Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 21, 22 May 1902, Page 1

Current Topics

Lord Hopetoun's Resignation.

The Federal House of Representatives has lately had under discussion a Bill entitled the Governor-General's Establishment Bill, under which provision was made for increasing the Governor-General's salary from £10,000 to and the practical rejection of the measure by the Federal House has producted a somewhat unexpected result in the shape of the resignation by Lord Hopetoun of his position as Governor of the Commonwealth. '] he reason advanced by Lord Hopetoun for taking this step is that the salary is altogether insufficient to enable him to adequately maintain the dignity of his office. He complains that he is ' exptcted to pay the staff, visit the vauous States, pay all travelling expenses excepting railways, occupy two great Government Houses, pay for lighting, fuel, stationei) , lelt grams, postage (other than official), dispense hospitality, and maintain the dignity of his office/ on £10,000 a >ear, and he declares that he cannot possibly do it. Hence he has a^-ked to be recalled, and the latest cable announces that his decision on the matter is irrevocable.

Reading between the lines of Lord Hopetoun's communication to Mr Chamberlain one cam ol help feeling- that other causes than the mere monetary difficulty have contributed to induce the Governor-General to ask fur a recall. '1 he monetary trouble %\as admittedly a purely temporary difficulty which could almost certainly ha\e been obviated by some sort of piovisional arrangement which should hold good until the Federal capital was finally otabh-hed, )et the GovernorGeneral made it the occasion of an ' irrevocable' decision to resign. We suspect that Lord Hopetoun, who appears to be a man of great administrative capacity, is keenly and deeply disappointed at the office of Governor-General being made an almost purely ornamental one, the holder being left practically without administrative power, and this, coupled with a very natural feeling of pique at the question of his salary being haggled and wrangled over in Parliament, has turned the scale in inducing him to make lus decision final. On the question as to whether or not Lord Hopetoun can maintain the dignity of his office on a sal.ny of /, 10,000 in a way that he considers adequate and proper he is himself the best, and indeed the only judge. But on the broad question as to whether or not .£ 10,000 a year is a sufficient sum to enable a capable man to do justice to such a position we are all entitled to an opinion, and for our own part v.c confers that we are entirely in sympathy with the view adopted by the Federal Parliament on the matter. If Lord Hopetoun, or anyone else who occupies such a position, cannot on such a salary maintain the equipage and give the number of social functions which he considers desnable the ob\ ious remedy is to reduce the retinue and cvi tail the social functions. It often happens that the expenditure in those directions is really wasteful and unnecessary, and in sOmes Orne cases positively mischie\ous, and in our view there would be far more gain than loss to the true weight and dignity of an office from lopping off a lot of (unctions and festivities from which no

adequate return is obtained. That sort of thing was well enough once but the necessity for it is fast passing away, and in an educated democracy the authoiity and dignity of an office should depend, not on pageantry and display, but on qualities that appeal to intelligence and reason. ' Plain living and high thinking' are just as desirable in a Governor as in the governed and the ideal Governor is one who will set an* example to the community in that as in other respects. The action of the Federal Parliament is a plain intimation to future Governors that expenditure must be kept within reasonable limits and that useless extravagance is in no way desired by the Commonwealth; and that view of the question all true friends of the democracy will cordially approve.

A Remedy for Irish Emigration.

The very serious condition of things disclosed by the recent census returns for Irel md has natur.illv given ri-^e to a feeling of grave alarm amongst the political and religious leaders of the people, and amongst all who ha\e the best interests of the country at heart. During the 10 years ending with the veai 10,01 no le-s than a quarter of a million of people left the country. The population now at a little less than four and a half millions, and dm ing the past 60 years the same number of people emigrated as remains in Ireland to da) --in other words, in a little over =;o v.ears the population o! the country has decreased by very nearly 50 per cent. It is to be remembered, too, that lor, the most part, it is the young and the strong who have thus gone abroad, 1< avmg the aged and infirm behind, and the tide of emigration is still flowing, flowing moi c steadily and 1 apidly indeed to-da\ than c ver it did. It is evident ih.it if t'us dram continues the country will simply bleed to death, and 111 It some remedy be proirptly applied the Irish race at home is even now on us way to t xtinction. What is the remedy? What can be done to stern the tide of emigration which is fast draining off the very life-bluod of the nation This is the question which coi.tionts the leaders and friends of Inland and which must find a-i answer if the country is to be rescued from the threatened depopulation and decay.

