CATHOLIC MENS’ CLUB, HOKITIKA

New Zealand Tablet, 3 October 1912, Page 19

CATHOLIC MENS’ CLUB, HOKITIKA

(From the club correspondent.) . September 22. On Wednesday evening, September 18, a very successful euchre tournament took place in St. Gary's Clubrooms. The prizes were kindly donated by Mrs. Bernard and Mrs. W. Darragh. Mrs. Pearns succeeded in winning the ladies' first prize, and Miss A. Daly the second. Messrs Butlard and Carmine were the winners of the gentlemen's prizes.. At the conclusion of the tournament supper was handed round. The president announced that the prizes for thenext tournament had been donated by Mesdames Quinn and Kellar. On Tuesday evening, September 17, there was a meeting of delegates from All Saints' (Anglican) Club, and St. Mary's at the Catholic Clubrooms, when it was decided to hold musical and elocutionary competitions in Hokitika during next March. There was a subcommittee set up, consisting of Messrs. de Berry, Hills, Warren, and Hanrahan, who were deputed to draw up a syllabus. • .

priest, and if they happen to be foreigners, get a substantial allowance for house-rent into .the bargain. Education is denominational in the best and fullest sense. Schools are provided and supported out of public funds for every denomination. ; When in any certain area a demand for a school is made by a stated number of parents-we believe it is fifty — a Jewish school or a Protestant school or a secular school, as the case may . be, the school is built, ,the teachers are appointed, and the children are educated as their parents wish them to be educated. If the non-Catholic parents are too few to justify the erection of a special school or the appointment of special teachers (and, remember, they must in such case be very few indeed), then their children attend the ordinary Government school safeguarded by most rigorous regulations for the protection of conscience. Every Government position, from the lowest to the highest, is open to every Belgian irrespective of creed, and the suggestion that a man's religion could disqualify him for any public position for which he was otherwise fitted would be laughed out of court in Belgium.' We wish the same could be said of Protestant England, or even of Protestant New Zealand, in this : regard. The Home Rule Government Unmoved 'Noise,', as Mark Twain long ago remarked,' proves nothing. Often a- hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.' The genial humorist might have gone further and said that mere noise is a positive indication of weakness. People who mean business, who really intend.to do any fighting, do not spoil their chance in advance by proclaiming their" intentions from the house-tops. Wherefore we conclude again, as we . have concluded before, that . though there will be a certain amount of street-rioting and rowdyism on the accomplishment of Home Rule, Ulster will not fight, in any serious sense of the expression, and there will be nothing approaching civil war. This is evidently the view, also, of Mr. Winston Churchill, as indicated in the masterly and stinging letter which we publish elsewhere in this issue, and which we cordially commend to our readers' notice. ' Men have been found,' he says, ' and will be found again, in the world to dare and suffer all things in resistance to tyranny or to a foreign conqueror, but these are not the circumstances, and with all respect, these are not the men. Their "civil war" has led to nothing more at present than the maltreatment and intimidation by gangs of hooligans of a few hundreds of isolated Belfast workmen, because they are Roman Catholics or Home Rulers, and their lynching of Ministers has, so far, only taken the form of insulting and howling down the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, and they are not very well satisfied with the results of either experiment upon their personal reputation or their party interests.' * But the point to which we wish to draw attention is the fact that all this talk about bayonets and bullets, all this Ulster ' hot air,' has not had the slightest effect on the attitude and intentions of the Government. If anything, indeed, it has stiffened them up, and made them more determined than ever to carry their programme through. ' When I dwell,' says Mr. Churchill, 'on the serious aspect of Mr. Bonar's Law's recent threats, it is not because he is likely to carry them out, or because there would be no remedy if he did. . . \ These exhibitions will not seduce the Government into weakness or into violence. We shall pursue our path patiently and soberly. ... The time may well come, after all these years of labor, when the direction of national policy should pass to others. But a transference of power will not be effected by violent means. It will not come until our work is done.' With even greater force and definiteness, the Prime Minister himself gave the same assurance in his recent great speech at Dublin. ' I assure you,' said Mr. Asquith, • not on my own behalf only, nor on behalf of my colleagues, but of the Liberal Party and the Democracy of Great Britain, that we mean to bring your cause to a complete and speedy issue.' A 'speedy issue' must be

taken to mean during the present Parliament- the term k of which extends to 1915. In other words, the Home 7? Rule Bill has a certain prospect, humanly speaking, of having passed all its stages by the end of 1914. Studying the Social Question We have already given some account in our leading columns, and further particulars are furnished in an article elsewhere in this issue, of the magnificent work which is being done by various Catholic organisations on the Continent in combatting and counteracting false social theories, and in working out in actual practice the principles laid down by Pope Leo XIII. in his famous Encyclical (technically . known as Berum No varum) on the 'Condition of the Working Classes.' In Germany alone their operations embrace the establishment of associations for production, savings and credit associations, associations of factory girls, and widespread social associations, into which members of the middle class and employers are also admitted, and the object of which is to discuss and study the social question from the Christian point of view. Both in Germany and in France, a characteristic feature of the Catholic social movement is the paramount importance attached to close and careful study of the social question. 'To know one's social duty/ said a speaker at a recent Catholic Labor Congress in France, 'is not a matter of intuition but of study.' In connection with the German associations before mentioned the priests address the workmen at least once a week, on the rights of labor and the social question. The workmen take part in the discussions, and in this manner acquire an intelligent knowledge of the principles underlying the difficult and complex problems to be faced. . In France, also, the members of the Catholic social organisations lay great stress on the need of social study. They have formed an immense number of ' study circles,' little groups of about a dozen young men, who set themselves to investigate and discuss the various social questions of the day, under the guidance of some experienced priest or layman. Great stress is laid upon co-operation with the local clergy. The results, of the inquiries and investigations conducted during the year by the 'study circles ' are collected, summarised, and discussed at the annual congresses. These gatherings, which sometimes last for days, excite the warmest interest; and dealing, as they do, with a great body of carefully ascertained facts, their deliberations and decisions are always instructive, and often highly important. * In Great Britain, also, though somewhat late in the day, there is something in the nature of a social revival;." and English Catholics are following keenly in the footsteps of their Continental brethren. The nucleus of the new movement is the Catholic Social Guild, which was inaugurated at a conference summoned by the Catholic Truth Society and held at Manchester some three years ago. According to the report for 1911, the number of members, the branches established, and the affiliated societies had all doubled during the year; and the number of towns represented had increased from 63 to 100. The objects of the guild are officially defined to be: (1) To facilitate intercourse between Catholic students and workers. (2) To assist in working'out the application of Catholic principles to actual social conditions (3) To create a wider interest among Catholics in social questions, and to secure their co-operation in promoting social reform on Catholic lines. After the example of the French and German organisations, emphasis is laid on the importance of systematic and concerted study; and in connection with the Guild*, Study Clubs are established. In order to furnish definite lines of work, the Guild has devised a scheme *in accordance with which three separate courses of study are mapped oiC examiners appointed, and certificates and diplomas granted to those who gain a given percentage of marks. Each course is divided into two stages, each of which covers one year's work; and the courses are: (a) Economic Theory . (Elementary and Advanced); (b) Social and Industrial History; and (c) Some Social Problems" of the Day (First and Second Year). Course (b) requires a certain amount of solid education, but