Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 7, 16 June 1893, Page 1

Current Topic s AT HOME AND ABROAD.

11 PAPA, potatoes, prunes, and prism." We have 11 CITIS " once more to deal with our refined friend " Civis," AT BAT. and mast, therefore, put on all tbe prettinens of lips

possible to as. On whom shall we draw for the occasion more aptly than, for example, on that pink of politeness, Mrs|General f Bat oar " Civis " mistakes his sentiment He is not a bit amused. If be wai he would owe ns a debt. Dues not he whose trade it is to amuee require amusement occasionally to replenish his ■took T We are, however, content that oar " Civis " should now measure oar dalness, or even our disingenaousneas, if he will, by bis own amassment, la that case we should come off bright and honest. LAUra toripta manet. There it is in black and white. In a note above — the Oatholic vote in Brace is computed at 250 solid " provided the Bishop gets all his pigs to market." The expression, of coarse, is proverbial if taken generally, but here its application is particular. The Catholic voters of Bruce are the " pigs " particularly meant. What the preternatural dulnesß of the editor of the Tablet has perceived cannot possibly have escaped the still more preternatural sharpnesss of the gay and airy " Civis." The fact is, however, that oar festive friend, like the Major in '* Dombey and Son," rather over-rated his slyness. The meaning of his proverb was plain enough. Tough, too, like Joey B, is our agreeable rattle. Nothing can exceed the toughness of his attempt to deny what remains in black and white. And is it, par hasard, with some sly inward allasion to this proverb regarding the " pigs " that, in a preceding note, oar " Oivis " now makes merry over the protest of Irishmen in New York against the calling by Irish names of beasts in tbe zoological gardens — drawing on his stage-Irish experience to make the matter more offensive to Irish colonists than even it had been made by the Loo don correspondent of the Otago Daily limeti Such a refinement of Cockney wit, at least, is not above what we should expect to find in oar festive friend I We remember having heard old men, gome thirty or forty years ago, describing a corps of volunteers or militia, or something of the kind, who, at the beginning of the century, had been sent over from England to Ireland. They had been recruited in the iluma of London, and bore all the marks in their persons of their origon. Poor, stunted, bandy-legged, miserable-looking fellows, they were. When askeJ what brought them there their reply was that they bad come over to " keep down the Paddies." Infinite indignation and disgust characterised the memory the old men retained of them. Those sickly stiplings, they said, owing to their armed condition and the forces at their back, had been able to hold the fine, spirited, strapping, Irish country-boys in subjection. Any paltry scribbler, now-a-days, who can publish his productions in a newspaper circulating widely among the general population has an advantage of a section of the people less generally represented, and can turn them into ridicule with comparative impunity. The mauvait genre, moreover, of such scribblers has gone far to promote and iusUin ill-feeling between the peoples of Great Britain and Ireland. But to return to our " Civis," we have dealt with bis upper note ; we now come to his lower note. We pass by, possibly as out of oar depth, our friend's display of " lamia' and piety " with respect to St Paul and the Epicureans. Tne soliloquy he speaks of was a soliloquy composed by himself and gratuitously placed by him in the mouth of the Government otndida'e for Bruce, and in it these words occurred as our " Civis " acknowledges, " Nobody believes that I care a dump for religions education, not even old Moran himself." Qui Jacit per altim facit per se. We leave it to the scholarship of oar " Oivis " to substitute the more appropriate verb ; but the truth remains the same. The words are our refined friend's own, and it is another effort of his toughness to make Mr Lee Smith accountable for them. We altogether deny that any public utterance made by that gentleman authorised our " Civis " to father on him a coarsely disrespectful allusion to the Bishop of Dunedin. The appeal of our " Oivis " to St Paul and tbe Epicurean philosophy, besides its slight tone of irreverence, is altogether beside the question. No, do. Compare the note above with the note below, and you will have the words

the Tablet quoted. Litera toripta manet. There it is in black and white— not all tbe toaghuess anl all the slyness even ot half»adozen Joey Bs cou'd blot it out. But we have produoed a bad effect on our " Civis." We have reduced his moral standing to a lower level, He tells as he is no longer capable of being shocked at anything he may read in our columns. Nay, what is worse, he says he is amused at it. Wbat kind of character, we should like to know* is that of the man whom depravity amuses and does not shook. For our own part, on the contrary, we acknowledge oar indebtedness 1 to oar festive friend. It ig oar misfortune and not oar fault if we have so ill requited his favours. We confess again that we have foand the perusal of his notes quite as improving to as as the advioe ot a Mrs General must be to any young lady in search of a true refinement — " Papa, potatoes, prunes, and prism I "