One solution of the problem has been recr ntlj suggested by the Most Ri v. Dr. O'Donnell, the giited Bishop of iLphoe, and his scheme is definite and practical, and gives all reasonable promise of ben g effective. His pioposal is, to put it b.icflv, .1 pirictic.il application of the principle — which is being every day moie and more lullv adopted by all the progressive countries of the world — of * the Lnd lor the people.' 'We must,' writes his Lordship, ' use' the land to support the people. '1 he only adequate leniedy foi depopulation is to run the plough up to the very slopes of Tar a. We must spare the dust of heroes and the memorials ol the past ; and it is not necessary to break up all the grass lands of the country. But there is not a county in Ireland where more than half the land under grass could not be turned to far bt tier account in tillage, if held i:\ fauns ol model tie acreage <md ( uhiv.ited by the hands of the occupy. ing families, with lined help on!} as a supplemental aid.' The proposal is to be coined cut by methods and machinery very similar to lho.-.e with which we aie familiar under the Land for Settlements Act, which has proved so satisfactory and successful in this Colony. ' A dtparttnent or commission,' continues Dr. O'Dt nnell, ' with powers for the

purpose, could buy land at a fair price, divide it into farms, give the purchasers of those farms good bargains, facilitate them at the start in the purchase of stock and implements, without a penny of loss to the State that gave its credit for the transaction, provided the Commission were free to select from the applicants such as had capacity to work the holding give a preference to neighbors who required land, and not altogether disqualify those whose resources might enable them to live otherwise, even if they were excluded from these new holdings.'

If these proposals were given eftect to the rural laborer would, as Dr. O'Donnell points out, either become a farmer at the start, or would have employment with others where there is no employment now; the artisan in the towns could depend on a home market for the output of his industry ; and besides the crops, the house-fed cattle on tilled farms of moderate size would be more valuable than the stock that now roam on Irish prairies. The result would be work for all who wanted it, and in due time a measure of prosperity for all. The scheme may be capable of improvement in some of its details, but in our view it is practically certain that it is only on some such lines as these that Ireland will ever be able to work out her national and industrial salvation. It is not unlikely that this proposal will be adopted as part of the official programme of the Irish Party in the House ol Commons, and in that event they can be safely trusted to keep the matter forcibly to the front in all discussions on the land qnestion until the Government are forced to give the project the full and fair consideration it deserves.

1 Roads to Rome.'

' All roads lead to Rome ' was the proud boast of the ancient Roman, and it is truer to-day of the spiritual Rome than ever it was of the material city. The Church is truly and essentially Catholic, is able to satisfy the legitimate wants and cravings of every human heart regardless of class or country, and thus it comes that all sorts and conditions of men are attracted to her by all sorts and varieties of motive. A few years ago a list was published — not professing to be more than a mere haphazard and fragmentary collection — of ' Rome's Recruits ' or recent converts to Catholicism amongst the educated classes, and the names included not only clergymen, but doctors, lawyers, journalists, military men, statesmen, men of letters, artists, sculptors, actors, and, indeed, representatives of almost every conceivable profession and calling in life. It has occurred to the author of Ten Years in Anglican Orders — himself a distinguished convert— to put into "execution the happy thought of collecting from a number of recent converts a statement of the motives and course of reasoning which led them to make the great change, and the result is to show that there is the same variety in the motives and methods by which men are led to Rome as there is in the character and temperaments of the men themselves. The auth >r, who writes under the norn de plume of ' Viator,' has entitled his volume ' Rmd-, to Rome,' and it embraces the accounts given by no less than 65 educated men and women of the proctss of their conversion to the Catholic faith. The highly -interesting character of the work may be gathered fiom a brief n-feience to two or three of the more notable instances recorded.

