SO THEY DID IT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 12, 13 July 1888, Page 17

SO THEY DID IT.

N the annals of Parliament there is hardly to be found a parallel to the conduct of the petitioners from Otago and Auckland, who hare lately petitioned Parliament not to give aid to Catholic schools, and have promised to humbly pray, etc., for the Parliament, etc. This is a mixture of the tragical and comical, of selfishness and ' absurdity, of tyranny and meanne '. Catholics made no move this session to obtain justice, to secure some good to themselves from the money they are obliged to pay for public education. They seemed to look upon any effort to obtain fair play, to put an end to the shameless plunder to which legislation has subjected them for many years, as utterly useless, and they have consequently abstained from asking. Parliament to show a little common seme and an inkling of justice. This, however, has not been enough for the bigots, who must proclaim their folly and tyrannous unjastice to the world, by ostentatiously and needlessly going down on their knees, begging Parliament not to think of doing an act of justice, or so much as even dream of giving Catholics the least value for the money it forces out of their pockets. Catholics laugh at , the comicality of the position of the bigots, and pity their > folly and degradation. Meantime the extravagant expenditure on a system of education that is fast demoralising the community goes merrily on, and whilst the howling for. retrenchment is not abated, and in other departments public servants, who have deserved well of the State, are being subjected to great hardships, the expenditure on godless schools must be kept up, even though crushing additional taxation must be imposed upon a people suffering from long-continued financial depression. Mr. Ptkb, indeed, brought in a Bill ostensibly meant to give back to Catholics a portion of their own money, but this proceeding means nothing. Mr. Pyke's Bill is a part of the Parliamentary performance, inevitable oncenat least each session. But it is a mere stage performance, the proceedings do not seem to have been seriously gone through ; it is well known that Mr. Ptkb's Bill never had a chance of being carried ; that unless Government take up the cause of Catholic schools there can never be the least hope of success, and that the only effect of Mr. Prai's efforts is to throw dust in the eyes of half-blind Catholics, whose Totes may be thus easily manipulated to se<-ve the purposes of the wire-pullers. But this trick has been tried & few times too often, and during the present session of Parliament the delusion has been utterly removed. Catholics may make up their minds to wait a long time for justice. Meantime their duty ip, in the first place to establish all $» Catholic

schools they can, and without taking part loudly? or, indeed, in any outward and noisy way, in political contests, to steadily and determinedly vote against "every opponent, public or private, of their claims, and to lose no opportunity of punishing such opponents. In thig way only can they ever hop* to exert any influence in Parliament. We cannot too often or too earnestly impress on Catholics the wo •thlessness of what is, we suppose facetiously, called party politics, and the folly of engaging in them. As to candidates for Parliamentary honours. Generally speaking, there if not a straw to choose between them ; and our advice to Catholics is, when these candidates are equally opposed to justice to Oatholios, to remain at home minding their domestic business, and abstain from taking any part whatever in election contests. But, nevertheless, they should let slip no opportunity of delivering a blow against the old offender and the hardened , bigot. This, however, should be done silently, no as not to cause bitterness and bickering. Catholics should never tell anyone for whom they are going to vote, or for whom, they have voted. They are not called upon to do go. ; indeod, > no one is called upon to let the world know what he has .done under the. protection of the ballot. Let Catholics; pursue this course, and they will, whilst doing their duty, have^the amusement of seeing, the bigots making themselves ridiculous and becoming ho* and furious over what, after all, is only a piece of folly. For, in reality, these bigots, whffat 1 intending mischief to Catholics, are indeed their very beat friends,' 1 inasmuch as Catholic*, having thus the gravest responsibilities thrown upon them, are stimulated to greater exertions to 'save the faith and morality of their children, and to establish schools for them free from all compromise and all nonCatholic, and perhaps anti-Catholic, interference. We regard the action of the bigots as a real blessing to Catholics, and in the light of a real blessing to them. In consequence of it, their children are now in most cases receiving a genuine Catholic education, which will in course of years secure for the Catholic body great numbers of the best and most highly educated members of the community. , This, , however does not prevent the conduct of these bigots from being both unjust and ridiculous.

As the tune for the drawing in connection with, the Rivertoff'art" union is approaching, persons who have kindly undertaken the salt of tickets are requested to be punctual in sending in blocks and re* mittancesjjso that arrangements may be made to conclude the matter without any necessity for postponement. Friends will doubtless redouble their exertionß during the interval to insure complete i' success.

