The Daily News WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14. CLERICAL CONDEMNATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 249, 14 October 1908, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14. CLERICAL CONDEMNATION.

'liie grave charges made against New Zealand aad its people by the Uev. liavp'-r »n ihe cruise of a sermon at Palmerston North on Sunday, as was to be expected, are not ocmg uiken kindly by the Press of liie Dominion. The local Tnnc-s takes tile reverend gentlemen severely to task. Dealing with the statvniLiii that the police In d once informed the Rev. liurpcr that they were exhorted to "rim people in" and obtain convictions "only when absolutely unavoidable."' as "otherwise the criminal statistics would be unsatisfactory and g'<\e us a had name,'' the local journal observes:—That is an extremely serious statement to make, embodying a very grave charge against the police, aad one which file authorities should certainly not permit to.reuuiiu where it is. Mr. Harper should either withdraw or substantiate what is the gravest charge against the administration of the police and the (Joveniment that we have yet heard published in the Dominion, The Rev. Harper talked of racial de- . cadence in the Dominion as compared i with "the stuff which created Kng- ! land's colonies/' adding with regard to tnese pioneers, "Thank God! we still have, many of the old type; but they are disappearing." We know some of "the stuff which created England's colonies" in Australia, and Virginia and cUtwhere, and we may be deeply grateful that we never had it here. Everyone knows that the old type of colonist in New Zealand, however, was an exceptionally. line type, but it was an overaverage type, and when the bulk comes it is hound to lower tfhat average some-

what. There is the same story in America and soure ouier countries, yet the rising generation here will compare most favorably with the rising generation in Britain, with which apparently Mr. Harper's comparison is intended. Kowtiure has the ery of "racial degeneracy" been stronger than ill Lug' j land. To secure recruits for tile army | the standard has ha<i io lie uu.nu.iiaily lowered, 'the colonial contingents in SoutHi Africa were physically and mentally superior to the British recruits. Wherever colonial athletes of this generation meet the British athletes colonials have usually proved superior. The supremacy in football, cricket, boxing, and rowing have all ''emigrated 'lo the colonies," and all these were regarded as pre-eminently "British" sports. that whether in war or in contests of peace the colonial is contrasted with the "iparcnt cock,'' he aeca nave lio fear of the comparison. Even the •■poor deluded" emigrants -Mr. Harper speaks of are notably of inferior physique to our own people. And as for i these emigrants, it is absurd for any- ! one to state that such allurements nrit I Veld out to tihem here as Canada pro-,' i claims through her agents, for instance.. ! England is ringing now witli the ery oi the unemployed and the wail of (be hungry ever rises to her skies. Our critic to the contrary sotwithstanding. the working man's lot here is incomparably better than in England.

The immigrants w'hom lie describes "struggling with poverty, discontent-, ment. and wretchedness anil cursing the dav they set foot o n our shores'' must surely be creatures of a perfervid imagination. There is work in Ibis country for every man willing to work hard at better wages and under better conditions than in the Old Country, and the depths of misery reached there are happily unknown here. Our contemporary questions whether Mr. Harper could name a dozen, or even half dozen immigrants willing to work who would not be proffered work within a fortnight directly their names aud willingness were known. As for the alleged increase in crime, where, the Times asks, does Mr. Harper find h's authority? There has been since ISilO , a decrease of 5.40 per 10.000 oi population in the percentage of persons imprisoned after conviction, while the native-born 'whom Mr. Harper regards as so inferior to"tlie parent stock contributed, in the last figures available to us. only 33 per cent, of prisoners, though constituting 08 per cent, of the whole population!