Current Topics. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 50, 30 September 1892, Page 1

Current Topics. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

A young gentleman named Thomas Burton Oaygill ACLtTBB was fined the other day in tbe Dunedin Police YOUHCt MAN. Court Is and costs, amounting in all to 14s. The young gentleman's transgression was not a very heavy one, and, if he had refrained from telling fibs, we should take no notice of it. Not that we deny that the conductors of tramcars are acting quite as they ougbt in preventing people from standing on the platforms, which was Mr Thomas Burton Caygill's offence, or that the matter is one of some importance. As it involves safety to life and limb, it is, on the contrary, most evidently so. Mr Thomas Burton Csygill, however, had plainly been instructed in a nursery where that wholesome legend as to the blistering of tbe tongue by untruthful speaking did not prevail. He was asked what was his name, and, instead of giving the rather imposing string that belonged to him, he called himself Sam Toomey. Of course we know that there is nothing in a name. Had this young gentleman been really Sam Toomey, it might not have made him any more amenable to reason. He still, perhaps, would have refused to budge and turned a deaf ear to all the indignation of the conductor. But then be would have been an Irishman, or a man of Irish parentage, adding one more item to that list of petty offences which is from time to time quoted, with so much show of sorrowful compliance with a most exacting necessity, by some of our friends and well-wishers. What we would impress upon our readers is the glibness with which gentlemen who desire to remain incognito take Irish names. There is no doubt whatever that this is commonly done both in Great Britain and in these colonies, and that thus Irishmen get the credit of a great deal more mischief than they are accountable for. Mr Thomas Burton Caygill's offence, as we have said, was a light one, but the trick he played, thoughtlessly, no doubt, and without malice, in defence of himself, was of Borne gravity. The fib he told was by no means so harmless as it may have seemed to him. It is not always excusable to b« too clever by half, Webb those pickles capsicums ? Mr H. S. Fish bad PICKLED like to be killed the other day. We were about to say salmon ? " kilt," bat we recollected in time that it might be taken as personal, aod the Hon John M'Eenzie, who dealt with Mr Fish, will evidently stand no nonsense wbere the Highlands are concerned. Tbe Hon John M'Eenzie unarmed, even with his shepherd's crook — is formidable enough ; but the Hon John M'Eenzie replacing the claymore by a pickle jar three quarters filled. There is a picture for the mind's eye. Small wonder, indeed, that Mr Fish got a fright. The Hon John M'Eenzie, it seems, bad threatened to make it hot for Mr Fish— and that is why we ask if it was capsicums that were in the jar. But what a spectacle it would have been for gods and men ; Mr Fish with his skull fractured and his clothes all soiled by pickles. Surely tbe hon Member has not appealed in vain to tbe commiseration of the House. For our own part we hasten to congratulate Mr Fish on his having escaped so ignominious an end, and having kept his clothes unspotted. May his'method of departing this life, on the contrary, prove worthy of his career, and may his shroud be spotless. Still we must admit the force of the Hon John M'Eenzie's apology. An insult, he pleads had been offered to his Highland blood. Is he not to be excused if his wrath waxed hot as capsicums ? And let ub recollect that Highland blood is nearly as good as ichor. It flowed orginally from Hibernian sources, and, according to SirJJohn Lubbock, is the only decent, unmixed, drop in its country. Tbe blood that flows in the Lowlands is a queer sort of mixture. Indeed, the alien philosopher might hesitate as to tbe effects of visiting the country for any protracted time. If, he might argue, local influences have reduced so many heterogeneous elements to one douce and canny type, they may be strong enough to act upon the individual. Of course it takes a native duly to appreciate tbe advantages of being born a Lowland Soot. But it is altogether another thing with tbe Highlands. There a flood flows pure and

