Untitled

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 26, 1 July 1909, Page 1009

Hair-« restoring * Judging from a paragraph that is now going the rounds of the press, one at least of our New Zealand cities is doing a considerable trade in the manufacture of those triumphs of hope over experience, hair ' restorers.' Hope, indeed, seems to spring eternal in the breasts of those whose top-knot is thinning — or gone, leaving them, in nautical phrase, to run the course of old age ' under bare poles.' Synesius, a learned man of the fifth century, wrote a sort of panegyric on baldness. We do not kno.v that he convinced anybody — except, perhaps, those who, making a virtue of a necessity, bore with resignation the affliction which Artemus Ward describes as ' a barefooted head.' Some years ago (according to the Contemporary Review) one M. Sebouriand announced the discovery that baldness is due to a specific microbe — it is always either a microbe or a sun-spot nowadays. And soon afterwards a German savant came forth with an account of the discovery of another microbe which was the ' natural enemy ' of the first. But the latter does not seem to have been, thus far, harnessed to work. London Truth's bard sang to the rival microbes a lay of l which the following is the closing stanza: ' So all this research microscopic Which has tracked these new germs to their lair; All the pars, on a hair-splitting topic Leave things very much as they were; And whichever bacillus proves winner, We shall probably have to deplore That our hair still goes on getting thinner, v # The same as before.' Domestic Science Some gloom-pampered dyspeptic once described a "bad cook as ' a hired assassin.' Josh Billings insists that every woman should learn how to be a reasonably good cook, and he is ' reddy to sware that if a man kin git a woman who can fri pankakes on both sides without burning them, and don't hanker to be a women's kommitty, the marrid state is a heaven and arth awl to onst.' The Otago University is just now (with generous outside, help) endeavoring to make provision for a chair of Domestic Science, and thereby promote ' heaven-and-arth ' homes. It was, we think, an experienced English matron who wa3 asked by her daughter, on the eve of the latter's wedding, for some hints as to the management of her future husband. 'Feed the brute!' quoth the plain-spoken dame. The recently formed American Home Economics Association makes this, in effect, one of its methods of reforming social life with the aid of pots and pans and other such household ware. 'We believe,' recently said their president, 'that if all public schools of reasonable size, a"s well as universities and colleges, could be equipped with departments of domestic art and science, living conditions would improve materially, and that less household material would go to waste, the health of individuals would be better, the actual cost of living would decrease, and folk would be much happier.' This is- a variant of a ' wisdom ' of the famous French gourmet, Brillat-Savarin, that the happiness of a nation depends to an extent upon the way m which its food is cooked. They cook it well in France — so well that even the pigs are said to be happy there. « Why Men Don't Go to Church ' I In New Zealand, in Australia, in the United States, non-Catholic preachers and writers of ' letters to the editor ' are still wrestling with the problem, ' Why Men Don't

