THE Temuka Leader SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1892. STATE FARMS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2430, 26 November 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1892. STATE FARMS.

The Christchurch Press and Timaru Herald have made a wonderful discovery. They have both discovered that Mr G. G. Stead in the year 1890 stated that he was of opinion that State Farms on which the unemployed could be given work were desirable. The Christchurch Press was the first to make the discovery, and what adds peculiar interest to it is the fact that Mr G. G. Stead is Managing Director of the Press Company. Now if Mr G. G. Stead had originated the State Farm idea it would have been worthy of notice, but he did not. The late Sir Harry Atkinson suggested the establishment of State Farms in 1888, and yet that was not the first heard of them. Several years before, in the columns of this paper, we drew attention to the fact that such institutions existed tu Germany, and advocated their establishment in this colonv. The German State Farms includes all kinds of industries : the carpenter, the tailor, the shoemaker, and so on, can all find work in the State institutions. Put the interesting point is that the Press is veering round now to advocate the working man’s rights. Hitherto the idea that the HfUfi was bound to provide employmeat the unemployed found no favor vdtU t&e } p m*' Such an idea, according to it, oi‘ good Government, and 'Vouid iG-ftd to j destroy the independence of lllC Working men. The Press proved all tins by a system of logic peculiar to itself, though few else could see how the Independence of working men would be destroyed by giviving them work to do. It denounced labor bureaux, co-operative works, and anything else which was instituted by the present Government. It is, however, coming round lately. It sees the necessity of providing men out of employment with the means of saving themselves from starvation, and is in favor of State Farms because Mr Stead thinks they are desirable. That is so much gained. Like those who come to scoff and remain to pray, the Press has been converted, and so we may take it that the State Farm proposal will not meet with any serious opposition. We should like to know, therefore, what the Government is doing in the matter. They have, we believe, made a promise that they would establish a farm, : in each island buring the recess, and 1 we think that it is time they set about it. No doubt the illness of Messrs Pallance and McKenzie has had something to do with the delay. Ou such ,

a plea we are sure they will be excused, for all must regret the illness of two ministers so eminently fitted for hope that both gentlemen will be soon putting the scheme into operation. We restored to health again, and that they will take this matter in hand, for we know of nothing better calculated to bring a blessing to the least helpful of. the people than State Farms.

SPIRITUALISM. Thehk are two short articles on Spiritualism in the Review of Reviews’. One consists of a letter written in 1803, by the poetess, Mrs Browning, and the other a short commentary on an article in The Month, Mrs Browning evidently believed in Spiritualism, and thought the phenomenon was explained by Swedenborg’s philosphy, but the interesting item is the article in The Month. In this article Spiritualism is admitted as an '■ indisputable fact beyond the possibility of doubt,” but what troubles Mr Stead is that the writer arrives at the conclusion that the Devil is at the bottom of the whole thing. We gather from Mr Stead’s comments that The Month is a Catiiolic Magazine; and that because it is so every word must be taken as an exposition of Catholic doctrine. This is altogether a mistake. For instance, supposing the Catholic Church were held responsible for every utterance which appears in the two New Zealand Catholic papers, what would she have to answer ? One of the first quotations which Mr Stead refers to is not Catholic Doctrine at all. It run* as follows: —“ Every Christian is bound to believe that those who die in a state of enmity with God are at once condemned to the eternal prison-house which is the lot of all who deliberately reject Him.” Every Christain is not bound to believe anything of the kind. The Catholic doctrine teaches the existence of Purgatory, where venal sins are atoned for. Purgatory is not “an eternal prison-house,” therefore in this simple matter the writer in The Month overstepped the accepted truth of the Church, However, we merely point out this to show that he may be wrong in other things as in this. On the above quotation The Month bases the theory, that the spirits which manifest themselves at stances are evil spirits. The souls of the damned being imprisoned in the “ eternal prison-house ” cannot not attend stance. s, and consequently he concludes that they must be devils, who come to delude people, and whose object is to drag their dupes down to Hell. This is what hurts Mr Stead’s feelings. He says, “ if any fact, statement, or phenomenon traverses a priest’s ideas of what constitutes the truth it is of hell, and that is an end of it,” and then he goes on to talk of burning at the stake, and so on. This is all bosh. In the first place no Priest, no Bishop, no Pope can have any “ idea ” as to what is true or false regarding ihe Christian

doctrine. That doctrine is not made by any Priest, or Bishop, or Pope to suit his own ideas ; it is made by the Church, and until she has spoken on any subject, and made it an Article of Faith Catholics are quite at liberty to hold whatever ideas may come into their heads. The Church has never made it an article of Faith that the spirits present at seances are devils, and consequently Catholics have a perfect right to believe anything they like about them. Catholics are therefore not bound to believe The Month any more than the Review of Reviews, and this Mr Stead ought to know. It is not, however, Catholics alone who believe that the spirits who manifest themselves at seances are not desirable acquaintances. We have heard Protestant clergymen giving expression to similar sentiments, but after all what does the wisest of them know more than ordinary mortals ? If Swedenborg, who used to hold frequent talks with God, the angels, and spirits generally, lived, he could tell us all about them, that is, if we could believe him; but he is dead, and as we know of no one else who has returned from the other side of Jordan, it appeal’s to us useless to speculate as regards the spirits. At any rate, Mr Stead’s comments on the article in The Month are ridiculous, for neither he nor anyone else can speak with authority on the subject.