Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 21, 29 September 1898, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The British Parliament has at last, after the the irish dis- close of a century that has been dotted with tress. Irish famines, seized hold of the true inward-

ness of the periodical distress in the West and South of Ireland. Mr. Davitt has brought the matter under the notice of the House and estimated that the relief of the everrecurring distress in the West during the present century has involved an expenditure of £8,000,000, and that over £100,000 have been spent in allaying the recent want — £50,000 frcm the public funds, £10,000 expended by the Poor Law Guardians out of the rates, and £50,000 contributed by benevolent persons in the United States, the British Isles, and the Colonies. Of the last-mentioned sum, close on £1000 have been forwarded to the most distressful country through the medium of the N.Z. Tablet — a sum which is, I believe, far in excess of the total amount contributed for the same purpose by all the other Australasian colonies combined.

Mr. Balfour has no panacea, but at the same time he has sufficiently grasped two of the main producing fartois of this chronic state ot misery and half-bankruptcy which lonn the disgrace of successive I r ish administrations : They are (i) lack of industries; (2) too small holdings — those that have to meet the first and bilterest brunt ot hunger being the tillers ot fouracre plots ot wild bog or mountain. Mr. Baltour advocates an increase in the variety of agricultural products, coupled with an increase in the number ot trades and professions. ' Unless we can increase the size of the holdings,' said he in Parliament on the 9th August, ' I cannot see how it is possible altogether to pre\ ent the recurrence ot these periodical seasons of distress when the potato disease makes its periodical visitations.' The Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity have long since been solving both difficulties on a small scale. It remains for the Government to come forward now and apply a final and permanent remedy to a state of things that has been brought about by the natural action of a peculiarly obnoxious system of land laws.

The Pope's Encyclical to the Scottish the pope Bishops, which appears elsewhere in our and colums to-day, has given the English Scotland. Churchman one of the opportunities v.hich

it eagerly seizes for stirring up the muddy waters of sectarian h.ile. While admitting that the letter of ' Pope Pecci ' 'has been prepared with consummate skill,' it professes to regard it —Heaven knows why — as ' a shameless affront ' to the Scottish people, comparable only to the establishment of a 'foreign (!) hierarch) ' in the Land o' Cakes by the same Pope twenty years -go—' an arrogant insult to the British Constitution which,' sayb the Churchman with charming naievte, ' Scottish people failed to perceive at the time.' Keen, far-seeing Sand) 's perception seems to be quite as dull to-day as then. 'So far as we have observed,' says the Churchman, 'the Scottish Press has remained practically silent, instead of sounding the trumpet of alarm and arousing the people to a sense of the shameless insult offered by the Italian prelate to their Scriptural faith.' It is, however, a comfort to learn, even in the perfervid language of the Churchman, that the Catholic Church has been striding with seven-league boots in the Land o* the Leal. The Churchman calls this progress ' aggression,' but, in the circumstances, we can afford the term a triendly smile :—: — ' The aggression of the Papacy north of the Tweed during the Pontificate of the present occupant of Peter's chair, whether we regard the increase ot Roman Catholic institutions, including churches, monasteries, convents, colleges and schools, or organisations of a less public but more dangerous description, has met with a measure of success far exceeding the most sanguine expectations of the Vatican.'

The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes is noted for aid from with- his airy juggling with figures. Some time out. ago he endeavoured, with the aid of carefully cooked statistics, to show that Catholicism was actually declining in England. The real figures, being promptly produced, blew him up, metaphorically, as high as if they had been a round of Dewey's melinite shells. He now finds that the Church of England is, after all, the most powerful ally of the Church of Rome. I quote the following from a letter of his which was published in a recent issue of the Times : — ' Speaking only on my personal and private capacity I am strongly of the opinion of the late Pope that the State Church of this countr) [England], instead of being at this moment a bar to the progress of Romanism, is doing more for Romanism than any other non-Roman Church in the world.'

There is much rending of hearts if not of nuns owners garments among our Presbyterian friends in

of a presby- Victoria. Chalmers' Church, Melbourne — terianchurch. hallowed by so many memories dear to the

heart of Presbyterians — has been sold. The money has been paid, the transfer made, and the building, with its imposing spire and Dr. Cairns' £400 pulpit, has passed into other hands. It so happens that the • other hands ' belong to the Sisters of Charity. Hinc illce lachrimce — hence the trouble. An attempt to disturb the transfer is not likely to prove successful. The Scotch College Council endeavoured to induce the board of health to prevent the church being turned into a hospital. It appears, however, that the Sisters of Charity have not yet decided on the use to which the building will be turned. As for the Board of Health, it ' has no power,' says the Argus, ' to interfere with the erection of a general hospital on the site so long as certain prescribed conditions are complied with, and there is no reason to believe that these would not be observed, as they apply to almost every hospital, public or private. An infectious diseases hospital could not be erected, as the space conditions could not be complied with. Whatever other objection may be entered to the proximity of a general hospital where infectious cases are not admitted, it, at least, is not dangerous to public health if properly conducted, and when it ceased to be properly conducted it would be competent for the Board of Public Health to close it.'

