NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1651, 18 January 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Primate of New Zealand (Dn. Nevill), in his presidential address at tho opening of the General Synod at Nelson on Thursday, dealt with a number of questions of considerable interest. His treatment of the problems connected with the constitution, of the Church of the Province of New Zealand is aB unmistakable as it is radical. Ho.is quite convinced that the General Synod has power to alter the Constitution; in fact, he goes much further than this, and holds that tho Constitu-

tion was based on a misconception of\ tho'. legal position regarding the relations' of''the Crown and the State in England with the Church of a self-governing colony. Its f ramcrs assumed the existence of certain conditions which as a matter of fact did not exist, and therefore its _ "unalterable" fundamental provisions are ipso facto invalid. As we dealt with this question at some length in Wednesday's issuo of The ,Dominion it'is not'necessary to comment'any further on the position at the present stage. Among other matters the Primate referred to the improvement, from tho Christian point of view, in the tone of modern scientific and philosophic thought, and the increasing recognition, by the highest authorities of tho fact "that some force, 1 superior.to tho more or less mechanical forces of physical turo is required to account for the potency, purpose, and rationality observable throughout, and without which tho underlying, mysteries which display themselves, in nature are inexplicable.", Any one who has intelligently "followed tho trend of the main ; intellectual .movements of

recent years cannot fail to recognise the truth of this statement. One has only'tojlccall the pronouncements of such mot' as the late William James

in America, Jame3 Ward in-Eng-land, and EtJOKEN; in Germany, to realise how strongly/the tide of modern 'thought is moving away, from the old mechanical; conception 'of '.the universe and in the, direction: of: a definitely spiritual view. The position in France is'even more remarkable. There we see leading philosophers like. Bergson /and Boutkoux openly declaring themselves against the materialistic philosophy,' while the Roman Catholic Church, which "Some people quito mistakably, think is 'on its death-bed in thatl country, has attracted to its fold such eminent men of letters as Paul Bourget, ' Brunetiere, Rette, and Huysmanb, and is ; regaining: lost ground in' a most remarkable manner. . Air this goes to show that the World will never bo permanently satisfied with a'.purely materialistic' ..CQnwptionj,pf L »,tno,;,universe. anj.j,qf. human life, and' when the views o'£ the thinkers wo have mentionedjfilter down to the man-in-the-street a revival of general, interest in religious matters may.confidently be expected.

Everyone -is busy discussing the commercial and constitutional future "of the Empire, but useful contributions to the discussion are very. rare. One is grateful when one finds even a small grain of wheat'in the mountains of chaff; and such a.grain of corn is • contained 'in an interview with Sir George Rbid published in the Manchester Guardian of .November 30. Ho was : asked for an opinion upon tho proposal .that'the Dominions, might bo conceded a large voicein settling questions of foreign policy,„and,.ho. replied that such al development was lull of.' difficulty. One obvious difficulty which he. mentioned is contained in the fact that crisbs oan arise in a day and demand a final decision within a few hours: "If the Imperial brains' are scat,tered all over the face of the globe, how are they to be together in sufficient time to arrive at a united resolvo?".: To us that appears to bo an.almost unanswerable question, for reasons which a little reflection will discover; and' one cannot help re-echoing Sir- George Reid's wish that somebody ' would help him out of the dark: "I myself would like some responsible _ statesman,''instead of merely talking, to suggest some definite scheme." Undor any: practicable scheme of ropresentatipn on an-Imperial Council on Foreign' Affairs the representation of the Dominions would, as everyone knows, be trivial and in effect imponderable. That this might have extremely risky 'consequences has not, however, been much considered. Sir George Reid threw out a suggestion—this is the grain of wheat— whioh must bo weighed by the responsible statesmen of the Enrpire. "Ati present Australia has a national voice," ho said, v ''which is far more influential! than, if she w&sonlya humble member of an ' Imperial orchestra." He added: ''Wo should come dangerously near to getting back to the Btafce of things which provailed at the time of the North American rebellion in 1770." We may take another occasion to develop more fully the case against the suetden organic change' which alarms tho Australian High Commissioner, f ,adding here only, that an. efficient reorganisation of Imperial defence relations does not .require - that a orowbar' shall bo plunged into the Imperial machine.