Current Topics.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7, 20 February 1908, Page 9

Current Topics.

Uniform School Books We have read a protest, issued last week, against the proposal to adopt uniform school-books for the public schools of New Zealand. And we cannot confess that either the form or the substance of the protest has impressed us much. We readily grant that, under ideal conditions, a -wide discretion in the choice of books might serve a useful educational purpose. But we are not by any means .prepared to admit that such conditions prevail throughout the Dominion, either in the primary schools, or in the High Schools, to the latter of which our remarks hereunder exclusively refer. Back even of the question of increased^ cost, two other serious considerations present themselves in this connection. One is the danger that arises from the mere faddist ; the other is the peril created by the Indiscreet m>an who has strong c views ', antipathies, or preferences in connection with religious beliefs or misbelief® or unbeliefs. It is very easy to conceive how, -with a wide discretion in the choice of histories and reading-books, a decided sectarian— even agnostic or materialistic— flaivor might be imparted to certain class-subjects. And our editorial columns have more than once given evidence that this danger is far from being a hypothetical or imaginary one. A particularly flagrant case in point was furnished during the past .year by a Boys' High School in a southern province. We make no further reference to the matter here, as we understand that the offending book— which was an outrage alike on historic truth and on the feelings of the Catholic boys who were concipelled to study the brazen caricature— was withdrawn at the close of the last term. But it illustrates what may happen under a system which allows a considerable discretion in the choice of books for use in our public secondary schools. A Lie 'Made in Germany' The ' cultivated pagan ', Lord Chesterfield, said in one of his letters to his son, that an indispensable requisite for a politician is * dexterity enough to conceal a truth without telling a lie '. In dealing with Catholic persons and institutions, the Continental news agencies in Europe appear to be seldom satisfied with this dexterous form of conveying a wrong impression; so (as our columns have many a time shown) they resort to the cruder and more elementary savagery of outright falsehood. One of the most recent instances in point was furnished by the following cable message from Berlin, which appeared in the New Zealand daily papers of December 13 :—: — c A majority of bishops, at a conference at" Cologne, headed by Dr. Kopp, Archbishop of Breslau, after discussing the Anti-Modernist Encyclical, maintained that the Vatican must be given to understand that, it must first take soundings in Germany before issuing an Encyclical affecting Germany.' / In our issue of December 19 we pointed out the intrinsically incredible nature of this story, declared that it had ' a fish-like smell ', suggested that it was a' fresh instance of the deplorable unreliability of the Continental cable agencies in connection with Catholic affairs, and requested our readers to reserve their judgment thereupon. When- our European files came to hand, we were able to state, in our issue of January 30, that the story was first set afloat by the ' Koelnische _• Zeitung,' a paper whose t hostility to the Catholic Church and the Holy See*' is alone sufficient to renderits testimony suspect on a-priori grounds ; that it was contradicted by the CathoKc press of Germany, and that the Cardinal-Archbishop, of Cologne gave an official - denial to the tale, which he characterised as ' a pure invention '. . ••«- . ■<«. i ■.

