Current Topics.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 27, 3 April 1891, Page 1

Current Topics.

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Thb N.Z. Presbyterian- for April has 6ome notes on education that are enough to give you a reel in your head. We have heard of Scotch caution, but

1 " ■ A FUNNY PROTEST.

this, as the saying ip, " bangs Bannagher. " What on earth is tbe man afraid of that he does not speak out his mind ? He evidently Fees tbe evils of secularism plain enough, but he is afraid to denounce them openly. He lets tbe truth slip in one sentence, and then bites his tongue and contradicts it in the next. The schools, he says, are not godless, but there is no religion taught in them. There ißnot a famine there, it seems, but there is nothing to eat; Tbe teachers are God-fearing men, but there is a tendency among them towards secularisation. They are better than might be expected, in fact— considering that they are on the high road to the devil. When they get there— as they certainly will if things go on as they cow are — our pawky contemporary acknowledges, as well he may, that " the system will deserve the odious epithet so lavishly beßtowed upon it by our Roman Catholic brethren." Meantime, we aie told, larrikinism is growing ; and though, as every one must understand, secularism is not to be accredited with its origin— tell it not in Gath— it will contribute its quota to it. But here is a fair sample of our contemporary's style — " In the Australian colonies," he saya, " there is a distinct criminal taint in larrikinism, derived. no doubt, from the early convict associations ; and it is not a little remarkable how closely the manners of the youth of one colony resemble thote of another throughout Australasia. So much is this the case, that some people can scarcely help believing that larrikinism is in the air." Our cautious contemporary would not for the world speak out plump and plain, and say that there is a criminal taint in the larrikinism of New Zealand, though be gives us to understand that such is the case. He manages, nevertheless, tv come to something like a candid conclusion. " For although it cannot be Baid," he wxites, " that our secular system has produced the larrikin, we ought to have an education which would make him next to impossible, which would at least keep any considerable number of the colonial youth from sinking— in manners, habits, and aspirations — below their class." Well, let us be thankful that we have been brought so near the truth at long last. Under the circumstances it would hi over-severe to be critical. Bat if our contemporary believes, as be evidently does, that secularism is not only incapable of hindering larrikinism among the people, but that it also tends to drive the teachers to tbe bad, io entering his protest by means of such a round-about kind of a rigmarole, instead of speaking out once for all, decisively and sharply, ho exercises his caution at the expense of M 9 charity.

not hesitate to impress on their disciples that the Christians belong! ing to tbe Roman Catholic mission ara as bad as, if not woise than, the heathen Basutos. Between all these contradictory teachings, it is impossible that any native can understand what Christianity really means. The missionaries out hero lead very easy, comfortable lives, and generally make money. When once they can persuade the natives to wear trousers or petticoats they flatter themselves that the people are c.nverted. The truth is, and it is well known to every practical man who has lived among them, that the change of garment, instead of making them earnest Christians, renders them both immoral and dishonest, and gradually reduces them to far lower depths of depravity than they wero in before thiß ' conversion.'* It would delight me to be in England and to meet some of the people who support these missions. I could give them a few fads from my personal experience of converted natives and heathen natives which would open their eyes very considerably." Truth comments on these passages as follows :— " I have never disguised my opinion that these missions are a monstrous waste of money. That opinion I have formed on what can be discovered at this distance as to the progress of Christianity and the character o£ the Christianised African. When an observer on the spot— a Ohris'ian himself— forms tbe same opinion, there can be little doubt about the truth. I have no word to say against aoy Christian, who feels a call in that direction, going among the heathen to preach the Gospel. The propagation of jeligion; however, by mer.ns of rival, not to cay hostile, associations in London, with salaried evangelists in pailibus, is a vicious system. Christianiiy was not originally diffused by that method, and never could have been. St. Paul would not have bsen St. Paul had be been employed at so much' a year by an office in Jerusalem, with a rise in salary for each addition to his family." But it is only on Catholic principles that missions such as those preached by St. Paul could be concucted. All this confusion in Ba&utoland is the fruits of cepar ting from these principles, and the necessary rtsults of Protestant methods. We find, in fact, ii the inevitable failure of Protestantism to convert the heathen, ani the positive hindrance it opposes to this, a conviucing proof that it was not to it the commission of preachiag the Gospel to the world was given. Its pretensions, therefore, are in all respects groundless and false.