undefiled. There, mwe have laid, a nobler foantaia has let loose Ui springs. Certainly snob blood ii worthy of defence— even a defenoa with pickles. All is well, however, that ends well. The honour of the Highlands is vindicated, and Mr Fish has esoaped being salted down, W« take the following from " Passing Notes " in TOBTTAOTIOB. last week's Witness :—"H.tTO is a father spiteful paragraph from the St James's Qanette on the Ballance Ministry's congratulatory telegram to Mr Gladstone. The St James's Oacette, be it understood, is high Conservative : ' Tbe New Zealand Government congratulates Mr Gladstone (per cable) on big pseudo> victory at tbe poles. Well, the great majority of decent colonists won't like it ; but the " price must be paid." New Zealand* too, just now is under the heel of the local Tim Healys and Davitti, For tbe present nondescript Cabinet at Wellington is the result of the Roman Catholics giving a " solid vote " for the Laboar party at the last election. The latter are still waiting for the millennium ; but the former have secured the loaves and fishes. Hence the presence of the Irishmen in tbe Ministry at Wellington, and of Mr Perceval, a young Roman Catholic solicitor of Christchurcb, in the Agent* Generalship in London. Hence, too, the wire to Mr Gladstone, which should surely have been directed to Mr Healy or Archbishop Walsh.' Spiteful in tone this, but exactly what is to be expected if a colonial Ministry has the impertinence to put in its word, by telegram or otherwise, on questions of English party politics. It would be interesting to know how far the St James's Gazette is right in its account of the origin of ' the present nondescript Cabinet at Wellington.' Is it true that the Boman Catholics gave a 'solid vote ' to tha Labour party at the last election 1 If so, the Roman Catholics have been miserably rewarded. Sir Patrick Buckley and Mr Ward, Roman Catholics both, are in tbe Ministry, and Mr Perceval, the 'young Roman Catholic solicitor, of Christcbarch,' is Agent-General ; but what comfort is there in all this whilst grants to Boman Catholic schools remain as far off as ever? There is something decidedly comic in tbe supposition of a concordat between the Boman Catholic hierarchy and the school of politicians whose chief oracle is Sir Robert Stout. But if such an unholy and unnatural alliance did really exist at the last election, it is quite poetical justice that the stipulated price for it should never have been paid." " Civis " knows very well that the Roman Catholics did not give a solid vote to the labour party at the last election. Those Catholics who voted for labour candidates as such did not vote as Catholics. In some instances, indeed, if Catholics voted for such candidates, they voted as anything rather than Catholics. The Catholic vote, so far as it was solid, was given, as usual, for candidates sound on the education question. As to the attitude of the Catholic hierarchy towards the labour question, it is little doubtful. The Pope's Encyclical quite settles that. Practically, it may be gathered from the action of *ht late Cardinal Manning during the London s'rikes, and, more recently, from the sympathy for the strikers at Broken Hill shown by tbe Bishop of Wilcannia, to which we may add, though of less authority, the part taken by a Catholic priest — that is the Rev Father Bullion, pastor of St Mary Magdalen's Church, at Homestead, towards the strikers there. Tbe sympathy of the Catholic priesthood, from the Pope down, is both theoretically and practically with the working, man. The Pope, moreover, has himself declared that the matter is one for legislatures to deal with. The greater interest, however, even to the workingman himself, of the Christian education of children, will not be made secondary to anything. The fact, again, that Sir Robert Stout is regarded by the labour party in New Zealand as a leader cannot invalidate those points on which that party seek for what they have a right to demand, and in which alone tbe Catholic Church will countenance or assist them. There has been, and will be, no alliance entered into by the Catholic hierarchy that can be called "unholy and unnatural." Finally, Catholics in New Zealand have done nothing to obtain for them as a reward the appointment to office of certain members of their religions body. The gentlemen in question hold their positions by virtue of their fitness for them as statesmen, and quite apart from all questions of religion. They are altogether independent of their fellow Catholics as such. But as for the St James's Gazette, it has simply applied to the colonies the forlorn

