IDIOSYNCRASIES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 365, 4 March 1876, Page 3

IDIOSYNCRASIES.

But'&oerif desperate iloclchead dares to Write; Why not 1- 'Art of Poetry.' I find that I was a little premature in my condemnation of Sir Julius Vogel in the matter of the Thames miners; for I observe that he has, since last I wrote, given practical effect to the idea that they should be employed out of the public money, so that he may now be considered, as it were. " clothed and in his right mind." That our foremort. statesman should in the least degree wander from the right path is, doubtless, unfortunate; but it is very consoling to think that the aberration was a slight and temporary one, I have always had a vicious tendency to look for motives, more especially as regards actions which are inconsistent with the previously expressed opinions of the actor. To this habit, therefore, I must ascribe the idea, which has got firmly fixed in my mind, but which is quite unwarranted by the facts, —that Sir Julius considered it imprudent to quarrel with Auckland at a time when Auckland was seriously meditating combining forces with Otago : It wasn't politic to withhold the money.

When men place too implicit a reliance upon honesty of motive they are very apt to overlook the fallibility of their judgment, and, as a natural sequence, are often hurried into the most obviously foolish actions. When clergymen desire to fill their churches every one acknow-' ledges the purity of their motives ; yet nearly every one condemns the folly of their attempting to attain their end by stopping Sunday trains and shutting up AthenoHims. Mr. Walter, the Mayor of Dunedin, was not long in finding out that he had committed a gross mistake in denying the Market Reserve to a literary gentleman who had been asked to lecture upon Christianity. Christianity will probably survive Mr. Bright's assaults, and. may possibly stand without Mr. Walters' assistance, so that his efforts were superfluous as well as impotent. One would have thought that it did not require this incident to teach the Mayor of Dunedin : that communities will not have their consciences kept for them by individuals, more especially when this is sought to be dono with the aid of a little secular authority. I think it was Mr. Walpole who, a few years ago, was snuffed out of bis political existence by an absurd attempt to restrict the legitimate action of a London mob. Had Mr. Walter persisted, probably he would have discovered that Colonial assemblages are quite as intractable. ♦ I have always had something of a weakness for purely secular education in a State system, and the element of compulsion added has hitherto made it more beautiful to my oblique vision. But I confess that my complacency received a rude shock when I read Bishop Moran's Pastoral, and found that the object of my admiration was an " infidel" and a " godless " system, and had a most." baneful " effect upon the rising generation..lndeed, upon the impulse of the moment, L.felt inclined to withdraw my youngsters from, school altogether; but a little reflection convinced me that, to learn to read and write and spell and think, and, generally, fight the battle of life with some 'advantages, could not be altogether hurtful; that, if it did them no good, it certainly could not do them any harm. I don t think that any system of education) can-' be called " godless " which teaches children to recognise, to value, and to use . the faculties which God has given them. In these respects the secular bids fair to be quite as successful as the denominational system. Neither do I think that it devolves upon me to sing the praises of the secular system. Most people, when left to their own judgment, are quite as much alive to its advantages as I am.

There is a full report published of Sir Julius, Vogel's speech at the banquet recently given in his honor, and there is one passage of such special importance to country districts that I. think wo would do well to keep it in mind. I mean that in which Sir Julius gives his opinion that the advihiistvaliou of the JCand Laws is of infinitely more importance to-the people than the fate of the different Provincial land funds. In my humble opinion thftre has been a great deal too much written about the Otago land fund. Wc are bound to lose it now, t br the Government hatfe a clear working majority ; and I make bold to state that we in the country districts won't miss it very much. (I was afraid to say this sooner for fear of „ being mobbed.) But we certainly will suffer if the land administration is not such as to suit our requirements. At the present time, there is no department of the public service "which affords such scope for simplification and improvement.

. " Absolute peremptory facts are bullies," says the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, " and he who deals in them is apt to develope a bullying habit of mind." Probably there is no class of facts which •tukes higher rank in the category of bullies than those known as " statistics." 1 observe, from a compilation of the ' Victorian Statist,' that the average amount of taxation per head of mean population in New Zealand is £4 Is. 2d., as against £2 Bs. o;}d. in Victoria" Each New Zealander contributes £9 12s. l|d. to the revenue ; each Victorian only £5 4s. OJd. There is expended on each New Zealander £9 10s. 4|d., and on o/;ch Victorian £5 ss. lOd. New Zealand is the heaviest taxed of all the Australasian Colonies, and South Australia the lightest- Of course it is very satisfactory for us to think that wo can bear sucn heavy burdens with" comparative ease ; and, in fact, since 1870, we have become so accustomed to dealing in millions that we can afford entirely to ■despise and almost dispense with units. It's very-pleasant while it lasts. There is nothing more curious than to 'note what widely different views different people occasionally take of the same fact. Some time ago an English author published a book which was looked upon as a most' powerful defence of two vevy opposite religious theories. But I can give a local illustration, and I.give, it the -more readily as it explains my own appearance in print in this valuable journal. "Not long ago I fell irr" with the' enterprising editor, and he, immediately recognising my special fitness for the task, engaged me to write some kind of " nonsense " for the Mount Tc/ti C'hmvich, —'giving me to understand at the same time (hat he gen-

erally did the "sense" himself. But to write nonsense was not a very easy task, as I found to my cost at the very first attempt ; and so, in my extremity, I applied to an old resident of Naseby for advice and assistance. "My dear fellow," was the reply, "you should have no difficulty whatever, for you have very excellent models of your style of writing in the leading columns of the 'Chronicle.'" Here was a difference of opinion with a vengeance. Pabthian.