Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 25, 20 March 1891, Page 1

Current Topics

A WISE MANIFESTO.

has been issued, in which the prelates condemn the proposed campaign in the colonies of Irish delegates ; and, while expressing their deep sympathy with the National cause, declare they cannot extend support to either party while the present unhappy condition of affairs remains unsettled. What it was that called for the action thus taken by the prelates we do not know. Its prudence, however, is evident, and the decision arrived at is wise and just. We cannot, indeed, conceive that any thing could be more injurious to the Irish movement, or more likely to prejudice it in the eyes of the world than that the unfortunate division which has occurred at Home should be spread abroad between Irish colonists. A delegate from the party that acknowledge as their chief Mr. Justin McCarthy is already at sea on his way to Australia. Mr. Parnell, we were told the other day, meant to despatch delegates from the party over which he still presides, and tbe chances must be that discussion more or less bitter wonld be the order of the day here. From such a state of things nothing conld possibly be gained ; but, on the contrary, it is easy to foresee the evil that must ensue. Nor is it the province of Irish cc.tmists to throw their weight into either side and so determine the settlement of the question in Ireland. Our part bad been to cooperate with the union among Irishmen at Home, which seemed to ns the first necessity for ultimate success, and whose success, if it were maintained, seemed to us inevitable. We may legitimately co-operate and support ; we may give our opinions freely as to matters as they are laid before us, but we are not so situated in these colonies as to justify our assuming a leadership. What, besides, would be the effect upon the world of a country, claiming the right of self-government and yet obliged to appeal to communities outside her own boundaries for aid in controlling the parties by which she was rent ? We have not as yet had an opportunity of seeing tbe manifesto of the Australian prelates. We do not presume to anticipate its contents, or to pass any particular judgment on them. So much, however, we may say as we have said on the subject. It remains for Ireland to settle her own internal affairs, and to appeal to the colonies for support and co-operation only in such a course asßhsmay submit to them as deserving of success from its moderation, unanimity, and selfrestraint. Irish colonists must resolutely take their stand against anything tending to enlist them as partisans in a ruinous division.

AT nOME AND ABROAD.

A cablegram under date Sydney, March 12, informs us that, as the result of a meeting held there by members of the Australian hierarchy a manifesto

A GLEAM OF HOPE.

priceß to speculators, and of having thus given facilities, which had been availed of, for adding to estates already far too great for the interests of the colony. A reduction of the price of land, nevertheless, need rot of necessity be an evil. One of the measures, for example, for which the late Government deserves credit was one so carried out, and by which deferred-payment settlers were excused from paying prices for their holdings in excess of those charged for land of the same quality more recently sold at reduced prices in their immediate neighbourhood. There is, besides, in the colony a class of men on whom it might almost be found profitable to bestow land freely. In all our towns there are hard-working men, the heads of families, for whom, at best, all their efforts barely provide necessaries. There are families of boys for whom it is most difficult for their parents to find employment, and who run a risk of swelling tv ranks of the irreclaimable larrikins. To such a class as this, measures by which they could be placed upon the lands would be an inestimable boon, of which we hive no doubt they would willingly avail themselves. In this case, however, the selling of land at low prices, or even the giving of it freely away, would be ineffectual, unless some " J means were also devised of aiding the settlers to live until their holdings had become sufficiently reproductive to support them. The

desirableness of such a measure is so cleirly apparent — particuiauy 'n view of the regular exodus from the colony of young fellows belonging to the working-classes, which seems now established— 4 hat the wonder is it has not before this been taken up by s .~* of ar public men. Nothing, meantime, that the Minister of Lands, OTmaj one else, says in condemnation of promoting the views and interest* of speculators in land can be too strong. The Minister, we see, proposes to make dummyism criminal, and it is to be hoped he will succeed in the effort. Speculation in land can hardly be brought within, the B*me category, but still it may be as effectively prevented. If, for example, the Act be pasced, to which wo have already referred, foe making compulsory the sale of land held by monopolists, among the more mischievous of whom the si eculator is to be reckoned, in every case in which the interests of bona fide settlement are concerned, an effectual check will be given to the system in the future, and means of amending the mischief done by it in the past will be provided. Mr. McKenzie seams to have sound views outhis all-important subject of the land, and we may probably hjpa that, during the term of his administration, a good deal will bi done to retriave error and to make more beneficent provision.

FOOLISH COUNSELLORS.