It seems to as very strange that there should be an INTEREST- any hesitatioo among the Presbyterian body as to ing question, the absolute necessity of reading the Bible in the

schools. Considering what their professions are as to the effects of reading the Bible, it might naturally appear that they would make this tbe one thing needful, ard cast away all other considerations and all other interests with respect to it. From the report of the meeting of the Dunedin Presbytery held last week, it would appear that sucb was not the case. If thers was not indifference shown by some of the ministers who spoke on the subject, there was at least hesitation and donbt. A communication had been received to tbe effect that the committee appointed on the question had recommended ministers to insist on the importance and neoessity of reading the Bible in the schools, and office-bearers to exert them* selves for the return of Parliamentary candidates pledged to support their claim. Strange to say tbe recommendation was opposed by some of the ministers as impracticable. The Bey Mr Porter, for example, went so far as to express a doubt as to whether even a single voter could be influenced in the desired direction. Tbe Bey Mr Dutton Slid he was satisfied th it most of tbe congregations were not in earnest in tbe matter. Let us hope that the views expressed by Mr K. B. Cargill, wbo was also present, may prove to be more to tbe purpose They were certainly more manly, as well as more in accordance with wisdom and justice. We quote from the report given by the Daily Times:—" Mr Cargill said there was no reason why wbat had been done in London and other large cities in the old country should not be done here, and if they were strong in demanding that the Bib'e should be introduced into tbe public schools of the colony, and sought the aid of other churcbee, they would get what they wanted before long. As to the claims of tbe Catholics, he did not see any objection to their getting a grant for their schools. la Scotland and in Ireland tbe Catholic schools bad an allowance like all other schools, and he could not see why the people of this colony should seek to perpe u*te a system of opposition to the claims of the Catholics, and try to make tbereselves different from the people of other countries. He thought that was the opinion of a good many of the Presbyterians in town, and it was a great pity that their claims should be raised on that occasion. What the presbytery had to do was to get their people to introduce the Bible into the pnblic schools for the benefit, of their children They should keep that point in view, and let the difficulties take care of themselves." The result of tbe'discussion was the appoinment of a conference on tbe subject, to be held in a fortnight. It renmns, therefore, for us to ccc whether the professions of tbe Presbyterian body as to the effects of Bible reading are a mere empty echo of a belief entertained sincerely by them io dayß gone by. If such proves to be the case, we may regret that a form of Christianity, however imperfect, gives way before the advance of infidelity. If the Presbyterian bxly remain firm in their faith it is impossible for them to assign to Bible-reading a pUce secondary to that occupied by anything . The result ot the conference alluded to, therefore, besides ita particular interest as referring to the public schools, will possess for us a general interest as relating to the Presbyterian body as a body of professing Christians.

Cub suburban representative, Mr W. Dawion, bM nothing also been addressing his constituents. Mr Dawson, PABTICULAB however, is not very remarkable as an orator. His peom A silent chairman, in fact, on the occasion alluded to, membeb. thought it necessary to excuse him for not having spoken tit greater length in the House. It wh not always the greatest talker, he said, who was the best Member, or who