Go to Church.' The explanations of the riddle are asnumerous as the remedies for rheumatism and tic-doulou-reux. But most of the explainers avoid one rather obvious explanation as carefully as Mr. Vincent Crummies' Hamlet avoided thrusting his stage-sword where the legs of his opponent were plainly visible through the threadbare screen. Mr. Joseph Braithwaite (a non-Catholic and former .Mayor of Dunedin) ' touches the spot ' in the course of a letter to the Otago Daily Times. ' I believe,' writes he, ' tlie main cause of unbelief, and therefore of nortchurchgoing, in this country is the absence, for 35 years, of daily religious teaching in our public schools. It will take a moral earthquake to put this right.' A substantially similar verdict was recently given by the Rev. Dr. Charles P. Aked, pastor of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in New York. ' You have,,' said he, ' poure'cl out your wealth upon universities and other instilutions of learning. I am not likely to depreciate it. But this I know: that your educational system will fail if your religion droops and dies. Your education without religion may work the destruction of the social system yon are aiming to build up.' ' The best minds of the nation,' said the well-known Jewish Rabbi of Chicago, Dr. Emil G. Hirsch in a. recent discourse, ' now agree that there must be some system of moral training in the public schools. - The eighteenth century theory that knowledge is all sufficient to the building of character is a mistake and an exploded idea. To-day every master of pedagogy is certain that the imparting of knowledge, unless supplemented by something else, is insufficient in building character and virtue. The Catholic Church has long held this contention, and that Church is undoubtedly correct in its insistence that education must be more than a mere transfer of knowledge.' And Rabbi Hirsch bears out, in turn, what* was said by Professor Coe, of the Northwestern University, in the course of a lecture in the same city over six years ago : ' The position of Roman Catholics in regard to religion and education, and their policy in the establishment of parochial schools, are absolutely correct. For corroboration of this opinion,' added he, ' I refer you to the work, Philosophy of Education, by Dr. Arnold Tompkins, principal of the Chicago Normal School, in which he says religious character is the proper end of all education.' Catholics and Crime Statistics Here and there throughout New Zealand- there have been bouts of controversy over Sir Robert Stout's foolish statement that the children trained in State schools ' produce only half as many criminals in • proportion to their number as those trained in the denominational schools. 1 There are, of course, no statistics whatever to give th-j smallest color to such a statement. The latest discussion, on the theme took place in the New Zealand Times ("Wellington) between an ex-headmaster (Mr. Gammell, who defended Sir Robert Stout) and Father Yenning, S.M., who has- made the subject of* denominational prisonstatistics quite a speciality. Father Yenning scored easily and all along the line. The only regret one feels is that his fresh exposure of the worthlessness.of our prisonstatistics, by denominations, could not have fallen upon Sir Robert Stout instead of his local champion. As it was, the ex-headmaster served the same function as did the First Charles's whipping boy — he dutifully submitted himself to be drubbed for his master's faults. Space does not permit us to give Father Venning's communications in detail. We give, however, the following extracts from the last word in the controversy (New Zealand Times, June 23) : Dealing with the fallacious assumption that all Catholic children in the Dominion are educated in Catholic schools, Father Yenning says: ' "The total number of children of European descent (including such "half-castes as live among Europeans) known to be receiving education at school at the end of 1906 was 159,281" (Year Book, 1908, p. 212). Now Catholics in New Zealand are 14.32 per cent, of the total population— or about one in seven. (Year Book, p. 182). We can very reasonably suppose, then, that Catholics have at least one-seventh of the total number of school children in New Zealand. Mr. Gammell will grant that much. . . He might extend his favors and frankly admit that Catholics should have at least 22,754 children attending school in New Zealand (oneseventh of the total number). But what do we find? Only half that number are really trained at our Catholic schools in New Zealand! "There was an attendance, "if 11,948 children at the 154 Catholic schools in New Zealand at the end of 1906" (Year Book, p. 212). . . I must confess these figures are painful to me. Only about 50 per cent, of our Catholic children in New Zealand are .attending Catholic schools!'

Father Yenning challenged Sir Robert Stout's defender to make good the following four undue assumptions

of his chief : « (1) That all the criminals in New Zealand are duly caught, ticketed, and entered up. (2) That a proper and correct record is kept of the religious beliefs of all the "criminals" in the Dominion. (3) That all those (or even 60 per cent.) who are labelled "Roman Catholic " on the prison records are really members of thw Catholic Church. (4) That all those who ate on the gaol records as "Roman Catholic" have been educated at a Catholic school.' In the absence of such proof (which, of course, was not forthcoming), Father Yenning proceeded to dynamite, one by one, these false v assumptions of Sir Robert Stout. Dealing with the third of these, the Father says in part : ' (c) I say that not all those who are labelled "Roman Catholic" on the gaol records are members of the Catholic Church. This point was proved conclusively in my last letter. It is not necessary to go over the ground again. Mr. Gammell is very simple. He seems to think that the gaolers in New Zealand hold a sort of examination or religious test for prisoners (much on the lines oi a test for the admission of Chinese to New Zealand). No such thing. The unchallenged statements of prisoners — many of whom are lineal descendants of Ananias — are entered in the gaol books without the least fuss, and there they will remain till doomsday. Such men will never hesitate to lie about their religious belief if the^ get it into their degenerate heads that there is the 'faintest shadow of a prospect of any advantage to be gained by doing so. It is a curious and persistent freak, Mr. Gammell. You show yourself very innocent in your knowledge of prisoners and their many artful dodges. Prison statistics furnish absolutely no reliable evidence that Catholics are any worse thaii' others. "It would be mischievously misleading to place any reliance on figures of tha kind. As the criminal statistics stand they can be twisted into all Sorts of shapes."— (Editorial article, New Zealand Times, June 4). If Mr. Gammell can obtain the permission of the gaoler of the Terrace Gaol to inspect the gaol records, and you, Mr. Editor, will put a reporter at my disposal, I will guarantee to find, not one, but dozens <f prisoners of recent date who have made false declarations as to their religious belief.'

