NEW ZEALAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 248, 13 October 1908, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND.

ITS GENERAL POSITION. A CANDID CLERICAL CRITIC. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Palmerston N.. October 12. The Manawatu Mounted Rilles held J their annual church parade yesterday. in the course of his address the. Rev. C. C. Harper, vicar of All Saints' Church, said that of late years it had been the custom to assert that crime was rapidly decreasing in New Zealand, but the governor of one of the gaols had informed him that it was ridiculous io say crime was decreasing. Quite the reverse. The gaols were, full, and many of the couvictjj were colonial youths. Jie had also been informed by police olliieis : that they were exhorted only to arrest people and obtain convictions when it 1 was unavoidable; otherwise our criminal ' statistics would be unsatUfactory and ' we should get a bad name. In other ? words, we had to shut our eyes to crime and refuse to see it and then say •j it did not exist, 1 In reference to the commercial, industrial, and financial position oi the country tlhe preacher said he believed i generally our laws were good and <«i ■' the right lines. lie considered that wage-earners should have a larger 1 in t lie profits of their work than was • often the ease. In past years employers and property owners were oft^n ' simply selfish possessors of money, and ' gave an entirely inadequate return to j those who helped them to earn the.r t money. Now we had by legislation altered this very largely, and the rule of the property ela»*. which was often, but • by no means always, a sellish rule, had I given place to the rule of the wag.iearning class, which was also too often I and even generally a purely sellish rule. ■ We had not got rid of class domination. We had merely transferred it from one 1 class to another, and it was still exor- ' cised with a disregard of the needs of ' those outside that class. The result was twofold. I'irst, the class possessing - capital had withdrawn it to a great extent from the country and the class ■ below the ruling class found itself cut oil' from tlu: avenues of work and lace to face with chance earnings and an enormously enhanced rate of living. - lie added: 'Tf this country has det.'r--5 miued to live without attracting capital from the Old World and to regulate the cost of production without any re- j gard for the markets of the world which j it cannot influence or control, it may do so; but we must take the consequences and rise to our responsibilities. But what is happening? Our representatives by a course of misrepresentations and concealment of the truth of the industrial position out here are attracting to our shores hundreds and hundreds of 1 single men and women and iamili?s. I These poor deluded people are given to understand they are coming to a country of high wages, cheap living, abundant work, and unprecedented prosperity, and to-day they are in their hundreds up and down the Dominion struggling with poverty, disappointment ami wretchedness and cursing the day -they set foot on our shores. Our prophets in England and prophesying falsely and our people here love to have it so, and what is going to be the end thereof? A year or two ago several spoke out in this way—l for one —and they were howled at, not because what they said was untrue, but because they said it-. The Iwttom of this evil is sellishn•-.m and pride. However, we have created it. We are. all responsible. What are we going to do? While the markets of the world were propitious what our representatives said of us was in the main true. Now these markets are not propitious and depression is the result and the statements of our representatives | are false. Are we going to allow 7 the false statements because our pride : s touched? And yet 1 see no effort on fhe part of responsible men to contraclict them. Are we going to cling selfishly to what we have gained and let those drawn to our shores l>y these false statements continue to suffer? Yet I see no effort on the part of the men in power locally or generally to apply themselves to relieve that suffering. '"The financial and commercial aspect is not my business, but the moral aspect is. and f declare solemnly that this shutting or our eyes to the true poMtion—4his refusal to recognise our res]KuisL'bility and to see our selfishness is n great, moral wrong and fraught wilh much (longer. Let us not be like Israel and Jndea of old and refuse io , see our bad point* and the weakness j of our country, but, let us thank Clod i when these are brought to our notice and humbly examine, ourselves to find (Mi) to what degree we are individii-j ally responsible and how far we, are I ruled merely by selfishness and pride!" h