And now comes ' the most unkindes-t cut of all ' for the authors of the cafe led ' fairy-tale ' from a far-off land '. On December 26 (says the Rome correspondent of the London ' Tablet » of January 11) the ' Holy Father received a joint letter from the bishops who tooito part in the reunion at Cologne which was made the subject of the cabled romance quoted abo.ve. They laud ' the most important Encyclical on the errors of the Modernists ' as most useful, as even necessary, and as indicating the remedy for the harm which, such teachings were, doing among Christian people. ' Thank God ', they say, ' for all this,, and eternal gratitude to your Holiness, for the moment you spoke with such! authority and freedom, the world has been lit- up by Christian truth which has dispelled the darkness of error . . . and now, here we are, sincerely prepared to carry out with all our strength your commands and counsels, and to work with you with all the zeal and energy of which we are capable in tearing uip and destroying the cockle sown by the " inimicus homo,'^ ' (the enemy) ' in the field of the Lord '. * , • ' The reader can now mark how plain a tale has put down the imaginative wights who concocted the , story which the cable agency at Berlin sent tingling to the ends of the earth. In accordance with their customary policy, in such cases, the news companies that spread the falsehood through the world have taken no' notice of its double official refutation. Had there been a live Catholic cable agency for Australasia, this and such-like calumnies' from' afar would be nailed within four-and-twenity hours. As matters stand, and have stood for long, the slander is,, around the earth on the wings of the lightning before the truth begins to rub the sleep out of her eyes. And even when truth gets going, she lumbers along after the lightning at the leaden pacepf only twelve to fifteen knots an hour. Football Somewhere in his ' Anatomy of Melancholy ', burton expresses the conviction that as much valor may be needed In some amusements as in fighting. Once upon a time, courage of no mean order was required of footballers in Great Britain, and the number of players with broken limbs that ' went to grass ' and out of action in a big match was often greater than that of the soldiers whom Boer bullets smote in many a set battle in the South African war. But we have altered our football habits somewhat since then. There still lingers here and there among us a sentiment more or less reminiscent of the sanguinary c sports ' of the Caliseumi ; yet it is over-ridden by the gentler feeling of our time -and kept *n bounds by the tremendous power of modern law. Even the rough-and-tumble onset of Rugby represents the organised, sentiment against the cruder savagery of other tiires ; and the New Zealand ' all black ' and professional can enter upon a lengthy football tour, serene in the 1 conviction tfiat, so far as the rigor of the game is concerned, he will return home all in one piecer * The more savage - traditions of football are still retained among players in the United States. And the ' pastime ', as carried on there, is too often an infuriated riot in which— despite protective armor suggestive of Orecy or Poictiers— serious damage is at times done to life and limb: The ' town ' and ' gown ' ' shindies.' of Oxford -.in"' its rowdiest days could scarcely overpass the results achieved by American football, as set forth in a recent issue of the 'Record', which We quote from the Philadelphia ' Catholic" Standard:—--1 The football casualties this year foot up 11 killed, 98 injured. Last year there '^were 14 v .killed,- 103,. injured. In 1905 there were 31 killed,, 137 injured. /This " shows a diminishing mortality concurrent with an^improved form of scrimmage. The Wilkes-Barre "TimesLeader " says " the game should be further _ reformed

until the possible loss of life is altogether eliminated." This would kill the sport. The danger is a part of the lure, both for players and spectators. 1 •The! danger' of the game • is. part of the lure both for players and spectators ', , and (,we are told) that a reduction of its savagery * would .kill .tinesport'» It reminds us of Hood's poacher, who " ■ ' Kept the game alive By killing all he could '. Perhaps a still worse complexion is put upon the Matter "by an expert in the • sport ', who wrote in part as follows in a recent issue of the New York ■' Independent ' :—: — • The main trouble now is with the boys' and amateur teams, where rules are often lax— anything is fair to win, and, as was pointed out last year, the winning team often gloats over having put up a disgracefully vicious game.' Over two years ago some of the American universities took steps to mend or end football within their borders. The result was some small and halting measure of reform' in the methods of play— -as an alternative to its suppression. Thus- has history once more repeated itself. Some six centuries ago, for instance-^ in 1314— the boisterous, violence of football ,led to Its temporary suppression in England by Edward 11. Edward 111. forbade the pastime in 1349 ; Henry IV. in 1401 ; James I. 6f Scotland in the same century. Jlaires IV. of Scotland, Henry. Vlll., and Elizabeth also tried their hands at the game of suppression, but without conspicuous success. So did some of the rulers of Britain in the period between the Restoration and the Revolution. At that time headlong crowds used to pursue the bounding ball through the filthy thoroughfares of London, often sending it smashing into -linendrapers' windows, or into the Stygian abominations of the Fleet Ditch, where (as Jonathan Swift, an eye-wit-ness, averred), • Sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, and blood, Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud, Dead cats, and turnip- tops came tumbling down the flood '. In England, football died at last, rather by its own violence than through any kill-joy - legislation of Puritan or non-Puritan Parliaments. It was revived, and (in countries under the British flag) still survives, on the lines of reform. In America, however, it is even still more barbarous than the Spanish bull-fight— and a gra,ve defection from clean and civilised sport. Piano-punishing The mechanical piano-player may yet depose the piano from the place of pride that it has long occupied in the education of our budding maidens. But, pending the arrival of that happy time, the educationist pleads in vain— fungitur inani miunere— who points sorrowfully to the woful waste of time and energy which is spent upon the acquisition of an accomplishment that is seldom carried far beyond the honeymoon. In the meantime, the piano, in these countries, beeps .advancing to fresh conquests. What ' Mr. Dooley ' said recently regarding America applies equally (saving the humorist's mild hyperbole) to Australia and New Zealand :^- " cln all this broad land ye won't hardly find a house" that doesn't harbor a pianny. Rich an' poor alike, they all have them. Th' same notes ..that dhrives tb' millyonaire fr'm home to oppress th' poor,- sinds th' poor man willingly to be oppressed. -No home is complete without this large mahogany box filled with scrapiron. A pianny is th' wan .thing that distinguishes th' very poor fr'm th' pauper. - Ye'd think a man was crazy if he made two dollars a day an' spint three hundred on a brass dhrum; a slide trombone, a 'bass- fiddle, an' yet army wan iv IMm makes betther sounds' an' looks prettier. 'than a pianny. A pianny ain't, half as good lookdn' as* a thrunk or a foldin' bed. Even a.German cudden*t build anything honelier. It's made out iv th'

