MAMM0NISM.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 373, 1 June 1889, Page 6

MAMMONISM.

Auckland, May 28. rms highly-interesting subject was disjussed by the Rev. J. S. Hill, at the Lecture Hall of the V.M.C.A. Rooms, on Sunday ilternoon, before a large audience, including many young ladies. Mr Hill, quoting from Ruskin, introduced his lecture thus : "A good soldier likes his pay; a good clergyman likes his pew rents ; a good doc tor likes his fees. But the good doctor ought not to like his fees more than the curing of his patients ; neither should the clergyman like his pew rents more than the salvation of souls ; nor should the soldier like his pay more than his duty to his country. Whenever the soldier, clergyman, or doctor put pay first, then they are guilty ot the worship of mammon." Ruskin, he went on to say, told us that we should fivot of all settle our creed, and then live up to that creed which we profess. Whether we believed in a Hie hereatter or not, we should not grind down our brother, and prevent him from enjoying Jife here, but should rather seek to lighten each others burdens. He did not think it worth any man's while to live only foi money, whatever his creed might be. Rubkin distinguished between the idle rich and the idle poor, and what we wanted to do was to rid the earth of both. Ho compared mammonism or the love of money to an all-absorbing game, roughly placed sometimes, and, like football, there was a good deal of knocking down in it. Mr Hill proceeded to argue that " mammonism " ib at the root of all poverty, all crime, all war, and all evil. Wages, he said, had increased 20 per cent, or 25 per cent, during the last 50 years, and the purchasing power ol money being much greater than formerly, the increase was even greater. If wages had increabed 25 per cent., the gross earnings had increased 400 per cent. Professor Levi said that in 1884 the whole body of workers in the Unite • Kingdom numbered 12,200,000 ; 300,000 of these belonged to the piofessional class ; 2,400,000 to the domestic class ; 900,000 to the commercial class ; 1,900,000 to the agricultural labourers ; 6,700,000 were industrial labourers. The net total earnings of these 12,200,000 woikers amounted to £1,197,000,000. Vanderbilt was said to have been worth £40,000,000, and, if that had increased proportionately, in seventeen years' time it would amount to a sum of money equal to the entire earnings of the whole of the working classes of Great Britain. How had this come about ? It had come about while we were asleep, and we had not quite wakened up yet to tho great papers ah work. Mr Hilt spoke of the rapid increase in the number ot millionaires, and said that the game of money getting was a game in which the i contest was to see who could get the most, I in which the weakest went to the wvill. He also made reference to "corners," and the fortunes made by this means, and pointedout that it was the people generally that su tiered in order to m ike the tew rich. Masters, said Mr Hill, do not now take the same interest that was formerly taken in their employees ; they are still growing apart, and unless something comes in there will be a revoiutioe. He also made special reference to the introductiun of machinery and the saving of labour effected and came to the conclusion that the results were the increasing of capital and the grinding down of the working man. Speaking of the manner in which large companies pushed smaller tradesmen out of competition, MiHill instanced the Union So amship Company. "Just look at the Union Steamship Company now," he said. " Here is a little vessel comes alongside our wharf, and down come their fares at once. What for ? To throttle the other company out of exist nee " He also spoke ol the unequal distribution of wealth, and urged hat, in the inteiests, of labour, this money should be fairly divided amongst the most of the people, and not amongst the few. He regretted the increasing demand for luxuries, as compared with the increased demand for the necessaries of life, and then proceeded to explain the difference between making money and winning money. Speculation or gambling in horse-racing, or land, or in business, differed altogether from proper and legitimate tiading with money, and he believed there was nothing so deadly to commercial morality as a spirit of gambling. He accepted the assertion of Herbert Speucer that gambling was " gain obtained by another's loss,' and said that trading beyond one'scapital in risky trade was gambling. He condemued the sweating system in very strong language, and, i-eferring to the brewers' monopolies, paid that we must have a law in this country, cost what it will, to compensate a woman for whatever she may lose by drunkenness. MiHill spoke in very strong language on the influence of loans, and condemned the high rates of interest charged and obtained by several local institutions. He said there must be a law passed in New Zealand to do away with the limited liability companies, and to make shareholders liable for 20s in the £ upon everything they possessed. In bhafc .event, he was confident there would »be fewer companies started.- Next, MrHill spoke of the interest paid by some of the companies, and he asked from whence did the Bank of New Zealand obtain its dividends of 15 per cent.; the Auckland Gas Company its 17 per cent? Was it not from the' moss of the people ? He thought that the Corporation of Auckland, with credit as good as even *he Bank of New Zealand, might) very well take over the Gasworks, save the consumers 10 per cent of this interest, and supply him with gas at 5s instead of 7s 6d per thousand feet. Mr Hill spoko of the national debts in the same 6train, and the huge cost entailed upon taxpayers by the standing armies of the world, and concluded a most interesting lecture by urging all to lead honest lives, no matter what should be the cost. At the close of the lecture some questions .were asked and answered,, and proceedings concluded with singing and prayer.

Yes ! It is certainly true. Aek any of your friends who have purchased there. Garlick and Cranwell'have numerous unasked for and very favourable commendations from country customers on their excellent packing of Furniture, Crockery, and Glass, &c. Ladies and gentlemen about to furnish should remember thab Garlick and Cranwell's is the Cheap Furnishing Warehouse of Auckland. Furniture fco suit all classes ; also Carpets, Floor Cloths and all House Necessaries. If your new house is nearly finished, or you are . going to get mariied, visit Garlick .and Cranwell, Queen-street and Lome-street, Auckland. Intending purchasers can have » catalogue sent free. j