Australia has given many a word and manners and phrase to the English language. The words morals in the 'larrikin' and ' larrikinism ' have all but school. received citizenship in the language. Even Comettant has devised the French word laurekin to express the type so well known on Melbourne and Sydney street corners. ' Larrikinism in London,' and ' Larrikinism in Paris ' are now familiar headings in some of the great London dailies. In Paris, larrikinism takes the shape of brutal language and conduct, rioting, etc., by young bullies armed with knuckle-dusters, knives, and revolvers. Whole districts in London — and especially in South London — are terrorised by organised gangs of youthful savages. Police and magistrates are kept busy, but thus far severe sentences seem to have had very little effect in deterring youthful scoundrelism or protecting the public.

* * * A correspondence in the columns of the Daily Telegraph shows considerable unanimity in agreeing with the Dean of St. Paul's that the new terror of London had its origin in the school system. The New Zealand Tablet has been for 26 years combating the idea that the imparting of a knowledge of decimals or vulgar fractions, etc., is the all -sufficient work of the school. Without the doctrines of religion and the principles of morality, the three R's may serve, in many instances, only to turn scholars into clever ruffians. ' Dock the " ologies," ' says one writer, 'and substitute a little instruction in good manners and moral obligations.' 'We were told,' said another, 1 that when the new [secular] system of education was

introduced, as the masses become educated, they would become refined. Alas ! the contrary is the general experience. Anyone having the misfortune to live near a Board School or to pass by one when the scholars are leaving, can testify to the habitual rowdiness of their behaviour and the filthincss of their language.' Ido not know whether or how far the experience of other persons is similar to mine, but my contact wiih Stateinstructed children — of both sexes — leaving school is certainly not of a pleasant kind.

A London daily announces the unveiling at A change. Winchester (Protestant Cathedral) of a window erected ' in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin.' It used to be the ' Virgin Mary ' (says the Ceylon Catholic Messenger). We are glad Protestants are getting civil to Our Lady. She will not be outdone in kindliness.

We have all heard of the Caliph Haroun al tall tales. Raschid, Gulliver's travels, Robinson Crusoe, and even the Pacha of many tales, but we never dreamed that a second opportunit> of studying a champion relater of travellers' tales would occur in the present generation, for the unfortunate nobleman who languished in prison, Sir R. C. D. Tichborne must be regarded as one. Yet here he comes along. Monsieur Louis de Rougemont has worked two instalments of his wonderful adventures off his chest, thanks to an editor of a new magazine, the Wide World. For the sake of those who are fond of the marvellous in fiction a sketch of them may be useful. De Rougemont's adventures recall the callow new chum days when an orphaned 'Jackeroo' is 'stuffed' by unfeeling station-hands with all sorts of true adventures, which he preserves for future dispensing to his successors. Here is how de Rougemonl breaks in on an awe stricken public. He gets away to the South Seas pearl shelling with a white man and a crew of Malay divers. No human being is ever met with. His occupation was the simple one of opening oyster shells. This may have inspired the idea of making the world his oyster. This is what he is doing now. Of course everybody else is speedily drowned and de Rougemont is wrecked on a sand-spit about a hundred yards long by ten wide. Previous to that he had interviewed a sea serpent and watched the Malays drowning a shark, and seen a baby octopus take down a boat with her crew, all of which phenomena are quite new. He had a dog with him, and he learned to ride buck-jumping turtles in the water, making use of the beasts' eye holes as stirrups or bridle indiscriminately. He became a skilled acrobat, anJ, of course, built a boat which he could not get out ot the water hole. He was the architect of his own castle, which was of oyster shells. He likewise grew a crop of wheat by sowing the seed in turtle shells containing a mixture of sea-sand and turtle soup — I beg pardon, turtle-blood; but a flight of parrots came and ate it all up. Also he tamed pelicans and taught them to catch his fish. He got over to the mainland of Australia, near Cambridge Gult, became king of a race of cannibals, and married one of their princesses. Of course every body that could check his tale obligingly died off or was eaten or drowned — even two young English ladies who had been kept in captivity by the savages. De Rougemont never saw anything but plains of milk and honey, gold bcaiing country richer than anything ever heard of, commonly carried pots and pans of virgin gold in his swag, and finally, alone and friendless, came out after about a quarter of a century ot exploration at Coolgardie. Having taken in the British Association, can you wonder that a syndicate is being formed to see all these wonders ? The South Sea Bubble will be a trifle compared to it. Yet that is what is being done in London. All good Australians will hope to get a share of De Rougemont's pots and pans of solid gold, and of the endless square miles of country where lumps of gold strew the plains like great crops of stones, or like the precious stones in Sindbad's Valley of Diamonds. Freely translate his name and call the syndicate the ' Bla/ing Lamp.'

T' E anti-Ritualistic epidemic has broken nut ritualism in in Sydney as well as in New Zealand. A Sydney. cable message says: — 'In the Anglican Synod there was a long and warm debate on the question of growing Ritualistic irregularities. T! c Synod eventually adopted a resolution d< daring that the tight ol ordaining, changing, and abolishing the ceremonies or i m-s ol the Church is inheritant in every particular nation i! church, and does not rest exclusively with the ministry or any section thereof.' The resolution is somewhat ' mixed.' Neve' - theless, our Anglican friends arc beginning to realise in a practical manner the need of authonty, as against the riotrunning- of private judgment, in religion. The great groundwork principle of the Reformation is getting gradually relormed out of existence.