CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 234, 8 February 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

A GREAT WARRIOR. An unobtrusive paragraph which is being circulated in New Zealand announces that General I'iet Cronje is dead. In the old days the British people often wished lim dead, but are sorry enough now, we suppose. He was a man who combined in his nnbeautiful self the "slimness" of his countrymen, the dogged persistence of a Napoleon, and the disciplinary force of a Kitchener. He was stubborn and religious, bravo and gentle, harsh at times, ignorant as to scholarship, but unerring as to instinct. He was the bitterest foe the British ever had in South Africa, and there is no question in the mind of anyone who understands the spirit of the true old dopper that he was Britain's foe to his deathbed. There are reasons enough for the British military hatred of this uncompromising old Hugenot. He was the genius of the 1880 war, and the farmer troops he commanded at Doornkop and Majuba Hill slaved for him and, loved him even though his ready "sjambok" drove them to the fray. It was Cronje who besieged Potchefstroom and kept tne garrison in ignorance that an armistice had been declared and made it capitulate. It was he who carved up a British force at Bronkhorst Spruit, one of the most terrifying and dramatic episodes of a woeful business. The British force was marching to Pretoria with bands playing and arms stowed in the waggons. Cronje sent a man with a white flag to the colonel commanding, and ordered the surrender of the force within ten minutes. The colonel told the messenger—so record says —to "go to ." What happened thereafter is history. The British, force was in a slight hollow; Cronje's men on the rise, and mounted. There was no hope for the "rooibatjes" at any moment of the fightr-and the grave at Bronkhorst is a very big one, and there are two nurses in it besides the piles of men. Cronje was a better soldier than Jameson, and proved it at Krugersdorp, where he smasned the silly raid, it was this curious old person who attacked Kimberley in the latest war, was repulsed and swept down to the Modder river, where he punished Methucn. It was Cronje who engineered the dreadful battle oi Magersfontein. When French raised the siege of Kimberley (and New Zealanders were the first troops into the diamond city) Cronje pushed away to the east and entrenched his army alongside the Modder river. Here he was hemmed in on all sides, and Paardeburg was a shambles of the most dreadful description. Botha—how an ardent Britisher—together with de Wet (who will never be an ardent Britisher) came to his rescue, but did not effect It, and for; eight days the dour old soldier hung on and then walked out with great calmness on Majuba Day. Cronje was Cronje to the end of the ebapter. He fought against the ignominy of residence at St. Helena; he scornfully refused large sums offered him for writing a book (or, at least, for getting it written); and it is unlikely that the rebuff a certain musichall proprietor got when he desired the old man to "do a turn" on the stage was remembered by the manager. We have lately been treated to the news that the great Boer families—including the Cronje clan—are now absolutely pro-British. There arc people who don't believe it. The spirit of the old man seemed to have animated his relatives. A younger Cronje was taken prisoner and incarcerated at Capetown. For attempting to escape he was shot by a sentry. The news of this was carefully posted up for the benefit of British prisoners at Waterval and Pretoria and headed "Murder." It was probably one of the many reasons why Piet Arno'ldus Cronje died a "bitterender."

HEADS OF THE CHURCH. It is remarkable that the colonies apparently offer so few attractions to notable clerics of the Anglican Church, and New Zealanders and Aastralians are familiar with the explanations of bishops who for various reasons lay down their charges in order to return to England. Dr. Wallis, Bishop of Wellington, is about to go Home; Dr. Neligan, formerly Bishop of Auckland, has already gone; and it i.s announced that the Bishop of Melanesia (Dr. Wilson) will shortly follow them. The reasons for the withdrawal of Anglican bishops is not easily understood, for it cannot be held that there is not a fair field for their finest activities in countries they themselves admit need more clerical ministration. It might be supposed that eminent churchmen accepting work, which they obvious,ly consider worthy of their talents, would be enthusiastic enough to become one in sympathy and ideals with the people of the country—would, in fact, become Australians and New Zealanders. Bishops, however, apparently regard work in the colonies as a mere phase which must in- ; evitably pass, and it is this element that might seriously affect the usefulness and stability of the Church. If English I clerics who administer colonial sees mast irrevocably sever their connection at the height of their usefulness, it seems reasonable that these clerics should not be the only ones considered possible to fill colonial vacancies. Under a system whereby .sees were administered by clerics whose whole interests were bound up in the colony they worked in, there would be fewer defections and probably greater sympathy in administration. At a recent conference of Anglican bishops in Australia there was not one colonial-born cleric or one who by long residence and sympathy could be truly called "Australian." Bishops of colonial sees are apparently better contented to return to the Old Country with lower rank than to remain in countries which, the Church admits, want eminent workers and more of them. A Sydney paper recently quoted 1910 "Whitakcr" to show that there were in that year living in England 30 retired bishops of the Anglican Church. These gentlemen had administered the sees of Sydney, Melbourne, RocKnampton, Bathurst, Waiapu, Ballarat. Papua, the Falldands, Mauritius, Natal. Capetown, Nassau, Korea, Mashonaland, Hokkaida, Barbadoes, mid-China, Rangoon, Tasmania., .Singapore, Travancorc, Bombay, Honduras, Zanzibar, and Calcutta. The possibilities are that if these gentlemen had belonged to any other Church they would have lived and died among the "Hocks" they had consented to lead. It would be interesting to have the explanation of competent churchmen a.s to the reasons prompting the acceptance of work overseas and those prompting the resignations that leave unfinished work behind.