LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2776, 20 May 1916, Page 7

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VARYING OPINIONS. Sir,—lt is remarkable that at this time there should Ik so much variation in opinion, itpuu tlie suite of social and business lifo and morals of the community. On reading the opinions of 'Judges of liio Supreme Court, ancl the views of ministers of religion, together with the attitudo of certain social agitators and tho expressed convictions of Ministers of the Crown, one is almost distracted by the variety of opinion. Take the Cliief Justice. He hati ;iu>rnu?d and produced eialxmito statistics to prove that all forms of serious crime have t,ecreiised, and his view extends over a period of nearly thirty years. The Cliiet Justice' was a strong advocate of total abstinence, and even lavoured compulsory abstinence by tho State, believing that it people were compelled to abstain from alcohol there would be less crime. But flie Chief Justice has witnessed over all these years the consumption of liquor per head of the population increase and all forms of crime decrease, and has proved his case to the hilt. The Chief Justice doubtless had in view the beneficial effects of "free sccular and compulsory" education upon the social life i iwi morals of the community, and doubtless be'was right. . ■ Within'the last 'month, Justices Hosking, Cooper, and Edwards have congratulated the Dominion and the various towns and districts at which they have _ presided .during the criminal sessions of the Supreme Court upon the manifested—con. tinued and repeated manifestations—de« ctino in criuic throughout the country. On May 7, Justice Edwards, surveying tho whole field, observed: "It is mote, worthy that siuce the period of the war | there lias been a comparatively small lium- ' ber of criminal cases dealt with in the \arious districts." The Chief Justices survey - was made up to and just before the war, and Mr. Justice Edwards's is niade "since the period of the war." Coming from, such authorities, ordinary laymen must be convinced that our moral and social status is improving, and that wo have as a people "snicc tho period of the war" become less criminal and mt'erentiallymore moral.Now, take tho views of one or two -clergymen and others, who are continuously bemoaning tho drunkenness, gain* Wing, and immoral tendencies—both socially and commercially, of tho people ot I his Dominion. Just the other day a deputation, of "very gcod" people l --who, ' by drawing public atteution to any fancied weakness in their neighbours imagine tiiev are lauding themselves as being particularly virtuous in that particularwaited on Ministers to institute some feather-brained reform affecting soldiers' conduct. They, were told that their proposal was not required for the improved efficiency of tho soldier, and that tho men who were denounced by a certain well-jneauing class . in Wellington 'md elsewhere tor drunkenness had become the heroes of Anzac. The -Minister of De. fence said, in effect, "Away with yon! You know not what you ask- Do you want an evil ten thousand times worse? And they went away, not wiser and sorrowful, but more confirmed in their conceits, and pitying the Minister. It was Sir Edward Grey who said, as reported by The Dominion on May 15, that 'The Germans assert that their culture is so extraordinarily superior that it gives them the moral right to impose it on the ;est ol' .the world Lv force of .will," and ho controverted that assertion and denounced it most successfully. No section of people in this community, has the right to assume such a Germanic attitude towards the rest of tho Dominion, and attempt to impose their ways of living—their extraordinarily superior- culture—upon the whole people. We are lighting tho Germans on that account, and while we are lighting tho Germans we ought not to be expected to fight against our .neighbours who have Germanic notions, and- wish to impose them by forcc of will, or force ot petitions, or force of votes. _ Apart from all this, tho people of this Dominion can hold their heads up and look tho whole world in . the face and not lis' ashamed. Do not mistake me. - \Ve are no better socially, morally,, »r cohiine'rcially- than we' ought to be, but it is .quite a njistake for liieii like .the.R'ev'.- I)r',..Sedgwick, Bishop, of NVaiapu, to ropeat such a rash hearsay statement "that our commercial morality is at such a low ebb that it is impossible for men in New Zealand, to live a straight life and succeed commercially." Then this liislwp rattled on about the gambling and drinking propensities of our people. Gambling was shamefully prevalent, he said, worse than before the war. Dear, dear! And "the Dominion showed its unchastened attitude towards the higher life by the stand it took against the liible-in-Sciiools question." Worse and worse. Here we notice the cloven hoof of ecclesiastical domination; but let that pass. But if we are as bad as all thatdrunken, gambling, vicious, immoral, Socially and commercially—who is to blame.'' What do we keep up churches and maintain, ministers for if they neglect their job!