did the largest amount of work. Bat, on the other hand, we most remember that, m George Eliot, or Shakespeare before her, has told nt, lilmot ia not always a note of wisdom. It is not necessarily the silent Member who is the best Member or the more effect ire worker. From what Mr Dawson says, when be does talk, we should say that his is a case in point. Mr Dawson, in bis speech, in fact, said nothing particular. All his strain appeared to be a feeble repetition of what we had heard before. We do not, however, clearly recollect whom it was that Mr Dawson's special craze originated with, Most of oar nonentities, it may be observed, have a distinctive craze. For one it is the single-tax ; for another it is the State Bank— an institution, we may remark in passing, that, to some minds at least, may be taken as signifying unlimited loans at nominal interest and no repayment. Mr Dawson's craze is the State school farm, where he would have the children of the Colony generally tangbt, at the pnblio expense, to milk cows and make butter. And yet Mr Dawson admits— somebody no doubt has told him— that the education system, even as it exists, is costing a large ram of money. That, indeed, seems to be the only thing about it that be clearly understands. " There is one thing certain," he said, " and that is that it is costing a large sum of money every year, but under it every child of the Colony is assured of a good education." Children, nevertheless, who need it most— the children of parents who cannot afford to keep them long enough at school— are assured of nothing of the kind. Someone also has crammed Mr Dawson with the clap-trap relative to the Catholic claim. He gives us the usual rub-down of not a quite inoffensive sympathy . He admires our sacrifices, but that is all. Somebody has told him that, if we got what wo want and have a right to, all the othsr denominations would each want as much, Mr Dawson has not the nous to ses that his own line of argument contradicts his conclusion. He argues that the other denominations, seeing that Catholics obtained their rights, would demand the same concessions, and, they being a great deal more numerous, would obtain them. But if the other denominations desired to make their influence in the matter felt at the polling-booth, as Mr Dawson says they wonld, they would do so now. It is an insulting charge to bring against them that they waive their claims, and themselves submit to what they regard as injury and injustice, merely to perpetuate injustice to their Oat hoi ie neighbours. Mr Daweon, however, is not accountable. He has heard this argument used, and he takes it up. Logicians of his calibre are incapable of independent views. — The apology, then, made by bis chairman for Mr Dawson was hardly necessary. It is rather to his credit than otherwise that he did not, as bis chairman ■aid, fill many pages of JSantard. Let us give the hon Member credit for all that is due to him. He had nothing to say, and, therefore, he held his tongue. Hansard \% none the worse of his reticence. We do not know, indeed, that the columns of the Daily Times are much the better of the couple of columns that our contemporary has devoted to the report of a very common-place and stupid speech.

An amendment to the Home Rule Bill that has A PAINFUL with apparent reason, caused a good deal of dis. AMENDMENT, satisfaction among tbe National party, has been

one relating to aliens. Details, of course, we have •till to receive, but, from the general information conveyed to ns by tbe cable, we may conclude that a question of the privileges of American citizens in Ireland was involved in the matter. Lord Cranbome, Lord Salisbury's son, indeed, as we are told, tried to make a point of the matter against the Liberal party generally by representing them as hostile to Americans. Mr Gladstone, however, with a rebuke addressed to the noble lord, as one of the bitterest Members in the House, explained that the intention of the Government was only to preserve to the Imperial Government th*"ir full right with respect to foreign nat ons. What, nevertheless, could be more natural than that the Irish party should be anxious to extend, as it were, the hospitality of their particular hearth to tbe American citizen ? What can be harder for them than to regard as aliens their kindred beyond tbe Atlantic, or the members of that kindly people who have given their kindred a welcome, and all the consideration that enables them to make on their shores a new and more prosperous home T Who, besides, more than the people of America have taken a principal part in the present struggle, or to whom are the prospects of its success more due? To refuse to the American citizen a complete participation in any privilege that the people of lieland themselves may enjoy must needs seem an act of black ingratitude. We can, therefore, easily understand that the Irish Members would be taken aback at an amendment proposing to bind their hands in the matter, and implying at least a possibility that disabilities m ght be imposed in Ireland on members of a people to whom the country owed so much — multitudes of whom, in facf, were as much bonnd to the country by ties of blood and affection aa if they had never crossed the ocean. It was a poiut on which it would be impossible to avoid a keen affection of sentiment. Still Mr Gladstone's attitude on the aubject is not incomprehensible, nor is it altogether incapable of defence. Welcome as the American citiren must ever be in Ireland, and anxious as the Irish people must always be to repay Americans lor the inestimable benefits they have so generously conferred upon

