Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 44, 1 March 1895, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HO ME AND ABROAD.

JOCK mckenzie's SPEECH.

The very plain speech of a very plain man. Such was the address delivered in Dunedin, on Wednesday, the 20th mat, by the Hon J >hn McKenzie There was certainly no attempt made by the speaker at a display of eloquence — and we should say that neither was he attempting to pass off for truth statements that he did not himself believe. We would fain hope, nevertheless, that he took an exaggerated, even tbough a sincere, view of the dealing with him of the Conservative Preas in general, and the Otago Daily Times in particular. Otherwise there must be a degree of baseness among journalists that no honest man would care to con* template. For our own part, although we have occasionally to complain of prejudice and unfairness among our contemporaries, we nrely find their conduct impossible in a gentleman, and, without very strong evidence, we should hardly be prepared to accept such an accusation as just. Mr McKenzie, no doubt, haa now and then been roughly trea'ed in the heat of political feeling — but it mnst be admitted that he himself can be pretty rough in returning the compliment. But Mr McKenzie does not seem at all heated in the combat. Surely the wild Highland blood that courses in his ve'ns must be tempered by some pawky Lowland strain. In days gone by some arceetor of his had wooed and won some fair Lowland lass, and "Jock" has inherited the self-restraint of his great-grandmother, Or perhaps it was the colder tongue, that of the Sacsanach, that subdued his utterance to the more proper tone. There was not a note to remind ns of the spirit in which the Celt rebukeß his foe. The ring of the " salacharan an donais " was absent throughout from Mr HcKenzie'a sentences. To bring it out the presence of Mr Earnsbaw was possibly necessary— and Mr Karnshaw was not there. At least we heard a member of the audience explain to another that he was not — and that if he was he would certainly not ba on the platform. For our personal information, we may add, an opera glass would have been needful— and indeed, judging by the favour in which he stands such as it is, the naked eye of many people can hardly see Mr Earnehaw as he really exißts. Mr McKenzie, as we have said , was a plain man making a plain speech. No word spoken by him disturbed the calmness of his hearers, or prevented them from reflecting on its mianing. Mr McKenzie, however, tol 1 a tale in which it would be very hard to detect a flaw. His figures, we admit, seemed perfect. It will at least be quite impossible for any one to contradict them until some prominent member of the Oppoßiiioa com^s f irward with a list drawn from official documents, and shows errora in the su -traction and division, if not in the addition and multiplication, that in timte gone by, when the dominie was still a dominie, would have brought down the tawse heavily on the urchin guilty of them. A great part of the speech, moreover, was taken up with figures, and it should give that member of the Opposition iome trouble to cook hie list in reply. But Conservative politicians are skilful and well exercised cooks. Witb the settlement of the land, the most important of all Colonial questions, Mr McKenzie dealt in a manner that was at once interesting and satisfactory. Here he was able to cite fac's as well as figures and what kind of ''chiels" facts are is known to all of us. The account given of the '' white elephants " — ihat is to say, the lands purchastd by the Government — was particularly cheering and seemed to promise great things for the future. The bona fide effort of the Government to place a population on the lands, whicn is their chief merit — and in itself sufficient to cover a multitude of sine, is certainly that which subjec's them to the keenest and most determined opposition. Some attempt, we see meantime, has been made to discredit the character of the meeting addiessed by the Minister. ]be meeting was a very large one, and eminently respectable both in appe» ranee and conduct. It was more reflective than enthusiastic, as the manner of the address induced it to be — but there can be no doubt that it was fully representative, and that the vote of confidence in the speaker, and the Ministry generally — prop aei by Mr J. P. Armstrong, and seconded by Mr John Carroll— was an important

Mb He aly on education.

