THE 'SOUTHERN CROSS.'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 19, 6 September 1873, Page 5

THE ' SOUTHERN CROSS.'

There is in Auckland a newspaper called the ' Southern Cross,' and there is also there a church of England clergyman, whose name is Maunsell. This- rev. gentleman, whose business it is, or at least ought to be, to preach and practice truth and justice, is now busily engaged in traducing Catholicism, and parading before the eyes of an outraged community the long exploded">calumnies of insensate and ignorant bigotry. His conduct is at once an outrage on decency, a wrong, and an insult to catholics, and an evidence of either malignity, or the most iutense and criminal ignorance. Imagine aman : n the position of a scholar, a gentleman, and, above all, of a Christian Minister quoting at this period of the nineteenth century the ravings of Maria i Monk, &c ? His apology for his monstrous conduct is, that j he wishes his catholic readers to purchase these books that they may learn from them the secrets of the confessional. Every body sees this is a transparent fiction • and that the real object is to annoy, to insult, aud to rouse the bad passions of dupes and bigots. Catholics do not stand in need of Mr Maunsell's aid or advice, for the purpose of learning the secrets of the confessional, or anything else : and if they did, they would never think of consulting the notorious and recognised fabrications of liars and apostates, who have been cast out of the Church for their infamies. Catholics have had recourse" to the confessional from their youth upwards. From experience they know all about it as to practice, whilst they believe it to be a Divine institution. Erom it they have derived strength, consolation, and hope ; they know they owe to it much, very much, of whatever of goodness they possess ; and that to it is to be mainly attributed the unequalled fidelity of their wives and the purity of their daughters, as also the grace and manliness of their sons. They know that such amongst them as regularly and faithfully comply with the holy ordinance of confession, are honest," upright, truthful, chaste, and laborious ; whilst to the neglect of it is to be attributed whatever scandals are found amongst them. And we can assure Mr Maunsell, and such men, that were it not for the confessioual, where patience, forbearance, and forgiveness are insisted on, he should soon find himself iv the gutter, or the victim of rotten eggs. The ' Southern Cross ' refuses to publish these manifestoes of the Christian Minister, as "letters or news, but admits them into its columns as advertisements. ' We think such a course is very wrong, and deserving of severe reprehension ; and we are greatly surprised to find a respectable journal in this colouy allowing motives of lucre to influence it, so far as to permit itself to be degraded to

the low level of a no-Popery vehicle of bitter insult to a large and peaceable section of the community. [Further, as to Mr Maunsell, we dismiss him with the reflection that his conduct makes manifest the principles and practice of his own life. Only the filthy can think filthily of their neighbours.

We have received a copy of the report, by the Under Secretary for Gold Isolds, on the state of the Gold Fields operations, their extent and prospects. Mr Haughton shows his usual tact, judgment and discrimination in dealing with this subject. "We think a copy of this report could with good grace be distributed among the miners of the several Gold Fields, and easy access to them could "be had m the several Provincial Athenaeums. The reading of this report would prove to the miners their strength and power as members of the New Zealand Colony. The report, brings us down to March, 1873, from the Ist of January in 1872. J We see that from the entire Colony during 1872, there have been exported 445,370 oz. of gold, equal in value to £1,731,261 ; and from the Ist April, .1857, to March 31, 1873, that is in 16 years, there have been exported from the several Gold Fields of this Colony 6,912,670 ozs., equal to £26,816,323— that would be over 1£ millions sterW per year. 6 i?!^/^ 61 ?^ and S old dvt 7 for 1872 amounted to oo Hi ti ?7l number of m^ers employed was j so that the Government received on an average from each of these men as gold revenue about £5 per Zo^ he av , era g e wages, for 1872, for each man would be £77 10s. 3d., being less by £24 6s. 2±d. per man than they received m 1871 ; therefore their pay was reduced by l 2 $?* £° nt^ per head ' tekill S the average. This falling oil Mr Haughton presumes to have arisen from the unusually dry season just past, owing to which the miners had not sufficient water to work the claims ; but, by the time the water channel works now in hand are completed in many places such difficulties will be impossible in 'the future. Another reason for the falling off in revenue and receipts from Gold Fields labor, apparently escaped MrHaughton's notice ; that is, that several hundreds of men were, during the past half-year, employed in making Sludge-Channels and other Water Eaces ; and for the present their work is not remunerative, but in the future it is to be hoped that an ample return will be forthcoming from the outlay now made, and the labor employed. The Mining and Agricultural leases held by miners on 31st March, 1873, comprised about 50,000 acres- that would give only about 2* acres per man, to a body deserving so well of the Colony. To the miners is due the credit of opening up and developing the resources of this Colony ; only for the gold searchers, these islands would be scarcely known to Europe. And if the mining population give the Government over £100,000 per year, they are wanting m a care of their own interests, if they do not seek for at least 25,000 acres per year for every £100,000 of revenue paid : that, we consider not exorbitant, for it may be presumed that £75,000 may well repay the Government for cost of Wardens, &c, &c, and leave a good surplus as compensation for the privilege of working on the Gold Fields • there then would remain £25,000, that ought to goto the credit of the hard worked miners, who earned the money Blocks of land of 25,000 acres, at £1 per acre, would be acceptable to a Miners' General Association, as a reserve for the old age of its members, after their years of severe toil and hardship in working for the colony's prosperity If the miners be true to themselves, they can succeed in getting this reasonable demand. They have 20,000 votes • they ought to learn how to usethem with effect. '