Among the features of the times ia the manner in which the general state of distress, of unrest and dissatisfaction, that prevails is accounted for. Every one seeems to have his particular reason to give, and what perhaps is not very astonishing, every one's particular reason seems to apply to some condition of things by which he himself ia not personally compromised. We have not yet met with anyone who seems inclined to cry, viea culpa. Our contemporary, the New Zealand Presbyterian, for example teils us that it is all the fault of the Church of England. " But for Dissent and Methodism "he tells üb, •' Christianity would have b?cn ia a manner extinct in the country which the Monk Augustine had been sent from Rome to convert twelve centuries before." We seed not say, however, to inquire as to how much there was ia common between th<3 Christianity preached by St. Augustine aHd that sh nite I from tii2 stump of the Non-confor-miat. Wbat might form a more s itisfastoiy m itier for our investigation is why a Church founded on the private interpretation of the Bible, and constantly reading aal preaching from the S icred volume» supposing all the merits attiibuted to private ioterpr.-t itioa and the power of the " unaided Worl^ ' to bj irue, couli suffer so grievous a falling off. But of course if it were a matter of predestination and election ; that is above our reach to deal wrh, and we must leave it to our contemporary, wh > necessarily h is every hiag relating to those doctrines at his fingers' ends. " Prelacy," however, stood plainly dishonoured when it became necessary that dissent, mounted on a tub outside the churches upon which it had laid violent hands, should remind the people of Eagland of the teaching of St. Augustine, a teaching indeed, of which it but faintly whispered, notwithstanding the Stentorian character of Us voice. Bat way, we may asfe in passing, did not Mitholistn an 1 dissmt fully accjmplwa the mission entrusted to tnem ? The Salvation Army, for example, at which we suspect Bt. Augustine would also h^ve stool a^has-, ould have little more to do had they never existed. — A Wesley >n divine in Auckland, agiin, we are told, refers a'l tha evil to a departure from the juste milieu, spiritually considered. On theoaehiui, he s-iys, staad those who make light of the Bible as no better thaa the Rig Veda and the Zendsbvcsta ; on the other are those who hold a verbil inspiration. This learned divine demands what he calls a " maxim of adaptation ," aa the key to the situation, and declares that victo.-y must be with the Church that discovers it. But here, indeed, is a search proposed that must surpass that for the philosjp ler's stone, It hto be feared that the " Church of the future " the Church to tiad the key, and bear rule by its means, lies, foundations aui all, well within the womb of the period ever which it is to preside. This learned divine makes light of an apostolical succession. So far, moreover, its tua Church of the future, as well as those of the present that in some d'gree share oilc divine's sympathies, is concerned vit ca'iaot, we admit, bj made too light of. And why, iniejd, should man claim a depen lance o 1 forerunners, who knew absolutely nothing of tno talisman required. Nothing, in short, seems more foreign to apostolic teaching than a ' maxim of adapation." But is it not the poet Dryden, who, in verses

The Minister of Lands, speaking the other night at Invercargill, brought the heavy accusation against the late Government of having seld land at reduced

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Tery well meant, but not rt»mark<*bly siiocessfnl a* poetry, speaks of the impassibility of nndersta wiinij non9en9e ? We are not ashamed, for our own part to confess tbat ih tre 19 a good deal in the utterance of this learned divine that we are unable to understand.— As a third example we take a newspaper article evidently penned by a Freethinker and which la>s the blamj of nil tbe evil on the inconsistency of the Church in not acting on tine due rine that men are in all respects equal, We do no', h nvever, scj how evil can follow because the Cbnrch nb-tHius from acting on a docf rine that is not true. Spiritually indeed nun are equal, but physically or intellectually, or even morally, they are not so ; far from it, as everyone with an eye in his head can see. The gifts of nature, on the contrary, are most unequal. One man is an athlete ; another can hardly crawl along the level road. One woman although the sex may not unanimously acknowledge it, is a beauty ; another, as the sex are ready with one voice to declare, is a regular fright. One man is a painter or a musician, or an orator, or a writer, or something else. Take another and place him in the best schools, and out he will come, with his head well crammed, perhaps, and perhaps not even that, but he is neither artist nor orator, nor writer nor anything else, and all the wit of man will not make him so. One man is firm in his resolutions ; another is weak and vacillating. There are, in short, almost as many variations in the race as there are individuals. Equality you will hardly find anywhere, except it be in the dead level of extreme stupidity. It is to be feared, nevertheless, that some such idea as this enters deeply into the spirit of the times. If it be so, men are pursuing a phantom that they will never overtake and which will lead them into many snares and pitfalls. There arej therefore, many who are ready to account for the existing situation, and it iB, at least, possible to learn something from Ihe folly for which they are responsible.

A SINISTER PHENOMENON.

A meeting of the unemployed waß held in Dunedin on Monday. Tbe meeting was better organised . thaD, for the most part, those that have preceded it.