A concert was given at Mosgiel on Friday last, in aid of tit building f and of the Catholic ,'cbnrch. Several ladies and gentlemen from Duntdin gave their services, and a very entertaining programme was gone through with. Among the items which gave great satisfaction were a solo by Miss Ocrrigan and a dnet by Hisses Cbrrigan and Oantwell. Messrs Bldnkiasopp, Bossiter, OintweH and Smith contribated a pleasing quartette, and Miss Blaney a solo. The financial resnlt will we understand be satisfactory .-A concert was also recently given at Grey town Jiojaid of the bnilding fund of the Catholic church in coarse of erection there. The proceeds of both concerts will be near £50.— 1n connection with the Mosgiel Ohnrch we have been requested to acknowledge a 1 donation of £5 from #he Rev. Father Sbeehan, of Black's, and another of three guineas /rom Mr. M, Kett Milton.

Mb. Jambs Ashcroft delivered a lecture the other evening at Roslyn on Ritualism, in which, among the rest, he referred to tke great 'work of the so-called Reformation, which, having freed himself and his hearers from a " yoke of superstition and priestcraft," 'had also been the parent of their civil and religious liberty. The claptrap is of the usual stereotyped kind, and not worth another repetition of the thousand and one irrefutable contradictions given to it. But as to the religious liberty born of the Reformation a striking example was to the fore in a dispute which there is no authority to settle and in which one man has as good a right to his opinion as another. The exhibition, indeed, of Mr. Ashcroft struck up as an authoritative theologian was as convincing a sign of the tidiemlons situation as there well could be produced.

At the last meeting of the Ounedin Catholic Literary Society on July 4, Mr. N. Griffin read a paper on " The 1 Advantages of Literfcy Societies," giving many excellent reasons why they should receive the support which unfortunately they do not receive. The piaper was criticised, and comment* wets Mad* oa this particular Wodtty by

Messrs. Eager, P. Oantwell, Oarolin, Hayes, and the Chairman (Mr. B. A. Dunne, V.P.). Mr. B. Dunne alio read a paper on South America and its people, and Mr. Oarolin gave a reading from Dickens, descriptive of the famous falling out of Sairey Gamp and Betsy Trig,

"Ifgr." Bonland (says the New York Freematt't Journal of May It,) has faded gently away. Bishop Potter has no doubt found that he is not the kind of man to invite to a select Episcopal dinner party. The JferthwetUm Chronifle very truly says that when our Protestant friends can point to converts of unblemished reputation, ■uch as Faber, Newman, Manning, and hundreds of others, they will kave reason to proclaim them .from the house-tops. Bishop Potter has doubtless satisfied himself that "Mgr." Bouland is not the most desirable of '"verts."

A OORMSpondhnt of the Philadelphia, Ledger narrates a conversation held by him with a Methodist minister regarding divorce, U which the minister gave credit to the Catholic senators who had opposed the proposal to make incurable insanity one of the causes lot breaking the marriage tie. He quoted very aptly the authority Of the late Archbishop Whateley as saying that nearly all men and Women might be considered, at some period of their lives, more or leu insane. It would be easy, he added, to find a lawyer capable of taking advantage of this. The good minister's argument may be lecommended to would-be divorce mongers in New Zealand.

4\OTttß useful consideration arising from the argument of this Sinister to whom we hava alluded may be wcommended to those ttaong ourtslves who are anxious to open up the path of genius by •cabling every man to become bis own lawyer, and who point to the United States as affording a great example in this respect. " Any faithless husband or wifs," said our minister, "would have no difficulty In finding an unscrupulous lawyer who would rake up « proof ' that he or she was incurably * insane,' and therefore entitled to a divorce." The foint to which we would draw attention is the ease with which un■crapulous lawyers, capable of any dirty work, may be found in this country where easy access to the profession of the law aids the development of genius. Under like circumstances we might have the development of genius in New Zealand, but we would be sure to have the unscrupulous lawyer as an abounding institution.

Thb seeesibn ol Dr. Bicks from the old Catholic communion gives a further insight into the true nature of that body, Dr. Ricks, who has Boldly gone over to Protestantism, denounces fieinkens and his partisans very heartily. Their treatment of him, he says, has been more abominable than anything that could emanate from the Ultramontane*, even from the Jesnits themselves. Dr. Reiakens, meantime, feela himself obliged to iasue piteous appeals for the rapport of the German organ of the body, which now, that curiosit y is on the wane, threatens to fail for want of subscribers. The " Old Catholicism," in fact, that was to have destroyed the Catholic Church eeema rapidly approaching its dissolution. It has proved one of the shabbiest fallings away known to ecclesiastical history.