- By seeking out strange manmade devices—patent moral medicines, so to speak—for our so-c-illed ■ social improvement, many clergy are neglecting the one thing needful for the complete regeneration of man. And when a Bishop or any plain parson tells us the peoplj are "apathetic and stipino" towards tho drink question, gambling, and immorality, one is ready to assert that the parsous are ready to. invoke the arm of tho law instead of the power of-God, and by so doing they, condemn themselves and their work. The churches' clamant need, to use Dr. Gibb's phrase, is reforming from within; and in this respect the average parson is a good deal like the average publican—lie is "tied" to vend a particular of goods or doctrines. Tne parton licensed to preach Presbyterian doctrines is "tied," for he cannot vend Eniscopalian; so the publican iicensed to sell -may be "tied" to Watson's, and Walker's is tabooed, lint for any parson, especially- a minister in Dr. Sedgwick'.* place and position, to assert apart from our wickedness generally that "we aru not yet Jit for peace or victory" is arrant* humbug. Let Dr. Sedgwick visit the. homes of.those whose loved ones are at the war, whose loved ones have sneered, bled, -and died ill this war; let Dr. Sedgwick visit the homes, of those whoso relatives have. returned maimed, and battered by the enemy, and ask if they are not lit lor peace or victory. They nre not fit for peace without victory; and it is an insult to our common sense for a Bishop to speak of (lie present-war as a special visitation of God on a frivolous and unthinking nation. This is'not God's war; it is the devils'—the Germans'—war. They made it. The British were ..not frivolous, nor unthinking, .in a religious sense, but they sought peace and pursued it, and never thought of war. Yet there are parsons who stand up. in their pulpits and charge us with drinking, gambling, social and commercial immorality—every crime in the calendar. It is not just.' It is a mischievous and malignant slander of oiir nation. It is done for the purpose of influencing weak men and sillv women and bolstering up lost causes like T!il)le-iu-Rchool, Prohibition, and anti-gambling crusades.--! am, etc., SILAS STARK. Wellington, May 18. THE RAILWAY WORKER. ■ Sir,—As a person with an unbiased mind, and one who lias had some experience of the New Zealand railway service, 1 feel it my duty to oiler some contradic; tion to the letter signed by "Jack.; From the statement he makes it is evident that he knows nothing of the conditions of the railway service, and still less about the man on the land. "Jack" objects to the railwayman ask ing for a rise (which up to the present has not been received, although paragraphs have appeared in the Press throughout the country that the rise was granted as from April 1 Inst), but if lie. had to live under, the same conditions ho would find it very hard with the present wago of 9s. per day (twentyfour hours) to make both ends meet, and provide for his family (if lie has one.). lie states: "Tho railway employee works eight hours only, sometimes less, which statement is' contrary to iact, as [ could mention stations by the dozen where the porters work anything up iO seventy-two hours, or more per week of tho year, and get no recompense whatever for overtime. So far as living in n good house is concerned, I can assuro "Jack" that when an employee mores to a fresh town be has very littlo time to pick and choose about a house, because if ho is not pretty quick the De

partment will step in and find a houss, and the question of rent is not taken into consideration. That is left for tho employee to worry over. "Jack" is al6o wide of the mark when he mentions the "smartly furnished" . home. Many a railwayman has a fair home when he joins the service, but after a few transfers (I had three in five years) the furniture has become scratched and knocked about, and presents anything but a smart appearance; in fact, I am almost ashamed of mine. ■ The "education, including music and other accomplishments," 'is what may be termed fa consummation devoutly to be wished," for would not well-educated children be valuable assets to the country? In regard tc the pension that the railwayman can lean back on in his old age, perhaps "Jack" does not know what that pension costs the railwayman. .. It costs him 5 per cent, of- his wages every month, year in and year out; and then, again, the railwaymen as a body contribute a big sum to the. "fund", by'way of fines for various trivial irregularities; therefore the railwayman has to provide his pension at his own expense (whereas the ordinary labourer gets his free gratis): I am not writing this letter with the idea' of airing grievances before the public, because the average railwayman does not want to do business that way ; but I simply want to disillusionise those who may have read "Jack's" letter, and swallowed it as solid fact. "Jack's" remarks in regard to the farmer are too ridiculous to- be given serious considers tion, for if ho cares to visit any of our small country towns he will seo for himself the hard-worked "cockie"'and family driving aljout in motor-cars and dressed in the latest and best. No, Sir ! It is of'no use for "Jack',""or any other body, to infer that the fanner is not reaping a rich harvest, for the exploitation going on at the pvesent time is too much in evidence to bear argument. Thanking you in anticipation of < insertion—l am, etc., JIMMY.