The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1885. RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1297, 31 January 1885, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1885. RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE.

In last Tuesday’s issue we published a report of an extremely disgraceful scene which took place in Auckland. As will be remembered a scenic artist named Holmes was suffocated by a fire which occurred in that city. He was in the habit of visiting the Freethought Hall, and the Freethinkers consequently concluded that he belonged to them, while his friends held he was a Christian, and decided on giving him a Christian burial. Accordingly the services of an Anglican clergyman]were secured, but when he proceeded with the funeral services, the Freethinkers interfered, and the most disgraceful scene ever witnessed at a funeral in this colony took place. The Freethinkers wanted to get possession of the body and have it buried according to their own ideas, but the clergyman held firm and went through with the ceremony despite, such interruptions as “Out it short,” “Bosh,” and “We have had enough of that stuff.” We have great respect for the religious opinions of people, but there was nothing in this tq respect, The leading tenet of the Freethinking Doctrine is freedom of thought : they hold that people have a perfect right to think as they like. From this incident which occurred in Auckland, the aggressive conduct of Mr Stout, and the many other ways in which Freethinkers have been behaving lately, it appears to us that if once they got to be powerful they would be just as intolerant, if not far more so, than any of the religious sects which they now denounce. This is borne out by their conduct in France. Intolerance never reached the same degree of cruelty under the old regime in that country that it has reached since the coming I into power of the Freethinkers. In Belgium the Freethinkers held sway for about 18 years, and the Clerical Party conformed with the laws religiously and put up with all the annoyances to which they were subjected. Last year, however, the Clerical Party carried the elections, and succeeded in putting into Parliament a large majority favorable to their own views. The Clerical Party reinstated religion in the schools and other institutions from which it had been expelled, and this aroused the inolerant spirit of the Freethinkers to a degree that bordered on rebellion. They attempted to wreck the Parliamentary ,

buildings and other institutions, and for several weeks the country was in a fearfully disturbed state. The religionists when beaten submitted to the laws; the Freethinkers attempted to carry everything with a high hand. Wherever we turn it is always the same. Men are very tolerant of those who agree with them, but beyond that toleration is unknown. This new sect who call themselves Freethinkers make the very foundation stone of their principles toleration—just exactly as religionists preach peace and goodwill to all men—but they do not practice what they preach any more than do other people. The Freethinkers taunt Christians with the dissensions which exist among them; they point to the unseemly jealousies—to use mild terras—which exist between the Christian sects, and hold them up as objects of ridicule and scorn. We must indeed say that they have the weight of experience on their side so far, and that these dissensions amongst Ohristains augment the ranks of Freethinkers enormously. If Christinas banished sectarian differences, and looked upon each other in the spirit which all the religious systems teach, Freethinkers would uot be so numerous or so arrogant as they are now. But they do not, and hence the ' Duble. By the recent mail we receive i j. apera containing reports of meetings held by a Belgian in Scotland, the object of which is to give publicity to what the Oleiical Party are doing in Belgium. When the Freethinkers held the sway they banished religion from the schools; but when the Clerical Party came into power they reinstated religion in the schools, and this is the chief cause of complaint. The good people of Scotland have been most demonstrative in their sympathy with him, for no other reason than that the party he is running down happens to belong to a branch of the Christian Church different from their own. They evidently do not see the incongruity of helping Freethinkers to suppress a sect of the Christian Church. We have no desire to publish anything calculated to create sectarian unpleasantness. Guv aim is to show that sectarian dissensions do more to swell the ranks of Freethinkers than anything else; and we invite our readers to reflect on this point, and ask themselves : Would it not be better t« be more tolerant of each others faults and shortcomings! There is no place where religious differences ruu so high as Dunedin, and there Freetbougbt flourishes. Auckland is another stronghold of intolerance—the scene at the burial of Holmes testifies to the arrogant bearing of the Freethinkers, We make these remarks because recently sectarian differences, of a mild kind of course, have been experienced in Temuka, and wedesire to suggest to these people the advisability of rooting out at once any feeling of the kind which may still exist. Let them remember that any religious system is better than none at ail; that wherever Freethinkers have got into power they have shown themselves to be cruelly intolerant; that the tendency of the age is to Freethought, and that there is nothing so well calculated to promote Freethought as sectarian dissensions. According to our way of thinking, Christians ought to regard Freethought as the common enemy, and make every effort to stem the tide of its influence. This they can do in no way better than by living peacefully with each other, and by helping each other in every way. Let us hope that they will do so, and that any feeling of unpleasantness which may at present exist will immediately give place to peace and good will,

WELL-DESERVED PROMOTION. A Gazette notice informs us that Mr Inspector Pender has been promoted to the rank of first-class Inspector. It is time he was, as he has been entitled to it for the last ten years. It is not incompetency which has kept Mr Pendor back, neither is it neglect of duty. There is not, and there has not been in the Constabularly service of New Zealand, a more capable officer, or one who attends to his duties more assiduously than he does. He is also a man whom nobody can know without respecting. He does his duty without fear, favor, or affectation, but he does it in a manner that even those who have had the misfortune to fall into his clutches must admit to be fair and impartial, He possesses tbe knack of doing the right thing, in the right way and at the right time, in an eminent degree, but over-officiousness, or anything else calculated to annoy tbe well-disposed, never enter into his official conduct. When he went to Christchurch there were rings of thieves and robbers in that city which rendered it unsafe for any one to appear in the streets late at night. He has completely wrecked them: they exist no longer, and the public of Christchurch are extremely grateful to him for it, The impartial manner in which he carried out his doty, his irreproachable conduct in private as well as public life, and his unassuming, retiring ways have rendered him a great favorite, as evidenced by the presentations which be received from the people oi Christchurch when he wap removed to Timaru, and from the people of Timaru when he was removed to Christchurch. But notwithstanding all this Mr Pender never got the promotion to wbinh be was entitled until now. It was not that he did not deserve it, it was not that people would begrudge it to him, it was not that bis services did not entitle him to it—it was that he was the victim of as foul and cruel a conspiracy to keep him in the background as ever wronged a man, and because he was of too retiring a disposition to assert his rights. Some twelve or fifteen years |

in the days of the Provincial Council, *n attempt was made to dismiss him from the service, and, amongst other cbargeg| brought against him, he was accused of insanity. Sir John Hall stood by him then, and he got fair play. Bat tho same influence still kept working against him in the most underhand villainous manner, and when the Hall Government went in for retrenchment in 1880, he found himself amongst those who were dismissed from the service. By some trick of the same villainous influence ten years were taken off his service, thus be was made to appear junior to inspectors who bad been constables when be was inspector. Thus put on bis mettle he appealed to Sir John Hall, pointed out the injustice of taking ten years off his length of service, and Sir John Hall once more befriended him, He was reinstated in his position, and given credit for the ten years of which he was defrauded, but though he then appeared on the list as the second o third oldest inspector in Hew Zealand, he has not been given his due rank of first-class Inspector until now. We congratulate Mr Pender on having at last overcome the fo.nl influence that bad so long defrauded him of what he was justly entitled and we sincerely hope that he will live long to epjoy the pleasure of having completely routed the villainous fo« who bad worked so assiduously tor the last fifteen yean to ruin him.