It was held in tbe City Hall. His Worship the Mayor presided, and a committee of the men themselves was appointed to look afier their interests. There w»s, we are sorry to s»y, a large attendance ; proceedings were exceptionally quiet. Very little speak'ng took place, and hardly more than half-an-hour was the time occupied. For our own part, we took careful notes of the looks of those present. We bo frequently hear want of employment accounted for by dissipation among the working-classe9 that we were desirous of seeing for ourselves if the traces of such were apparent. Nothing of the kind, however, was to be noticed. The men were as respect? ble in their looks as they were orderly in their behaviour. But is it not lamentable that, so early in the year, such a gathering of men out of work should be possible? What, Krixample, ha 9 the hurvrst done for us this year? Is the increasing use of machinery accoun able for anything of this, and what is the remedy to be fomd ? Classes there aic in tbe country who are m king fortuue*?. The great sum derived from exports, and to which we referred in our last week's leader, testifies bejoad all doubt to thttt. Whence, theD, is tne mystery that Dunedin, at least, it crowded with stalwart men, respectable in every way, and yet who are unablo to rind work by which to support themselves and their families, and that, too at a season when, in come parts, the harvest is still going on, and in others has been so recently completed that the money earned in it should still, to a great degree, be forthcoming ? We do not pretend to solve the question. It is there, however, for speedy solution, and unless it be solved in a lasting and ( ffectual manner, and not by any mere adoption of expedients woiks for the unemployed and such things a 9 that, we have seen only the beginning of evils. The amount of money that has flowed into the colony during tbe ymr, and that has clearly gone to enrich a comparatively few, proves that there are men of colossal fortune among us. We fee with the sight of our eyes that there is a lurge class of men in want of daily bread. But we hold that the proposition made in the Old Woild that the rich shr uld bestow a tiihe of their wealth in charity should Dot be applicable to a new country like thie. Even at home we agree with tbe Rev. Hugh Price Hugheß, that it should only ser«e as a temporary expedient, Here the monopoly that in the Old Country is tbe outcome of ages, should be prevented and co man in U>e enjoyment of lis health and strength should be obliged to depend for the necessaries, or even the decent comforts, of life, upon another. It devolves up< n Government, therefore, to face the matte r boldly and immediate'y, and the country, if it will save itself from disaster, mutt give them a cordial support in doing so. The appearance of the unemployed, not to ppeak of their premature appearance, we say again, is a phecomenon that should be impossible among vs — and would be impossible if affairs were properly managed.

The primrose, then, has found due appreciation. OTLk.mnjL, ! It no loDger trembles by that tialitional, and, in tiuth, somewhat thread-bare, rver's brim, if such a thing there could bt 1 , to form the t.bject of yellowißh i erceptionß on tbe pUt.tf 61Pi14 fUgUto ll baa WW mailed a noble pottew-a

poetess of two hemispheres. Of course it was the primrose that entered into the ioul of Lady Jersey and inspired her to write that poem, of which the Australian cable informs ua, on the theme "One People, One Destiny." And what rhyme, by the way, could her ladyship possibly find for " destiny." For " people," of course, there is " steeple." That is easy. In fact, we learnt it in a nursery rhyme that told us of a capacious person who " ate the church, who ate the steeple, who ate the priest, and all t^e people." Eating the people, moreover, would not be altogether out of character with the spirit of the primrose lodges. Their raison d'etre, indeed, seems to be that of trying to make a meal of the people. " Destiny," however, we should say, must have bothered the lady. But does not federation owe a debt to the primrose ? Lady Jersey, as we know, is notable as a Primrose dame. Still more threadbire than those lines about the primrose, are the lines in which we are told of the fate—" unwept unhonoured, and unsung," of heroes who preceded Agsmemnon becanse there was no poet to bear witness to their deeds. Federation will not know that fate, nor even, if it fails, will the effort to bring it about — for something better than a poet, as any man possessed of a spark of gallantry mujt admit, that is a poetess— has been gained by it. Still it is hardly without a pang that we can see the laurels plucked from a New Zjaland brow, even by the hand of a fair lady. There is, for example, Sir George Grey, who teemed to us to embody the romance of politics. What, for example, could be more romantic than that nnion of the English-speak-ing races of which Sir George has given us his visions ? Sir George himself, however, we have no doubt, will gracefully yield the crown. The genius whose sentimental yearnings embrace even the law-practi-tioners, must certainly hart a soft spot for a fair daughter of the muse— we say nothing of a comparison between Hyperion and a satyr— because Lady Jersey, being a lady, cannot be represented by Hyperion, But must not federated Australia in gratitude adopt tbe primrose as its emblem 7 " One people one destiny," sings Lady Jersey, inspired by the simple flower. Let ns hope its adoption as the emblem of union will be the crowning act of the conference.