CURRENT TOPICS. (By Zamielin "Auckland Star.")

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 346, 27 February 1889, Page 3

CURRENT TOPICS. (By Zamielin "Auckland Star.")

Whilk Europe is on the eve of the most stupendous war that modern times have known, it may be a consolation to some people to know that "Mr .Tone?, ot the London Peace Socioty,'' is now making the tour of the Austialasian colonies-, with a view to impressing upon us the desirability of universal peace. Mr Jones is now in the southern part of New Zealand, and as hois working his way north waici, ho may be shortly expected in Auckland, with his lucid arguments against war and his gentle invitation to form a branch ot the Peace Society here. It is very kind indeed of Mr Tones to come to the South Pacific on his pacific errand, but really it heems to me he is solemnly and egregiously out of place. In tho name ot all that is miraculous, how has it entered, his noddle that we New Zealanciers require to be converted to peaceful principles? Probably ho has, at Exeter Hall orelsewhere, imbibed the notion that we are a set of demons, constantly at war with the Maoris, and every day imbruing our hands in innocent blood. Any way, it appears to ! me that the Peace Society would have done better had it sent Mr Jones on a mission to convert General Boulanger, Piince Bismarck, the Czar, the Mahdi, the Ameer, and a lew other bloodthirsty people in the Old Worl i. Even Te Kooti, I make bold to say, stands less in need of the ministrations of the peaceful Jcnes than do several more gentlemanly butcheis in Europe, Asia and Africa. Perhaps it is believed that His Holiness Leo XIII. is quite able to keep the murderous ruffians of the north and east in subjection, and that Mr Jones can therefore be well spared to speak peace to the heathen ot Australasia. Even were he as infallible as some folks believe, the Pope has got on hand a bigger order than he will be able to till, and I strongly advice Mr Jones to return at once and lend a hand in impressing upon Czar and Kaiser the principles of peace, humanity and justice. I see that Mr Jones preached a sermon at St. Andrew's Church, Dunedin, at the close of which sixty persons gave in their names as members of a Peace Society. It is amazing how readily men and women can be got to ally themselves in all sorts of fantastic organisations for the pursuit ot the most absurd and unattainable object"-. We have lots ot such societies in Auckland — one for the study of Divine healing, another for proving the non-existence of the South L'ole, and yet another for demons tr°.ting that man is not immortal ; so it is not unlikely that Mr Jones may find sixty or moie harmless cranks in our fair city willing to believe that, by subscribing money to pay the rent of rooms, meeting occasionally, passing resolution?, and quoting passages of Scripture which they do not understand, they will give a grand shove ahead to the coming reign of univeisal peace. I earnestly hope, however, that they will apply their cash and their energies in a moie practical direction, and advi&e Mr Jones bo exert his pacific influence on the Biitish War Office, which is said to contemplate an immediate expenditure ot a hundred millions sterling in war preparation?. Mr Jones has nothing particularly new.to enunciate. He said at Dunedin that war was entirely incompatible with the teaching of the Founder of our religion, tie ferring to the armaments of tho present generation, he said that there was a greater display of sheer brute force now than ever there was in the darkest days of heathendom — a sorrowful comment on those hea"\enly anticipations uttered 1,900 years ago. My readers have heard something of that land before ; but possibly some of them have not heard the tenets ot the Peace Society so fully expounded as they were by Mr Jones when he went on to say that "even defensive war was not allow able, because war violated utterly the spirit of love, kindness, meekness 1 , torbearance, etc., etc. ' This expression of opinion suggests that the object of Mr Jones in coming here is to put a stop to the great defensive works which have been undertaken by all the colonial Governments. It is doubtless a 'very wicked thing for us to take measures to protect the lives of our dear ones and to maintain our liberties and privileges against all comer**, and an exceedingly kind and Christian act on rue part of Mr Jones to come and tell us so ; but charity of this sort should begin at home, and when Friend Jones has persuaded the British Governmeno (not to mention France, Germany, and the rest) to disarm, ib will be time enough for him to come ciying "Peace, peace," among the Summer Isles oi Eden. The King of Prophets is keeping himself en evidence, but he appears to have letired from the earthquake piediction line. I have before me his latest printed leaflet, dated January, IbB9, and it actually contains no hint of impending earthquake or other natural convulsion. It is sad to think that the King of Prophets hat been disgusted by the unbelief of the secular press, as is hinted at in the following passages from this sheet: — "For the best part of my life I deluged editors' waste paper baskets with prophecies and their fulfilments. If they could not understand \\hat was exposed better than the ass could understand what the dumb man wrote, they might have held their peace." Mr Golder appears to have made up his mind to stop feeding the W. P. 13. in future; but if so why does he send his "In Memoriam" sheets to all the colonial now spapers ? He has been sorely exercised over the Industrial and Ait Exhibition lately held at Waipawa (the home ot the inspired one), and he thus writes of it: — " Ib was the expressed thoughts of some that the Waipavva Exhibition, 1888, should be recorded for posterity. I had been fprewarned by a \ision that it was ordained as a snare and delusion. Visiting it, I observed visitors gazing on the largo pictures of undressed women, apparently at a loss to distinguish between them and dressed swine. More delusions eventuated than this work could contain. ' It is a pity that he has not recorded a few more of the " delusions," if they at all resemble the one of confounding dressed swine and undressed women. Probably the deluded ones had been looking upon Webbs wine when it was red — (No ; I didn't say Webbs swine) — which had rendered their vision unreliable. Happy Waipawa ! in having a King oi Prophets who can expose such cunning phantasies of the bsain, and keep the people on the straight path of sanity and rectitude ! How is this for highfalutin ? Mr G. E. Alder on has been on a visit to Napier, and has given to the woild his impressions of the capital of Hawke's Bay in the following passages " written for an Australian paper, ' buo published, strangely enough, through the fiiendly medium of a local organ :—": — " Napier stands without a rival — a city of one bundled hills — solitary and stupendous as a Gibraltar ; majestic and picturesque- as a Quebec — a town seated on the knees of pleasant terraces, with her feot in the ocean. Its atmosphere is blight, and clear, e> hilarabing, and as sotb | as that of Italy, whoio the natives know so I well tho seciet o perpetual youth, the sweet doing-hothin where lite is a pro-

