The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, November 19, 1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1025, 19 November 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, November 19, 1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Rev Father O’Connell treated a crowded congregation at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Auckland, to some very plain speaking in respect to race suicide, on a recent Sunday. He said : “Because of a dreadful sin which is so prevalent in our country and other lauds, men in every land are raising their voices against that terrible crime known as the decline of the birthrate. There are many whited sepulchres parading the streets adorning their bodies with all that money can buy, despising the authority of God, and refusing to do what God has decreed. They are bringing down the curse of God upon their home, and on all those connected with them. The horror of suffering was advanced as a reason for violating the Divine decree. They found round about them the great cry, ‘There must be no more children.’ So there were empty cradles, and an absence of little ones from the schoolrooms. They knew that the evil existed in New Zealand ; that legislators raised their voice against it. They knew that in Australia, to their shame, they were offering a bonus lor motherhood. He feared very much that men and women entered the state of marriage through unworthy motives, rather than for the sacramental help offered in the Divine decree.” The worthy cleric is to be commended for attempting to awaken public conscience on this vital subject. Nature demands a great penalty for the violation of her laws, but thousands of women are prepared to pay the penalty rather than sacrifice their

pleasures. Our parents who pioneered this country, and who bore “the heat and burden of the day,” were each responsible for families ranging from nine to fifteen in number, and many of the old ladies are alive and well to-day. We believe the State should encourage those who are keeping the cradles full, and In this connection it is matter for regret that the Minister for Railways should consider blood stock and polo ponies of more importance than little children, so far as his Department is concerned.

Writing of laud values and speculating in the Manawatu, the New Zealand Farmer says : “It is a pity to see so much changing in the ownership of farms. It does not augur well for the future of the district if the yoemanry, or those who should be the yoemanry, are only laud speculators, buying and selling farms all the time. This is how the laud in this district, and a good many other districts, has acquired a fictitious value. The farms are changing hands every now and again, and few seem to care very much whether they pursue good farmiug methods or not. For they argue that perhaps they may not be there long. This spirit is greatly to be deprecated. There will never be much advance in agricultural development while the farmer is only holding on for a tempting price to clear out. The pioneers had different aims and objects when they went forth to reel lim the waste places and subdue the wilderness. Now almost every farmer one meets would accept an advance on his purchasing price, call a clearing sale, and be off for fresh fields and pastures new —very possibly to his regret later on. The pioneers were anxious to make homes, whereas the majority of the modern farmers are here to-day and gone to-morrow.’’