and which, if it has now been called forth so generously by the advent of misfortune^ has its one true cause in the charity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. For since there is not and there cannot be in the world any charity worthy of the name except through Christ, to Him alone must be attributed all the fruits of it, even in men of lax faith or hostile to religion, who are indebted for whatever vestiges of charity they may possess to the civilisation introduced by Christ which they have not yet succeeded in throwing off entirely and expelling from human society. For this mighty movement of those who would console their Father and help their brethren in their public and private afflictions, words can hardly express Our emotion and Our gratitude. These feelings We have already made known on more than one occasion to individuals, but We cannot delay any longer to give a public expression of Our thanks first of all to you, Venerable Brothers, and through you to all the faithful entrusted to your care. The Pope's Gratitude. So, too, We would make public profession of Our gratitude for the' many striking demonstrations of affection and reverence which have been offered Us by Our most beloved children in all parts of the world on the occasion of Our sacerdotal jubilee. Most grateful have" they been to Us, not so much for Our own sake as for the sake of religion and the Church, as being a profession of fearless faith and as it were a public manifestation" of due honor to Christ and His Church, by the respect ' shown to him whom the Lord has placed over His family. ' Other fruits of the same kind, too, have greatly rejoiced TJs : the celebrations with which dioceses in North America have commemorated the centenary of their foundation, returning everlasting thanks to God for having added so many children to the Catholic Church; the splendid sight presented by the most noble island of Britain in the restored honor paid with such wonderful pomp within its confines -to the Blessed Eucharist, in the presence of a dense multitude and with a crown formed of Our Venerable Brothers, and of Our own Legate; and in France, where the afflicted Church dried her tears to see such brilliant triumphs of the August Sacrament, especially in the town of Lourdes, the fiftieth anniversary of whose origin We have also been rejoiced to witness commemorated with such solemnity. In these and other facts all must see, and let the enemies of the Catholicism be persuaded of it, that the splendor of ceremonial, and the devotion paid to the August Mother of God, and even the filial homage offered to the Supreme Pontiff, are all destined finally for the glory of God, that Christ may be all and in all, that the Kingdom of God may be established on earth, and eternal salvation gained for men. This triumph of God on earth, both in individuals an 3 in society^ is but the return of the erring to God through Christ, and to Christ through the Church, which We announced as the programme of Our Pontificate both lv Our first Apostolic Letters E supremi Apostolatus Cathedra and many times since then. To this return We look with confidence, and Our plans and hopes are all designed to lead' to it as to a port in which the storms even of the present life are at rest. And this is why We are grateful for the homage paid to the Church in Our humble person, as being, with God's help, a sign of the return of the Nations to Christ and a closer uniou with Peter and the Church. The Centenary, of St. Anselm. This affectionate union, varying in intensity according to time and place, and differing in its mode of expression, seems in, the designs of Providence to grow stronger an the times grow more difficult for the cause of, sound teaching, of sacred discipline, of the liberty of the Church. We have examples of this in the Saints of other centuries, whom God raised up to resist by their virtue and wisdom the, fury of persecution against the Church and the diffusion of iniquity in the world. One of these We wish especially in these Letters to commemorate, now that the eighth centenary of his death is being solemnly celebrated. We mean the Doctor Anselm of Aosta, most vigorous exponent of Catholic truth and defender of the rights of the Church, first as Monk and Abbot in France, and later a|s Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate in England. It is not inappropriate, We think, after the Jubilee Feasts, celebrated with unwonted splendor, of two other Doctors of Holy Church, Gregory the Great and John Chrysostom, one the light of the Western, the other of the Eastern Church, to fix our gaze on this other star which if it differs in brightness from them, yet compares well with them in their course, and sheds abroad a light of doctrine and example not less^salutary than theirs. Nay, in some respects it might be said even- more salutary, inasmuch as Anselm is nearer to us in time, place, temperament, studies, and there is a closer similarity with our own days in the nature of the conflicts borne by him, in the kind of pastoral activity he displayed, in the method of teaching