expression of the feeling of the citizens of Dunediu. Mr McKenzie, we repca', spoke as a plain man, but he spoke as a man honestly expressing his convictions — and the policy stated by him as that of his Government was a policy promising good things for the Colony in general. Mb Timothy Hea.lt, speaking recently at Gross* maglen, gave a very decided expression of hia views on education. Mr Healy had been defending himself against a charge of disse sion which wu brought against him. " Thfra are," he said, " in Kngland large questions affecting the rights of our fellow-eoun'rymen and our fellow-CBiholicB. Scandal was given on a recent occasion by the action of some gentlemen in reference to this question of religiooi education, Now, let me say as a layman that I take a view with regard to the question of religious education and its effect on the government of men somewhat, it may be, of a civil character, as distinct from the views which you, very rev and rev friends, may bold. It is this : If the State sets the seal of secularism upon public education, paid for by the taxpayer, it cannot complain afterwards of the Anarchist and the Dynamitard. Lat the people of any country be brought np in a negation of God aTd of the teachings of conscence and the State can have nothing to rely upon afterwards but the policenun and the convict cell and the penal hulks for tbtenforcement of its laws. We saw through a cantury of strife and bloodshed the attempt to found a R 'public in Franca. We s*w the thousands of men who were sent to the scaff ild, the millions of men who fell in battle to sustain the Republican idea. And then when after a century of strife, and after all the sacrifices that the French Republicans made to attain their ideal of government, what was the result ? The godless system of education which they established nursed as its product men to fling bombs ia the faces of their Republican Chamber of Deputies ; and we saw another of the products of their godless code stab to the heart the President of the French Republic. Therefore I say that those politicians who strive for the attainment of secular liber y are laying a very poor foundation for the government of men by divorcing from the minds of youth the sanctions of faith, which, in my juigmeot, are a ntcess.ry cement to good citiz nship in building up a State." " Hence," he continued, " I viewei with anxiety the action of those wtu>, when authority, acting within its jurisdiction — as I conceive Cardinal Vaughan strictly acted on this question of education — puts forward his views not as a politician, not seeking, as I beMeve, to efft-ct any political design, but simply carrying out tha Gospel and the mandate of his Master with a view to provide that the children of four millirns of people — a population nearly as large as that of Ireland — should not be deprived of inowledge of the tenets of Cbrifctianity common to both Protestant and to Catholic — the ordinary simple formulas of our common creed — that he should without provocation be assailed by Irish politicians on the ground that hia action was inconvenient to a political party. After having thought over the matter in 'he months that have gone by since this scandal arose, and after I had ample time to farm my c inclusions, and having remained hitherto Bilent, 1 now declare that I ondrimn such procedure, anl will have neither part nor lot in euch policies (applause)." " Perhaps," added tbe spaaker, " this expression of opinion will be called ' dissension.' If a<>, 1 would ask is there no dissension on the part of those who cast an outrage upon Caraiml Vaughan 1 (hear, hear.) li th>Te no dissension m creating scandal in toe minds of milnonß of their fellow-coujtrymen by vio'ently assailing the educational position of a Prince of our Faith, and ia there only dissension and disunion when, not upon an eternal isbue but on a matter of ephemeral politics, we yen ure to disagree either with the procedure of the chairman of the Irish Party or any one of his colleagues of the Parliamentary Commutes? (Uheers.) " Mr Healy wont on to refer to the case of the Irish Christian Brothers, ani to point out how the recommendation made even by a Board composed of Conservative Protestants that their claim tc State aid ehuuld ba admitted was refused by tbe Home Hule Government. " Tnere are," be concluded, ''many who thiiik that he lapse of years brings nbout possibilries of appeasement, and therefore that no time may «fter all be lost by whit has occurred. I trust it will bo so, and that if in the

end it shonld be found that the Christian Brothers and their pupils receive a larger measure of redresa and of reform in consequence of tbe delay, we will be able to say that 'out of evil cometh good,' and we shall be very happy to forget the incident, and be prepared to turn over a new leaf in our minds."

ODDS AND ENDS.