same kind iy wood as a coffin, an' It ain't annythinsr like, as well formed.' 6 9. ■ However, a mild emeute— which may yet become awidespread revolt-has gone on sporadically here and there against the • pianny '. And, very appropriately, it began in Germany-the land that has -done more than any other to popularise • this large mahogany box filled with, scrap-iron. Many years ago Frankfort-on-the-Mam passed a by-law which mulcted in a substantial fine any person who played. a piano with open windows After an interval, Weimar followed Frankfort's lead Then, in 1905, Cassel (in the Nassau province) • -let oat agamst the piano, but along new lines. With the sanctaon of the Landtag, the municipal council inflicted an annual tax of ten marks-equivalent to ten shillings British-recoverable by distraint, on every householder and lodger who possessed one of these instruments. Movements, a s well as mil&ical .instruments, .made in Germany', have a way of insinuating "themselves *nto other countries. The Frankfort-Weimar-Cassel example may spread. And-when other provision |s made for those persons and institutions that depend an some or any measure upon the piano for their < leg of mutton and the usual trimmin's '-the consummation will be worth the while. Our little imids at school will then have an opportunity of spending with profit learning useful womanly arts in the kitchen some at least of tflie precious hours that are now passed in finger-excursions up and down benches of imitation ivory keys. A young girl may be able to make 'the piano laugh or groan in the style of a minor Mark Hamburg, or to steal the soul of feeling from a violin as does Carrodus, or to shake trills out of her throat like a Nordica ; but If she is incapable of fulfilling the necessary womanly duties of a home, she is a ' misfit' - and not a meet companion for the sensible man whd looiks with due seriousness upon domestic life and its responsibilities. How the Plunder Goes More and more light is being thrown upon ' how the money goes ' that is being realised by the sale of the plundered property of the Church in France. Among: other things, a report on the • liquidations ' has been left by M. Guyot-Dessaigne, the late French Minister of Justice. Among other interesting particulars contained in that document, there is, says the ' Catholic Times '- of January 10, ' this reference to the liquidation^ the goods of the Augustinian Sisters of Sainte Marie de Dorette : '< M. Millerand, two pleadings, ten thousand francs." The accuracy of the statement was called "in " question and it was asserted that M. Millerand had not pleaded at all in the case. Our contemporary the- " Eclair " made an investigation and .has found that he did, b/ut only once. For that single occasion he received £400, but it was ,put down as " two pleadings:" Other revelations make it plain enough- that this was -no'", accident. .Legal gentlemen who were entrusted with acase which entailed a loss of sixty minutes of- their ■ time divided the hour into five or six parts and assigned to each " a pleading '■' for which a good round sum was oharged. Okie gentleman made a record hard to beat. JHe charged for ninety-four •" pleadings " in -a single ,-hour. Each- pleading, which figures at thirty jrfrancsj-ih.the document" left by M. Guyot-Dessaigne, must " "Tidve been- restricted tc half a dozen words or so. The Government' know how to preserve the loyalty "of their legal friends.'