CORRESPONDENCE. RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1474, 13 December 1881, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE. RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, — Now that the excitement of the elections is over, and the smoke of political warfare cleared away, perhaps you can spare me a few lines upon another subject, especially as it ia one which, as the above extract from your excellent motto shows, you permit at reasonable times to be introduced. My conviction ia that we should be as Btraightforward and candid in the use of terms and phrases referring to religious matters as to those which are commercial or political. I see by your printed list of election returns that veryfew trimmers or doubtful men have been elected as members of the House of Representatives. Honest men, it seems, go in for a Ministerialist or Oppositionist in preference to a doubtful go-between. It is the soundness of the old maxim again borne out: " Honesty is the best policy " —the beat whether it refers to politics, or business, or religion. I observe the gentleman in Auckland, described as the political Joseph, having a coat of many colours, has fallen to the bottom of the poll for City West. None can wonder at that, and perhaps few will regret it. One has no difficulty in comprehending the speech of such men as the hon. John Hall or Sir George Grey. Igo in right or wrong for the same candor and straightforwardness in religious speech. Let things be called by their right names. I admire any man who btrives to do good to the bad, the fallen, the vicious; but I heartily abominate proselytism : seeking to allure by subtle means and by misleading titles those who are already attached to a particular denomination of Christians, thereby stirring up strife upon mere matters of opinion of words and names, while the weightier matters of heart and life goodness, on which the stability and welfare of a community depends, are passed over as though they were only of secondary consideration or minor importance.—l am, etc., Frankness. Cambridge, December 12th.

Wood h<is been preserved 3000 years in Egyptian tombs, where it has been exposed only to dry air. Statistics go to show that suicides are more frequent in hot weather than during a lower temperature. If the English language were divided into hundted parts, sixty would be Saxon, thirty would be Latin, (including, of course, the Latin that has come to us through the French), and five parts would be Greek. The barbab-tree of South Africa may be barked or burned out without injury to the tree, and it continues to live and grow for some tune after it ia out down. A New York tramp goes around with a long, hollow reed, and when he finds any milk behind anybody's grating he puts in the rood and diinks hia fill. Nature requires salt as an aid in preserving health. It assists in digestion, and in many other ways, which need not be mentioned here. For cattle at pasture lumps may be laid in any convenient place where a board can be fixed to shelter from the rain, and still allow the stock free access. At the barn the lumps can be placed under the shed, or in some other convenient spot. Among the extraordinary measures adopted by the Turkish Government against a recent grasshopper invasion was an order suspending all other business for three days at Angora, and requiring the people to march to the fields and catch, kill, and deliver to the officials about fifty pounds of the debtroying insects for each individual.