The recent death of Mr Thomas Dugdale Curry of the Evening Standard, recalls an episode of the Franco-German war whicb, although it was of a minor nature and confined to private life, web not without some wider interest— for Irish people particularly. Mr Onrry at the time was sub-editor of Galignani's Messenger, an English paper, as everyone knows, published in Paris'. He was arrested on a charge of sympathy with the Germans, based on the fact that he was known to be a graduate of the University of Bonn, and to retain a friendly feeling for the people among whom he had been educated. It was in the anger caused by the defeat— the debdole of which Zola has written — and little evidence was needed or sought for. The prisoner stood in imminent danger of being shot, and in all probability wonld have suffered this penalty bat for the spirited conduct of his wife. This lady — a daughter of tbe late James Perrin, Bsq: J.P., of Leinster Lodge, in the County Kildare, and niece of the late Bight Hon Louis Perrin, formerly justice of the Queen's Benchlost no time in appealing, as an Irishwoman, to tbe consideration of the military authorities. She, however, met with some rough treatment in the task, and it may well be imagined that it required a heroic effort on the part of a lady of a somewhat exceptional refinement and delicacy, to go for days from one guard room to another in the middle of a soldiery who regarded her as a representative of the people against whom they were incensed. The reward of a brave woman and a good wife was that at length the authorities recognised her right as an Irishwomaa to a favourable hearing and her husband was released. The fact that, at such a time, and under such circumstances, Fiench sympathy for Ireland obtained an expression appears to us worthy of record. The Ballarat correspondent of the Melbourne Age of February 9, records he death of a gentleman, who, lie says, had been connected with the youDg Ireland Party, aal associated with Thorn \s Francis Meagher, Charles Gavan Duffy, and othere. The name is not familiar to us in this connection, though the associations of its bearer bespeak for him, as a young Irelander, no common independence and Btrengtb of character. The gentleman referred to is the late Mr R. Le Poer Trench, a retired judge of the County Court, who died soms three or four weeks ago at the age of 83, Deceased, says the correspondent, was a son of the lite Hon and Very Rev Charles Le Poer Trench, D.D., Archdeacon of Ballinasloe, and grandson of the first Karl of Clancarty. That statement alone, we should say, proves how completely in admitting national sympathies he must have departed from tbe traditions of bis family. Archdeacon Trench, besides, if we may judge from the manner in which bis memory survived, was a man of a somewhat remarkable personality. Mr Trench, whose political falling off must have lost for him the support of a family influence in Ireland little, if anything, inferior to that of the Beresfords, bad nevertheless a prosperous career in Victoria. " Sir Graham (then Mr} Beny," says the correspondent, " when forming his first Government in 1875, appointed Mr Treucb, who did not occupy a seat in Parliament, tis /Utorney-General, and in 1877, when Mr Berry organised his second Government, Mr Trench was again placed in charge of the Crown Law Department. In 1878 be was raised to the dignity of Q.C, and in 1880 he was appointed County Court judge, He also discharged the duties of Lmd Tax Commissioner." Btmething, however, possibly a good deal, he must have sacrificed for the sake of Ireland, and, therefore, his m mory deserves from us a word of resptct. " The deceased leaves a family of five — three daughters and two sons. One of tbe latter la an officer in the Grown Lands department of New bouth Wales. Mr Trench, in professional circles and in private life, was remarkable for his amiable and kindly disposition, and the news of his death will cjuso regret in a wide circle." Here is an anecdote of "Bully" Egan— a wJI-knowo Dublin characer of the last century — tbat, seems worth reproduction. We find it in an old volume of tne Irish Penny Journal — bat it U partinent to the existing situa ion. Kgiu, at tbe time when the Bill for the Union was under debate, was chairman of Kilmainham. He was expected to support tbe Bill, and he looked opon dismissal from his place as certain should he oppose it. " However," says the Journal, •• when the time for the division had arrived, his love of country preponderating over his love ol pelf, he voted against the measure, exultlogly exclaiming ' Ireland for ever, and Kilmainham to the devil.' Doubt lefii since Bully Bgan's days many po)r lellowi bave repeated his words— and bad good cause to do so.

The work of providing for tbe spiritual needs of Catholic sailorß has now been actively taken up in iNew York. A leading room for tbeir use has been opened at 296, W. Tentb-street. it is in the very btart of Ibe setmeu'B district,