Truth of February 5 quotes sjme passages from a letter written by an English gentleman in Basutoland, and in which the writer gives his experiences

A PREGNANT FAILURE.

of Christian missions in the country. We do not, however, suppose that he expects to be taken as an authority where Catholic missionaries aie concerned. They are certainly not to be included among those whom he describes as leacsing easy, comfortable lives, and making money. In other respects we may look upon his information as accurate, especially since it only confirms what we had already been aware of :— " I am living," he writes, " quite close to a very large mission station, and personal observation every day convinces me more and more of tbe folly of their operations. Were the natives taught one creed, or even one code of morals, I should in many wayß approve of the work ; but here we have Wesleyan, Dutch Reform, Church of Englaod, and Roman Catholic Missions, each showing these poor benighted creatures different ways to Heaven. For instance, the English Church Mission allows a man to have as many wives as he chooses to marry, and is ready to marry him to the whole of them. The Dutch Reformed Church Mission, on the other hand, tells him that he can have bat one wife, and that he is damned if he has more. Again, the Nonconformist people do

SINISTER BUMOUBS

been going on with resppct to L3OXIII, seems in this instance to bs affected by some motive more sinister than usual. We have, it is true, ia this instance also tb.2 more ordinary claptrap. We have already alluded 10 the manner in whic 1 the lite unhappy man Crouch, was allowed to defile the pages of a respectab'e periodical in Sydney by his impudent predictions on the subject. The iiimour besides more recently spread as to intrigues undertaken by Cardinal Parocchi was of the same kind. And we may remark in passing, that tho rumour in question had, even before it was eire Ilated, received a conclusive contradiction from the na ure of an address delivered by the Cardinal in Rome. The address was that made by His Eminence on the occasron of his inaugurating a monument (o the late Polish Cardinal Cz\cki, and when he referred to the position of Poland in a strain that was said to call out the disapproval of the Pope, as likely to give offence to Russia. For this, .of course, it would be rash to vouch. The Pope finds many interpreters ready to speak for him, and to attiibute to him utterances which he has never made. What is, nevertheless, certain, is that Cardinal Parocchi had expressed himself openly and on a public occ ision in a mancer that was understood to reflect severely on Russia's treatment of the Poles. But a Cardinal intriguing for thj succession of the Papacy would avoid any cxpiession of the kind and would be very careful as to incurring the resentment of any one of the great European poweis. The mention, however of Caidinal Lavigt-rie eßpeciUly as likely to succeed the present, Pope is suggestive of a motive deeper, than that from which idle gossip proceeds. The election of a FrenchmaT might be displeasing to both Germany and Italy — though, where the latter Power, at least, is concerned, it may be.

The gossip inevitably attendant on the declining yeais of a reigning Pjpe us to the Cardinal Lkely to succeed him, and which for some time has now

doubted as to whether it would not make her way easier in oppressing the Church, eiocethe allegiance of the Italian people to a foreign Pope might prcve less sensitive. But, in any case, were Buch an election intended, it might, if they desired it, furnish these Powers with a pretext for interference. It is not impossible, then, that a design is entertained of forming for these Powers a pretext to interfere with the next conclave. Nor would it be necessary for them that the French Cardinal named should survive the present Pope, and, indeed, he described himself the other day as so much worn out as to make it unlikely that he would live to sea the completion cf another great work undertaken by him. It would be sufficient to give the Powers in qubstion a pretext, if only arising from an impossible intention, of which they would know how fully to avail themselves when the lime came. We see, therefore, that a deeper meaning may be attached to the rumours referring to the Papal succession than to "those prevailing on former occasions of a similar kind. The Catholic world may not be able to hinder the interference referred to if it be attempted, but «t leist by being forewarned and prepare! they will be in a better pot it ion than if they were taken unawares.