The Daily News WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8. THE HEATHEN IN HIS BLINDNESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 93, 8 April 1908, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8. THE HEATHEN IN HIS BLINDNESS.

vVhen an 'emigrant gvcs to ii new land, unless hi; bo a lunatic, all the luscousuess lie expects to liiul is in the foliage. In process of lime, if lie lives long enough lo witness the development, cities'ami lown> and village* may arise lo gladden his eyes, but all beyond, lie the backblocks-tlic wilderness. \ ery | I many of our enterprising people haw gone out into the wilderness, and very I main are eager to go—lor every farm I offered bv the Wale there are.at least ten applicants-lor it is felt that in Hie nackblocks lalmr wills a sine reward; there is life, freedom, and independence. lii-hop .Neligan, it appears, has been mil amongst the people in the _backblocks of the Aucklaml province. There can scarcely be a doubt he found them living ill small cottages—wlurcs, mayhap, there were no carpets on Ilia Hours; no damask curtains to the windows; no luxurious spring-bottomed chair- and couches; no cambric nor line linen; no silver plate. The men, there

scarcely can be a ipiestioli, were roughly clad in moleskins; their shirts were open at the front, exposing their sunburnt breasts; they were sweaty and grimy with their toil; their hands were hard and brown and swollen; there was no refinement, no Chesteriiehlkin courtesy; worse, and more unforgivable ol all, they did not seem to be the least impressed by the fact that he—their visitor—was no less a personage than the Might Reverend the Bishop! Indeed, there is reason to fear they treated him just as they would any other ordinary being.

Men in the backblocks may have the heart of a child, the disposition that covers multitude of sins, desires so charitably large that—give them the means —they might aspire to be benefactors of the whole human race: the worship that inevitably springs to the soul from close contact' with nature, but what matters for these qualities if they are rude in speech, graceless in manner, and so heathenishly ignorant as not lo pay the respect to a bishop which he thinks is properly due to him'! The flight Kevereud Bishop Neligan stands back serenely in Loudon amazed and appalled. "Oh, my Cod!" he exclaimed, "if you could only .sec the heathenism which is the result of secularism! Cod for«'ive the men and women who want to "secularise the schools of England! If thev could only live in New Zealand, and see what I have seen!" 11l tins Dominion the Government is eueouragin" the people to go upon the land so tint thev may add to the national wealth by becoming producers and when I hey go upon the laud the Covoinment is doing its best to lole.w them with roads, bridges, and schools. No one has any objection to die teachin" of religion in schools. The po-ilion taken is that it taxes the resources ol the State to erect and equip one school in a district. To put up a separate -chiiol for ever.' denomination is quid,mt „f |he question. .die common school must do. and religious dillei'cnces must be sunk. Nothing could be simpler or more easy of comprehension to ■the ordinary mind. If the people or New Zealand are heathens, then the lesponsibility rests with the churches.

(In the surface ol this globe a more law-ibidin" and moral population than |'|,e so-ea!?ed heathen of -New Zealand cannot be found. The records prov;that the proportion of crime, of serious offences, is remarkably small; that ■i"un a large proportion is not chargeable against the native-born; and that crime i" rapidly decreasing. Practically, Bishop XeliM'H declares that this -rand result lias lieen attained without Hie aid of the cliurches-for the people •,re barbarous and heathen. And lie ,„„ to l/imlon—a land where there is " state-endowed church with bishops receiving UIOJIOH and tl.'i.OOO a year, -iirrounded at the same time with m .,,<es of crime, of ignorance, depravity sonl-siekening poverty- to cry aloud these things! Casting his eyes over New Zealand he has beheld a land where there i- hardlv a human unaole ,„ n ,,d and write where there is no poverty (o -peak of: where (he rewards of industry -ire sure and high; where ~„. ,„.„porlioii of wealth to population i e',l oulv hi-licr than in any other ~,rt' of the world but more equally ditcriiiie i- lower than in any other pari of die world, and the average hum-sly hi..her- where men -how respect to women carry themselves as men. and ,„„ as crouching, subservient slaves lie has failed to recognise the inherent Llies- of the race: be fails to lo 1low out the bearing ol his own ass»ilions and see that if heathenism is productive of such grand practical results then s„ far at least as this word is concerned, it is a very goo.t thing to be heathen. These results, what arc tlicy. The Bishop has evidently failed to ~iseern what they represent. To us they appear to be the practical exemplification, the logical carrying out, of the teachings of the. Founder of Christianity.