The 'Bran-tub' Again

New Zealand Tablet, 2 August 1906, Page 9

The 'Bran-tub' Again

In the Dunedin ' Evening Star ' of July 20, there is a report of a ' sale of work.' Its object (we are told) was ' raising funds for the renovation. of the South Dunedin Presbyterian church ', and the proceedings were ' promoted ' by ' the Ladies' Guild of that institution \ Here is a sentence from the report, which will interest our readers, in view of the recenb discussion on churchlotteries in Wellington :—: — ' The bran-tub, shooting competitions, art gallery and other side shows were in charge of members of the Young Men's Bible Class '. On Catholic and. Presbyterian principles, our friends of the Kirk were perfectly entitled to carry on their bran-tub lottery, so long as the requisite conditions were duly observed. And we have no doubt that they were. But what view will the Wellington Council of the Churches take of the matter ? Alack ! we wot not. The Council has (as everybody knows) supreme charge of tne public conscience of New Zealand. Like Janus Bifrons, it has two faces. In other words, it has two sets of irreconcilable ' guiding principles ' that, like two hostile bull-dogs, should be kennelled in two different counties if Ihey are to be prevented making cats-meat of each other. One of the Council's faces frowns a malediction upon every form of resort to ' chance ' or ' artificial risk ', and pronounces it ' in-toto ' wrong and sinful. The other beams a smiling blessing upon the magsman, the welsher, the thimble-rigger, and the three-card monte man, and (so far as ' gambling ' is concerned) writes them out a title clear to the kingdom of he a ven. Which face will the Council turn towards our Presbyterian friends in South Dunedin ? The one that smiles or the one that frowns ? And which tongue will speak— the one that utters a benison upon all manner of lotteries, or the one that pronounces upon all lotteries a glowing anathema maranatha ? Heaven only knows. We ' give it up '. If the lottery were conducted by Catholics for a Catholic purpose, the riddle would be easily read. For the same hard f a ce is ever turned by the Council towards us from New Year's Day to St Sylvester's— ' As the sunflower turns on its god when he sets The same look that it turned when he rose.' But non-Catholic church-lotteries are quite a different thing, ye ken. And we are only a man, not an Oednus that reads like a book the riddles of caprice.