New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4425, 26 May 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 1875.

We reprint, in another column, the inaugural address of Mr. J. C. Firth, President of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Institute, recently delivered at the annual meeting of that body. This address is quite out of the region of common-place and it is as free from scientific jargon as it is suggestive. It takes the correct view, in our opinion, of what should be the aims and objects of the New Zealand Institute ; an'd we sincerely hope that it may not be without effect on the governing body. Mr. Firth is an eminently practical man ; and we may add, with perfect truth, an eminently conscientious man. Traces of these characteristics are visible throughout his address ; but there is one blemish which we feel constrained to point out. His religious convictions have developed the credulous side of hi 3 nature ; and faith in revelation supersedes scientific analysis. We do not blame" the President of the Auckland Institute for this. It is in part constitutional, and in part also the result of early training. Custom often acquires the strength of a second nature in cases where originally there existed the strongest antipathies ; but in his case there was the most complete sympathy between the two, hence the tone of thought running through his address. The strength of the devotional side of his nature may be measured, to some extent, by his remarks upon Darwin and Tyndall. Now, if there be any form of scientific heresy which cannot be laid to the charge of these eminent men, it is that of dogmatism. They do not dogmatise. Their process i 3 that of scientific induction. They group together facts, and from these they arrive at general laws. Their method is simple. It appeals to reason, and an intelligent child may follow them. But they do not assume to have exhausted those subjects of inquiry on which they have been engaged. Far from it. They are learners merely ; —students in the great school of Nature ; and they come before the world from time to time, and report the progress made by them in the acquisition of knowledge. But Mr. Firth, filled with that devotional spirit which " hopeth aU "things, believeth all things," flies in the face of Tyndall, and Darwin, and Huxley, and a host of worthies who make our age honorable, and by their discoveries attest the godlike qualities of man. Because they content themselves with observing what may be known, and do not speculate on the unknown and unknowable, the President of the Auckland Institute condemns them as "relegating " mankind to the cheerless domains of a "materialism as degrading to man as it " is inimical to his true welfare." Surely not. This is not the way the patrons of science should speak' of distinguished men who keep the flame of Truth aglow in spite of the efforts of ignorance and fanaticism, which, in the sacred name of Religion, have entailed more misery on the human race, and been the direct cause of more.crime and slaughter, than, can be laid, to the charge of Atllla, or any other " scourge of God," who devastated the :fair face of this earth to gratify an insatiable ambition and lust of power. Let us put the question pointedly to Mr. Firth : " What profit was it to those " who lived in the devotional ages ;— - "who believed in revelation, in the "supernatural, in an overruling Provi- " dence,, in the Divine authority and " commission of ministers of religion? "Did they live purer lives than those " who, according to Mr. Greg, have re- " nounced the national faith, and are yet "the most intelligent and moral of the "working classes of .England? Were " they more intelligent in the dark ages ? "Were they better...subjects..than the " Englishmen of the present day ; —less " turbulent and rebellious; land having a "higher respect for what Mr. Firth "styles, 'the great principle of respon"'sibility which lies at the foundation " ' of the well-being and the happiness " • of mankind?' Or was the converse " of all this not the truth?" Such being the case, as history abundantly proves, is not the conclusion which the President of the Auckland Institute has come to on this subject altogether erroneous? We believe it to be so. There is nothing in the writings of Huxley, or Darwin, or Tyndall, opposed'to the doctrine of a great first cause and intelligent control by an intelligent Creator ; but they wisely confine themselves to the phenomena of nature, which challenge investigation, and leave the "mysteries of creation" to theologians, who have hitherto signally failed to explain them. In writing this, we by no means wish to cast a doubt on the truth of revelation ; but we hold that those whose faith is strong should tolerate a spirit of inquiry in those who are not gifted with an emotional nature, or that repose of mind which only '' the assurance of faith" can give. Let science have fair play. Theology has had a long innings; and its professors will find out if they only exercise patience that the more the secrets of the Book of Nature are revealed the less room will there be for controversy. Touching the remaining portion of Mr. Firth's address we have little to say. His generous appreciation of the Maori race is all the more noteworthy, coming from one who took such a prominont part in " tho war policy," as it was called. I

We differ from him in his estimate of Maori character, however ; but that is of. very little consequence. We believe'that the Maori of 1875 is essentially different from the Maori of 1860. Ten years of war, and the disintegrating forces ofcivilisation, have changed him" greatly." We doubt if there is a spark of patriotism in the whole race. They are in that stage of rapid transition from acondition in which patriotism was a necessity, to one in which the conditions of existence, under the influence of industrial civilisation, renders it an impossible virtue. It has been bought and Bold out of them; ploughed and harrowed out of them; and Mr. Firth, himself, as a resolute pioneer of civilisation in the Matamata plain, when few men would have taken his risk at any price, has done a great deal towards burying in the earth that patriotic spirit which flamed out in 1860, and expired nine years afterwards. The seed thus buried will bear grain, but it will not be the same grain. Maori patriotism is a vanished quantity in Maori character ;: and the future historian of New Zealand' will, at all events, not be troubled with any of its manifestations after the suppression of Tito-Kowaru and the subsequent truce with Te Kooti. On the whole, we commend Mr. Firth's address to our readers. There_ is a freshness about it.' which is one of its greatest charms. Mr. Firth is thorough in his convictions, and has the courage of his opinions. An earnest, devout inquirer after truth, hedged about with reverence for sacred things, enterprising and liberal withal, the Auckland branch o£ the New Zealand Institute should have a creditable record to show with such a president in its transactions of the year.