PESSIMISM v. OPTIMISM.

New Zealand Tablet, 17 May 1917, Page 38

PESSIMISM v. OPTIMISM.

To the Editor. Sir, —The thoughtless optimist who persistently protests against an exposition of facts —well, a shirker! Germany, by her philosophy of militarism, taught her people to think in terms of war. She developed and husbanded her resources and steadily prepared for any contingency that may militate against her policy of peaceful penetration and commercial expansion. England was warned, but she had not the moral courage to face facts. Blatchford sought to rouse the country to a recognition of the impending peril, but England, was deaf to these warning words. She slept on ! Now, sir, your commentary on the ''German Retirement " was obviously sounded" in conformity with the policy of warning given by Lord Roberts and Robert Blatchford. ;v. The most prolific commodity * in the English? market is : over-assurance. . It is a misdirected patriotism that underestimates the strength of the ■Bjlflmv. and minimises the danger at our doors. The*

misguided patriots (? jingoes) who control the daily papers throughout N.Z. are a menace to the successful prosecution of events. Disillusionment follows disillusionment. It is unadulterated jingoistic logic that would accept every allied offensive as "The beginning of the end." Too often has the public accepted these deductions emanating from ill-informed war critics—correspondents obsessed of an overweening confidence and extravagant optimism which distorts their vision. A certain correspondent in a recent issue of your paper apparently accepts the emanations from the daily press with absolute assurance. The commentary in your columns of the German retirement was based on authentic information. The correspondent referred to would prefer the immature effusions of some inexperienced paragraphist of the daily press to the studied deductions of eminent war. critics. I, sir, read all commentaries on the war with an open mind. Ido not start with preconceived notions of what the truth ought to be. I recognise that if Britain had entered this war with more, caution and less jingoistic assurance and blatant bombast our expectations of a speedy and decisive victory would be nearer realisation. The situation is: yet mournfully serious; but beyond the rocks and the shallows I will please your correspondent by trying to see a silver lining.—l am, etc.,l- ,"'"'"■ : ~ .Wellington. ; ' V W;,R; Murphy.

but ever mindful of the Divine Promise no Catholic doubted but that the Church would deal with them as effectively in the future as she had in the past, and that the gates of hell would never be suffered to prevail against her. But our teachers had not met, merely to moralise over the problems of the hour or the evidence of God’s presence with His Church through all the ages. They were met to discuss school work in its most practical form, and the duty of the week for all was, as will be seen from the account of the proceedings, nobly done. The programme showed that certain topics, such as English history, science, civics, and Christian art in the school—all subjects of vital interest in these days—were to be very comprehensively dealt with, and in addition to these, recent hostile legislation came in for special notice, as Catholics in the Dominion, bitterly resent the attempts of a certain section in Parliament to confine the advantages accruing from certain scholarship and bursary funds to public school pupils, thus penalising the children of Catholic parents who conscientiously object to bartering their spiritual welfare for the merely temporal, by denying them a religions education. This is justly felt to be a great hardship and a blot on the escutcheon of a little nation whose motto is ostensibly “ Freedom.” It is not as if Catholics were asking a special favor in demanding this.

No Ascendancy is Sought Over Public Schools nor are Catholics influenced solely by political motives in striving to make their schools second to none in efficiency. They are simply adhering to the principles of Catholicity, and to the watchword which the Church through all the ages would engrave over the lintel of every schoolroom, For God and Country.”,

Finally, to the enquirer who would still ask ‘‘What has the conference done?” we can point very proudly to a distinct achievement since the first conference in Easter, 1916. The main results are four in number — viz., (1) The establishment of the Diocesan Catholic Teachers’ Institute. (2) The appointment of a diocesan inspector for religious knowledge. (3) The new syllabus of religious knowledge. (4) The inception of a system of observation days in Catholic schools. In addition to these was also established a junior Newman Society, which has done excellent work on the lines suggested by his Holiness Pope Pius X. for students attending grammar schools and universities. A Catholic magazine has been founded and distributed freely to every Catholic school pupil, it being used as a supplementary Catholic reader and vehicle for the exchange of work, and notably of historical essays. Of the moral effect of the conference on teachers, parents, and pupils, it would be difficult to estimate the importance, but it suffices to say that a new note of confidence was visible on every side that resulted in the schools responding in an increased earnestness of purpose that cannot fail to influence all future work.

It has been suggested that the special activities for the following year should follow the suggestion made by Rev. Father Edge, that a special course in the study of Catholic dogma should be provided for the teachers in accordance with) the precedent of the Victorian Catholic Teachers’ Association. This will probably be given effect to, but in the meantime there is no fear of much grass growing on the Auckland educational highroads so long as the body of religious teachers manifests such professional keenness.