liope not the Tories, the attempt to raise the no- Popery cry. It perceives that if this cannot be done the days of monopoly are numbered among us here, and it fears the reaction nearer home< Possibly, in the interests also of monopoly, " Civis " has not been unwilling to lend a helping hand. Oub contemporary the N. Z, Craftsman, says it MASONIC was pretty generally believed that the opposition of CHARITY. the Papicy was quietly dying out, and that Catholics who chose to join the Order might do so without being noticed. For our own part we can hardly fancy how so false • belief con Id become general. The Church has continued very outspoken on the matter, and the reigning Pope has repeated, with the force sad clearness for which all his utterances are remarkable, the condemnation passed by many Popes on the Society — making no exception in favour of its English-speaking branches. What, however, calls oat the particular indignation of onr contemporary iB a letter addressed by the Archbishop of Dublin to bis clergy, on the occasion of a recent celebration which was to take the shape of a series of fetes in aid of an orphanage whose centenary had just occurred. The Archbishop enjoined his priests to warn their flocks against taking any part in this matter, and the N. Z. Craftsman denounces his Grace for a want of charity, declaring, with exultation, that reprisals towards Catholic charities are to be taken by Dublin Protestants. But the Archbishop expressly explains that it is not as a benevolent institution that he withholds his sympathy from the institution referred to, but as an exclusive establishment intended for the promotion of Masonic interests. Exclusiveness, moreover, is a characteristic of Freemasonry, and one which might of itself alone condemn it. In tbia very number of the N. Z. Craftsman^ for •xample, to whioh we re'er, we find soma cases in point. They are taken from the experiences of Magician Kallar on his tours in foreign parts. In South Africa a native teamster saves him from an attempt made to mnrder him . "T. asked him why he had taken such an interest in me. In reply he held out his hand and . . . gave me the grip of a Master Mason." On ship-board a Chinese steward recovers some property tbnt had bsen stolen from him. " ' Do you remember Bising Sun Lodge, Shanghai 1 ' he asked He held out his hand and gave me the Master Mason's grip." We have heard such stories before, exemplifying what capital fellows Freemasons are to one another, but implying how deuuedly indifferent they are to all the world besi les. Without anything else this consideration quite justified Dr Walsh's action towards the Dublin orphanage. It is an exclusive institution from which — let them be ever so destitute — aye, though they may be starving at its doors, all children but those of Freemasons are shot out, There is not in all the world a Catholic institution of such a kind, Even apart, therefore, from all other considerations, it is difficult to see why Catholics should be called on to aid such an institution. Under other circumstances the children of Freemasons are as much entitled to their aid and sympathy as those of other people, and will find them as generously bestowed on them. Bnt this is plainly an exceptional caseAdded to its exclusiveness, there is the fact on which chief stress is laid by the Archbishop, that it constitutes one of the props of Masonry in Ireland. How, therefore, o mid his Grace without a neglect of duty, refrain from warning his people against having anything to do with the matter ? We do not know whom our contemporary alludes to as what he calls •' the heads of the Romish Church." The Church bas one visible head, that is the Pope, and tho Archbishop, as our contemporary suspects, bad the sanction of His Holiness for the action taken by him. There was no foundation whatever for that belief alluded to by the Craftsman — that the opposition of the Papacy to Freemasonry was dying out. The condemnations pronounced by the Catholic Church never become obsolete. The San Francisco correspondent of the Otago A NICE Daily Times of the 22nd inst, writts as follows :— BTANQELIST. •« Pious Frauds.— l venture to suggest the desirability of thoroughly eaaoaining the past record of any itinerant evangelists or prohibiton lecturers from this country who may happen to honour you with their presence. There are numbers of foolish people in every community perfectly willing to support any fraud who may claim to be either of the above, and to denounce any man who bas the good sense to ask for credentials. The discovery, unfortunately, is generally made after the scoundrels have disappeared. A certain Rev William Hammond is at present being inquired after by the chief of the Melbourne police. The latter bas written to the authorities at Boston desiring some information as to this rsverend doctor. He is described by the papers as a Baptist minister, bigamist, embezzler, thief, and general all-round rascal. He was once a minister at Franklia Falls, N.H., then at New Haven, Conn., and later at Boston. He is supposed to have a wife in every town he ever lived in, and a few extra ones for little vacation trips. For the last three years he has been misaed from this country, during which period he has been anxiously sought by the police, who are disposed to think his present location is Japan. lam under the im-

pression the name is familiar to me, but I mention the matter here, and now, to emphasise the fact that the fellow is but one of many others of the same kidney, and who, having duped, and lied, and tricked in this land, until the place is too hot for them, invariably gravitate towards the far south lands." Bnt how disagreeable this must be for other Doctor Hammonds. Tnere was, for example, a Doctor Hammond, who made some stay in Dunedin a few years ago, and who acted here as a preacher— at the Tabernacle in Great King street, if we recollect aright. There was also a Doctor Hammond who lately made a tour in South Africa, where he distinguished himself on the "No- Popery " platform. How disagreeable it must be for respectable Dr Hammonds to have a namesake so disgraced as the doctor spoken of in tht paragraph we have quoted. But, of course, it will be easy for these doctors or their Mends to disclaim all discreditable identity. Will the elders of ,tbe Dnnedin Tabernacle state where their late evangelist is now to be found ?