longed dream — where love and hafce are greatest — where the troublous seas of life aro lost in calm and sunshine, and the gondola drifts away to paradise on an ever even keel. Where Winter keeps watch and ward, With Summer asleep at its feet; Stands guard with a silver sword, Where toe Junes and Decembers meet. The Madeira of the South, as Auckland is it? Counth, Napier, set out in the ultrainuLine Pacific, enveloped in an air of rejuvenai ing; ozone, smiling under an Indian fcky cloudless, bright, and sunny — invites Australasia to Nature's most perfect sanatorium. The climate is heavenly, the days ( divine. It spurs a man to continuous exertion ; it is a tonic that becomes part of his system ; a perpetual stimulant that has no intervals of depression ; it is the mosb potent aid to individual effort and national progress ; no nation has risen to greatness, no man to eminence in literature or industrial art in a torrid or frigid region. How Nature implants Genius !" : For a bit of high-toned writing, with the ideas just sufficiently mixed and contradictory to impress the mind with a fine sense of majestic incomprehensibility, this is nob bad. The advantages of life in a country where you are liable at any moment to drilt away in a gondola to paradise on an ever even keel are not such as would attract the average man. A climate which induces to the " sweet doing nothing " and yet spurs on to continuous exertion is certainiy a curiosity. A " tonic " that becomes part of one's " system " ought, 1 should think, to be indulged in with caution. The "stimulant that has no intervals of depression" is to be congratulated, although it cannot be called remarkable in this respect. I have never yet met with a depressed stimulant. How a hundred hills and unnumbered terraces can be " solitary and stupendous as a Gibraltar," passes ordinary comprehension. Then, when one reflects how conducive the Napier air is to "eminence in literature," one is astounded to think that G. E. Alderton is nob a native, but a mere casual visitor. There are a few more " Junes and Decembers " mixed up in the above short extract, but I have not space to point them out. It would be ungracious in me to question the correctness of Mr Alderton's description, since I have never been to Napier ; but I have repeatedly heard it described as an unwholesome town on a horrid flat strip of country — the only tolerable portion beiiig the residence sites on the terraces above the town proper. However, I must in future believe that Napier has * % nae peer" among the cities of the world, bub combines all the attractions of Quebec, Gibraltar and Madeira, with a Venetian gondola, an Italian atmosphere, an Indian sky, and a glimpse of Paradise "on an evor even keel" thrown into the bargain. "Zamiel" often hears of the hardships endured by missionaries — how they sacrifice themselves for the good of the cause, and nil that kind of thing. Conning the report of the Presbyterian Assembly, his eyes were attracted by the Foreign Missions report. In the discussion a few items were mentioned which laid bare the hardships endured by the faithful workers amongst the heathen. First of all there is the paltry remuneration of £200 per aniium, though, by the way, Iningis cheap at the islands ; for lower down the report bbates that a native teacher could be maintained for £10 per annum, but, o» course, his tastes are simple. Still, the missionary who is fond of power may gratiU Ihh amb'lion by ruling a lob of natives almost as he pleases, between his supeiior intellect and their superstition. r J he next hardship is separation from fiiends, and that truly is to be deplored. Yet I find that a missionary is en ti bled to iurlough wibh salary paid afber ten years' seivice. One gentleman coolly applied for two and a-quaitcr years' leave, but as that meant £630 paid for nothing, even the assembly of divines objected, and he was at length compelled to contenb himself wibh 14 months. His expenses were also allowed. After all, there are many men vlio Mould nob object bo a situation in the I&l.uicls ab £200 a year, wibh a 14 months' Natation afc bho end of the first decade. Tt almost tempts "Zamiel" to try and swallow ihe Westminster Confession of Faith, pieparabory bo driving iis gentle docbrines into the heads of the darkies at £200 per annum.