Thb DibaU has published an interview between M. Eugene Bendu and Signor Crispi in which the former quoted the authority Of M. Fourmer, a former ambassador of Prance to the Quirinai, as his warrant for stating that King Victor Emmanuel had looked npon the entry into Some through the breach of Porta Pia as a great; mistake The King's plan would hare been to allow the revolutionists to have their way in the city until he had been called in by the genuine Bomans to resiore order-and this he would have done by killing some forty tfco*»and of the men in question-of whom Italy would have acknowledged herself well rid. But these were the men who ware chiefly accountable for tke plebiscite of October 2nd. M. Bendu' 8 object was to prove that Signor Crispi was mistaken in his assertion as to there being no longer a Roman question and that the opinion of many Italians, especially the true citizens of Bome-as had been that Of the late King- was of a directly contrary nature. AH this is of particular interest to us now, when, according to the last European reports received here, some move for the explusion of the Pope has been act on foot by Sigaor Crispi-in spired and aidad no doubt by the survivors and offspring of those men whom King Victor Emmanuel ■tigmaiised ad bandits, and in slaughtering whom he would have considered himself rendering Italy a service.

It should be welcome nem to colonial agriculturists and pastoral tenants to learn ih.t the famous English agricultural journal, the Marh Lane Mtpresi, has undertaken also to adapt itself esnecially to oolomal requirements. The aid thus giren to our farming population and those engaged in the breading and rearing of cattle should prove , most important to them, and the manner in which they will be thus J'^K^^aection with persons engaged in the same pursuits in the Old Ommtrj cannot fail to tend to mutual improve nt and

progress in prosperity. Indeed a marked effect may be produced npon the settlement of the colonies by the familiarising in this manner of the mind of the English agricultural classes with colonial questions and pursuits. We, therefore, consider ourselves fortunate in being able to welcome the Mmrh Lam Easpress into the sphere of colonial journalism.

Ctrarous reports, emanating from the Wellington Evening Pogt f are current to the effect that China is preparing to place herself on a war footing, and to that end is about to establish factories for arms> and to build arsenals and improve her navy— the chastisment of England for breach of treaties, ia connection with these colonies being her chief end. According to the admission of Chinamen in the colony, moreover, there seem to be some grounds for the reports. We have no f«ar that China can immediately, or even in the nncra r future, become formidable to these colonies— bat the display of any desire on her part to do so, should add to the determination of our settlers to permit of nothing that can give the Chinese a permanent footing in the country, or increase their inflaence or interests here in any way. Even an inferior hostile power, against which the colonies had to be continually on their guard, would be a disagreeable and unprofitable neighbour, — and under some possible, if not very pro. bable, circumstances, the inferiority might disappear. Let China, therefore, be placed in dae time at arm's length, and constantly held there.

The cable still continues interrupted, and we have no European news. As was the case last week, a budget is expected to arrive on Friday or Saturday. But we shall see.

An accident to the Ohristchurch express at the Purakanui cliffs on Tuesday evening was a very disagreeable occurrence. It wan caused by the fall of a rock, loosened by the rain from the cliff above, and which threw the engine off the lina, carrying with it a couple of waggom. Fortunately, owing to the customary slackening of speed •n this formidable portio» of the road, the train was easily stopped and no further casualties happened, the passengers escaping with a delay, sufficiently trying nevertheless in the inclement weather, of two or three hours. Had the fall occurred a few yards further on, and thrown the engine off on the side next the ocean, hardly anything could have prevented the frightful catastrophe of a crash down on the rocka far below. The unpleasant consideration, however, still remains that nothing can be done to make the portion of the line in question secure against such accidents.

Myers and Co., Dentists, Octagon, corner of George street, The^ guarantee h hest class work at moderate fees. Their artificial teeth gives general satisfaction, and the fact of them supplying a tern porary denture while the gums are healing does away with the inconvenience of being months without teeth. They manufacture a single artificial tooth for Ten Shillings, and sets equally moderate The administration of nitrous oxide gas is also a great boon to those needing the extraction of a tooth. Bead— [Advt.] Visitors from the country and town buyers should not fail to pay a visit to Mollison, Mills and Co. 'a great clearing sale of winter stock, commencing on Saturday, July 14. The value offered cannot fail to please the keenest buyer. Call or send for price list to Mollison, Mills and Co., George street, Dunedin.