them, there are still instances in which American interests are widely at variance with those of Great Britain. There are questions, for example, of national privileges, such as that now pending with regard to the seal fisheries in the Behring Sea. There are questions of trade and commerce, and tbe probabilities are, not of a decrease of such conflicting interests, but of their growth, as the yean go by. If the Panama Canal, tor instance, ever beoomes a reality, a vast increase of the kind, as well as, perhaps, a oreation of other dirficu). ties, may be expected. To ensure to America, therefore, a settled and unalterable hold on any part of tbe United Kingdom would be a step that could hardly be taken with due regard to tbe interests oE the Kingdom at large. But it is to support and forward these interests that Mr Gladstone is pledged. His advocacy of Home Bute itself, in fact, is only justifiable on the grounds that he sees it to be conducive to the promotion of these interests. Tbe situation, therefore, so far as it has been reported to us, seems easy to understand. We fully share tbe sentiment of the Irish party, and perceive the pain they suffered at the disappointment it met with. Bat we are forced to recognise the exigencies of Mr Gladstone's position and to admit that the course of action taken by him, as viewed frpm the standpoint be occupied, was just and prudent. Lord Oranborne might turn tbe matter to account by an attempt to distort it. Any other course, nevertheless, would have exposed to his bitterness— to tbe weapon bitterly and cunningly aimed by him against Irish independence, a vulnerable point.

Thk man of the future has scored a success. Sir A conquering Robert Stout has been returned for Inangahoa — hero? the tng of war, therefore, now begins. It will take

the shape, we need hardly say, of an effort to form so to speak, the patent incubator in which the coming race it to be hatched. Now it once happened to us to be acquainted with the case of a lady who, having been brought up in a town, was unexpectedly but inevitably,called upon to eater upon the direction of a farm house and its surroundings. A kindly neighbour undertook to give her some insight into the nature of her unaccustomed duties, and among other things introduced her to a cluokiog hen sitting on a clutch of duck-eggs. The neophyte was astonished to learn that ducklings, nit chickens, would come out. We greatly fear that the brood produced in Sir Robert Stout's incubator will follow the example of those misguided ducklings and derive their nature from tho parent birds. We greatly fear that evea under the influence of Sir Robert Stout's batching apparatus goose-eggs will not prod ace swans. Has not Sir Robert himself indeed led as to form such fears? We have not forgotten various utterances of his in which the fatalities of heredity were dealt with. But what are the chances that Sir Robert will succeed even in his effort to form the patent incubator? Some there are who hint that be re-enters public life not to build up, or aid in doing so, but to destroy. The coach of State, they say, may become top-heavy by his weight and topple over. Well, for our own part, we shall predict nothing. Very much, in our opinion, cannot be made of Sir Robert Stout's return. It has been, in fact, almost a foregone conclusion— nay, it has been something of a downfall for Sir Robert, A man of his eminence certainly should not have been obliged to go away from the greater centres where he was personally known— to seek election in a comparatively obscure quarter. It is proverbial too, that distance lenda enchantment to the view, and the favour of the Inangahua electors must, in some degree, be taken at a discount. The veteran moreover, contrary to his evident assumption, was obliged to lust >in a contest, finally, though ably championed, beating an inexperienced and untried competitor by a majority of considerably less than one third of the total number of votes polled. What again has been the meaning of that championship bestowed on Sir Robert's candidature by the roaring lion of those parts—aided, if we understand aright by a jackal or two ? Does a statesman whose ambition it is to do away altogether with party government seek, in all sincerity, to strengthen the form of government he seeks to overturn ? Or doei he, relying as perhaps he rationally may, on Sir Robert's changing fancies and aptitude for catching up novel ideai", hope to find in him * cocvert and an ally ? We cannot tell, and possibly we are not singular in our ignorance. We shall, however, watch with interest the struggle for the formation of the patent incubator. The struggle we may add , begins under somewhat inauspicious circumstances. Its leader goes in by a bye-election for a comparatively obscure constituency and for one session only. Never did a conquering heio make ( his appearance on the scene less strikingly, or more like a mere no* body glad to find a door open anywhere. The formation of this patent incubator— for hatching swans from goose-eggs — begins, then under inglorious auspices.