applied and largely promoted by him, by his disciples, by his writings, all composed in defence of the Christian religion, for the benefit of souls, and for the guidance of all theologians who were to teach sacred letters according to the scholastic method. Thus as in the darkness of the night while some stars are setting others rise to light the world, so the sons succeed to the Fathers to illumine theChurch, and among these St. Anselm shone forth as a most brilliant star. Anselm in the Eyes of his Contemporaries. In the eyes of the best of his contemporaries Anselm seemed to shine as a luminary of sanctity and learning amid the darkness of the error and iniquity of the age in which he lived. He was in truth a prince of the faith, an ornament of the Church, ... a glory of the episcopate, a man outranking all the great men of his time, both learned and good and brilliant in speech, a- man of splendid intellect whose reputation was such that it has been well written of him that there was no man in the world then who would say: Anselm is less than I, or -like me — and hence esteemed by Kings, Princes, and Supreme Pontiffs, as well as by his brethren in religion and by tue faithful, nay, beloved even by his enemies. While he was still Abbot the great and most powerful Pontiff Gregory ' VII. wrote him letters breathing esteem and affection ah*i recommending the Catholic Church and himself to his^ prayers; to him also wrote Urban 11. recognising his distinction in religion and learning ; in many and most affectionate letters Paschal 11. extolled his reverent devotion, strong faith, his pious and persevering zeal, his authority in religion and knowledge -which easily induced the Pontiff to accede to his requests and made him not hesitate to call him tin most learned arid devout of the bishops of England. And yet Anselm in his own eyes Avas but a despicable and unknown good-for-nothing, a man of no parts, sinful in his life. Nor did this great modesty and most sincere humility detract in the least from his high thinking, whatever may be said to the contrary by men of depraved life and judgment, of whom the Scripture says that the animal man undcrstandeth not the things of the spirit of God. And more wonderful still, greatness of soul and unconquerable constancy, tried in so many ways by troubles, attacks, exiles, were in him blended with such gentle and pleasing manners that he was able to calm the angry passions of his enemies and win the hearts of those wha were enraged against him, so that the very men to whom his cause was. hostile praised him because he was good. Thus in him there existed a wonderful harmony between qualities which the world falsely judges to be irreconcileable and contradictory: simplicity and greatness,, humility and magnanimity, strength and gentleness, knowledge and piety, so that both in the beginning and throughout the whole course of his religious life he urns singularly esteemed by all as a model of ,sanctity and doctrine. The Character of his Time. Nor was this double merit of Anselm con lined within the walls of his own household or within the limits of the school — it went forth thence as from a military tent into the dust and the glare of the highway. For, as We have already hinted, Anselm" fell on,. difficult days and had to undertake fierce battles in defence of justice and truth. Naturally inclined though he was to a life of contemplation and study, he was obliged to plunge into the most varied and important occupations, even those affecting the government of the Church, and thus to be drawn into the worst turmoils of his agitated age. With his sweet and most gentle temperament he was forced, out of love for sound doctrine and for the sanctity of the Church, to give up a life of peace, the friendship of the great ones of the world, the favors of the powerful, the united affection, which he at first enjoyed, of his very brethren in religion and in the episcopate, to live in daily trials, in troubles of all kinds. Thus, finding England full of hatred and dangers, he was forced to oppose a vigorous resistance to kings and princes, usurpers and tyrants over the Church and* the, people, against weak or unworthy ministers of the sacred office, against the ignorance and ' vice of the great and small alike; ever a valiant defender of the faith and morals, of the dispipline and liberty, and^ therefore also of the' sanctity and doctrine, of the ' Church of God, and thus truly worthy of that further encomium of Paschal: Thanks be to God that in you the authority of the Bishop ever prevails, and that, "although set vn the midst of barbarians, you are not deterred from announcing the truth either by the violence of tyrants, or the favor of the powerful, neither by the flame of fire or the force of arms ; and again : We rejoice because by ( the grace of God you are neither disturbed by threats nor moved by promises. I In view of all this, it is only right, Venerable Brothers, that We, after a lapse of eight centuries, should rejoice

like Our Predecessor Paschal, and echoing his words return thanks to God. But at 'the same time, it is a pleasure for Us to ' be able to exhort you to fix your eyes on this luminary of doctrine and sanctity who, rising here in Italy, shone for over thirty yfcars upon France, for more than fifteen years upon England, and finally upon the whole Church, as a tower of strength and beauty. (To be continued.)