Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 30 July 1908, Page 22

Notes

' The Government this week has been forced to unsheathe the rWi, W * C ? P °? Wlt s u V u IC }l ' Ur - McKen ™ ftad threatened the Church schoo s, and behold a .dummy and a sham. It is explained that the Church is not so criminal as was thought. In other words, the bye-elections have proved it to have more friends possessing votes than was supposed. Accordingly the "short, simple, and drastic Bill" of February last has become in the brief space of three months " admittedly only a draft for amendpromise^- 6 " DaHy NN ° WS a basis for com ~-

But (as the ' Saturday Review ' remarks) on the question of religious education, ' for the Church to bargain is to palter with principle, and to do that is to be lost.' And the Birrell Bill, the McKenna Bill, and the S. Asaph Bills 'all mean the same thing— the State establishment and endowment of a Parliamentary compromise, historic Christianity being relegated to the position of a tolerated extra, a fancy article to be paid for out of the pockets of those eccentrics who believe in it.' It is, practically, the sort of 'simple Scripture teaching,' of miscalled •^sectarianism' and ' undenominationalism '— a pandenominational compromise on somewhat pantheistic lines— so long pressed for, in a score of protean forms, by the defunct Bible-in-Schools League in New Zealand. On such a question, the Church can never compromise— whatever the denominations may be content to do. In England, the tendency of some leaders of the Anglican Church to bargain and compromise in the battle for definite Christian education may yet have the upshot described in the ' Saturday Review ' by an Anglican Churchman. Paltering now on the part of the Established Church would (he opines) give to the Church of Rome ' the greatest opportunity that the last four hundred years have brought her in England.' 'There can,' he adds, ' be no rest for any earnest heart within tho gates of a Church that dare betray her heritage and forsake her ehildion.'

The American Fleet Mr. Donald Macdonald, the war correspondent, expressed a fooling which is in the mind of many New Zealanders as well as of Australians, when he said in Auckland the other day : ' The Commonwealth has laid itself out to do the fleet visit well. -Australians all have the same feeling that, in view of what may happen in the future, there cannot be too good an understanding between Great Britain and America ; and they want to do their share to express the hope and belief that, in the event of serious Eastern complications, the United States will spell " us",.' The Quebec Celebrations The tercentenary celebrations of the foundation of Quebec by French Catholics have been carried out, according to the cable messages, with surpassing impressiveness and splendor. The)' suggest to the ' Catholic Times ' the contrast that exists between the spirit that animates modern colonisers and that which inspired the Catholic explorers of former days. ' Champlain, the founder and father of the City of Quebec, was,' says our Liverpool contemporary, ' a daring warrior. But he was more than that. In his wanderings he carried with him' the ardent desire to make ,the teaching of Christianity the rule of life for all with whom he came in contact. His acts, as recorded b) his biographer, were all prompted and guided by religious motives. Some one read to him every morning at table the work of an instructive historian, and in the evening he listened to and meditated on the Lives of the Saints. Then each member of the household made an examination of his conscience in his own chamber, and prayers, which were recited kneeling, followed. Three limes each day the Angelus was rung. In his voyages Champlain laid down for his sailors regulations which were as strict with regard to religious services as if they were intended for the occupants of a monastery. By his will, like a pious knight of earlier limes, he bequeathed all his possessions to the Blessed Virgin, and his wife, who was a convert, became a nun. The people of Quebec during the days of their commemoration can trace in their earliest annals many signs and examples of Christian heroism.' The English Education Question The clever surgeon cuts straight to the seat of the disorder. And the ' Saturday Review ' ' gels its finger" on the spot ' with equal directness," in the course of a recent editorial article dealing with the cause and the significance of the recent compromise in regard to the English Education proposals. ' It aptly compares the threatened ' drastic Bill ' of Mr. McKenna to Yussuf's harmless sword of lath in Marryat's delightful' Pacha of Many Tales.' Then it adds :