" Kkmo," in the Dnnedin Evening Star, suppliei us AN explana- with tha following :— " The hostility of the tion with A Tablet to the national system of education has vengeance, always been very bitter, but it might fairly have

been expected that, when the conductors of that journal sought to lay a foal charge at the door of the system, they

would have made absolutely sure of their ground. Last week our Greymouth contemporary came under their lash, because it com* mendsd to the notice of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in this colony the example set to the American Hierarchy by Monsignor Satolli, the Papal Legate to that country. The Orey River Argvt had suggested that the Tablet shonl.l omit its ' standing leader,' and the organ of Bishop Moran made this reply : ' While the Tablet continues to be published our leader will stand, and will remain a true statement of things, until either tbe grievance plainly stated is remedied, or the infallible Church renounces one of her everlasting principles— and that will be never. A particular answer we will give as well. It would be criminal on our part to withdraw our protest against tbe attempt made to drive Catholic children into secular schools. Could we stand by with folded arms, for example, while our children were being bounded into that school in Auckland that was lately closed because shameful disease had broken out among its pupils !' Now, the charge set forth in the concluding part of the extract I have made is just one of those suppressions of tbe truth that are worse than a downright lie. It is another of these distortions of fact that are employed by opponents of the national system for the purpose o defaming that system. The ordinary reader would imagine that a terrible business bad been enacted in one cf the State schools in Auckland city. The fact, however, is, as tbe Tablet's writer could have learned had he troubled himself to inquire, that the occurrence took place in a small coal mining d : strict, and was discovered by tbe master of the local State school, and his inquiries satisfied him that tbe trouble had arisen through a girl of immoral habits who was not attendiog the school. The School Committee closed tbe scbo>l for a week to enable them to make a searching inquiry, which fully bore out what tbe master had reported to them. The affair, unfortunate though it is, has no bearing whatever on our school system, because the principal offender was bayood school age, was not in attendance at the school ie question, and was entirely beyond the control of the school authorities, whose action, I am informed, has received the approval of all the parents of children attending the school. Doubtless tbe Tablet's object of throwing mud at the

national system in the hope that torn? of it will stick has been served, I don't expect that the writer will be manly enough to admit that be was ill-informed." Well it must, in fact, be something a little less funny than this that shall arouse our manliness and make us admit that we were illinformed. Since the " principal offender " was a girl beyond school age, and not in attendance at the school, " Nems " thinks it was all right. He acknowledges, however, that there was "trouble" connected with the school, and t h-*t the school was consequently cloßed. We understand thit the name Auckland applies to a province as well as to a city. We used it indefinitely to avoid pointing out the particular school Bat the closing of a school in the city would necessarily have a'tracted general attention. It was plain, therefore, that our allusion was to a country district. We may add, in conclusion, that a breach of morals in the country parts might appear quite as grave as a breach of morals in the towo — nor d ,es the comparative obscurity of the locality seem to furnieh a valid excuse. Every one, however, bas a right to his opinion — even our '•Nemo" — some of whose tenets, aa we have seen, appear decidedly peculiar.

The Catholic population of Glasgow are coneratnlating themselves on the election to the Town Council of the first Oatbolic. Mr James M'Kenzie, who has been thus honoured, is a young Glasgow merchant. His family ia well known in Glasgow Catholic circles, and his uncle, Mr John M'Kenzie, has been a munificent contribu'or to the funds of the Church in the city. He has already done excellent work on the City Parochial Board, on wnich he has been a member for some five years.

Myers and Co., Dentists, Octagon, corner of George street The guarantee highest class work at moderate fees. Tbeir artificial teeth give general satisfaction, and the fact of them supplying a temporary 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 eets equally moderate. The administration of nitrous oxide gas is also a great boon to those Deeding the extraction of a tooth. Bead— [Advt.