OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19150, 5 November 1927, Page 18

OBITER DICTA.

[ByK.] Religious instruction in schools is a delicate subject, but politicians arc not You cannot say a word about religion without offending somebody, but you can (at least I hope you can) say anything you like about politicians with the certainty that you will be unlucky if you are not universally applauded. Without saying anything, therefore,' about the merits or demerits of the Bill so summarily rejected by the House this week, I can quite safely say that to hear our politicians talking of education always amuses. When a politician says, with exactly the same air of authority as he uses when speaking of manures or election expenses or the vote for the Orotakahia-Waipourua railway siding (subjects upon which he can speak as something better than one of the scribes), that a thorough knowledge of the Bible is necessary to a good English style, one feels as when one hears a bald hairdresser extolling a hair-tonic. There are in the House perhaps six members who can speak and write English: Every member, of course, can lot you know what' he means, just as I can make a sort of chair with wood and nails and glue and string, but what he means is generally of as little use to the world as my chair, and not a whit more comely. One must conclude either that our politicians have not-studied the Bible, or that they have had other ambitions than to get beyond illiteracy. But it may be objected that these poor fellows must not be denied the right to give good advice. That right they must be allowed, but when illiteracy rises up to discourse.upon good English, one turns away and thanks goodness one can go to Riccarton and forget.

And when you do go to Riecarton, you will forget not only the politicians but the wretchedness of the righteous who shudder all through Carnival Week at. the thought that the totalisator is working hard. Gambling has almost defeated the Demon Rum in the contest for snpremacy amongst the cancers gnawing at the vitals of the nation. The Auckland Ministers' Association is mobilising to resist the tin hare. Those things that you see following in its train, the" Association has pointed out,' arc not greyhounds but "social and moral ills"; and. if the tin'hare comes to Auckland "the moral well-being of Auckland," "the good repute of its -public men," "the safety .of its homes," .'..and- " the character • of its young life" will vanish with a rapidity that will make the tin hare itself look" like a zinc tortoise. If it were not the tin hare, of course, itwould be something else. Professor Saintsbury, in one of his little essays, dealing with the absurd Hea-that betting is a sin, Baid/somethingiabout the reforming. busybodies whf* ; get their' theology from the news: ; ';

Tthas been urged that itris folly to combat "extinct. Satans,"' and it : might be so if real Satans were 1 extinguis'hable, which they probably are riotjust yet. But to get up sliam Satansj for the',.-purpose-'of - extinguishing, or trying •to extinguish them, is surely folly.of the foolishest, if it.is not something even, worse. ; ..

The police wiir not agree with this. Just now they are exalted by a revivalist spirit, to the. joy of the burglars, for the, burglars desire nothing better than that Mr Mcllyeney should keep, his men busy pursuing the little threepenny raffle to, raise funds for the poor. . ■'.■■',,'.

denouncing tho .righteous cannot modern girland her iJJSK 3ft below the D mo *°* Sunday CM Cancers ladder. ]£ rend Mr rent poor to the races—for **t'^W that they had no re£tS* hoy were well shaped, I'avc meant that there k**** they should be J> fether way he w« &3+ His pilt in the second Sfe and must bo explained. CS* are a snare, and as'UtaeVSi* as a fine point of view of the seVfeJ? tianity of of Scotland. It i, 4 fflflf these stern moralists men to be devout when ,©* fine or for women to -bo saJL* have graceful outlines, bat iff* difficult, and graceful TOHmSj ingly ought 1o be avoided. "vS Archer has forgotten this £s* of the grave perils that bent J? when he enters public life, jjp Dean Inge. The tually become a member orft§ ment or a City Councillor toSS but he has become Press, and even to the And here he is, *dvocaiin&W||| exercises and bathing the benefit of sunlight on sef|a

When clergymen tar.ajjfl , ing things as have I Mr Archer and Bean 'imfm* counter-action is for some kind of planation, one suppoj^ burst of opposition Some clay, perhaps, plain why A should nis on Sundays put" of B's opinion. If B "&ss*§«£ at the meeting of Association, in "breaking bath," A is is as much his could add that fiYtthtiJßK that of the what would of the Commandmla|lS®;|s then there would4'«ftW Sabbath is not a can no longer such a verb in such^||£ golf .and ing, as Sabb'^^^^M^w^iti^ : Finally he ings and and that strain the might support? made by a action told some objew^to^j^^^! 4 that he did not exercise without golfers. remain of the sains.'Opfflri|&sfffi! keep the Sabbath CIMR things about een^t Q ing for rain. , a -/i^^^ffi^