by a society, and the amount of money expended in this instance certainly seems out of all proportion to the work done by the managers and their agents. Their mission is to flood the world with Bibles in various languages, and they are circulated broadcast at the lowest possible price, and given away to people who do not value them. It is about as much use trying to convert the world in this way, as it would be to send a ship-load of swords to a country it was intended to conquer. Not long ago, in the town of Kendal, there was an old woman who kept a Bhop, and she had a Bible and Testament on her counter for wrapping up her tobacco and snuff respectively, a leaf out of one or the other being exactly the size she wanted. This is spreading the " Word" with a vengeance. The day is past when Bibliolatry was everything, and when the possession of a Bible in a house, even if not read, was looked upon as a sort of talisman by the ignorant, and kept in a conspicuous place, as a charm to frighten the Devil away. There is another society called the Prayer Book and Homily Society, which few people know anything about, but it has a lot of money to dispose of, and, of course, must present an annual report to some one. If there are trustees of these institutions it is high time they investigated the management more closely, and endeavoured to ascertain if the expenditure of the funds does anybody any good besides the persons whose luck has pitchforked them into the cosy places in the offices of the charity. It is positively sickening to see several institutions established for the promotion of the same idea, when one executive might carry on the work of the lot much more economically. But, then, what would become of the friends and relations of those who have the power of finding easy, respectable, and lucrative posts for them?