The conversion of the Rev. Geo. Angus, M.A. — who has since become a vigorous and prominent controversialist — may be taken as a typical example of the progress of a High Anglican towards the tiutli. Dung a High Anglican, he started of course with a fixed and definite recognition of the Church as a visible body. Now. he argued, either this visible body has no visible head — in which case it i-> an abortion or a corpse — or it has several heads, a fact which rendtr-, it h^drnheaded, or, in other words, a monstei. The only Church which claimed to be a visible body with a visible head he found to be the Church of Rome. Once he grasped this fact, he found that there was but one course op<'ti to him, and that was to submit to the cl liirib of the Roman Church as those of the one Divine Teacher, commissioned to guide all men into all truth.

A less common experience was that of Miss Adeline Sergeant, the well-known novelist. As An Anglican she had a great devotion for the saints and had a special love for the prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Btrnard which she met in Anglican books of devotion. Yet she gradually came to see that these very saints, weie they to appear in the flesh, would utteily repudiate the Chutch to which 'he then belonged. The words of Flaubert kept re-tehomg in hei ears : 'It is safest in religion to bilieve like the Faint-,.' And thus, under the euidar.ee ot the saint-, she t<.ok the fiist sti p m the journey which fin illy kd her lioin the lit} ol (_on'u-.iini to t : <c great Mother of S.nnts

Sir lluiry lit lltt,^' ,m, But, lao'iK li it it v is i.'i^ fimple ckvntim 'md I t.'h ul the [i.mr 111 \i< I m,l i!i >t ■_' u<■ hmi hi- fust l.uoribl* imijri s-. > >. ol ( it'-wh '-„11 and ultini itel v' led, und- j r Ciod, to hi-, 1 mc-ion to tl c mil. L>■ J Hampton, bt_-U< r ki.own as S'< II mi/ II .\\l\in-, one ol the most eminent ol the judges ul t !.e (Jimi 1 ., Ik'iui, doc -> not ii.id 1

easy to give any very definite account of his change of faith, but sums the matter up, in a general way, in the following weighty words : • I thought the matter out for myself, anxiously and seriously, uninfluenced by any human being, and I have unwavering satisfaction in the conclusion at which I arrived, and my conscience tells me it is right.'

Perhaps the most remarkable, humanly speaking, of the conversions recorded is that of the Rev. Father Sutcliffe, who, strange to relate, was brought into the Church by reading Dr. Littledale's notorious work entitled 'Plain Reasons against Joining the Church of Rome.' This volume is a compendium of all the hard and bitter things that have ever been said against the Church, and it is reputed to have kept many thousands from embracing the Catholic faith. It is the great stand-by of Protestantism, and is, to our knowledge, recommended to the divinity students of this Colony by Protestant professors of theology as the great 'unanswered and unanswerable ' work on the claims of Rome. Well, Father Sutcliffe, on the recommendation of his friends, commenced to read Dr. Littledale, but being a man of scholarly instincts, took the trouble as he read to verify the author's references and test his accuracy and veracity. The result he tells us in his own words :♦ I was horrified at what seemed to me his extraordinary misrepresentations or misunderstandings of the passages he quoted.' And thus the very weapon which had been forged against the Church was the means, in God's hand, of bringing the wanderer back to her bosom. This is not by any means the only instance we have read of thoughtful people being led to Rome via Dr. Littledale, and it illustrates how absolutely and entirely true it is that, to the earnest and sincere inquirer, all roads lead into the one true Church.

A « Blarney Stone ' Hoax.

Readers of the Pickwick Papers will remember the description of that amusing incident in Mr Pickwick's career when, on the occasion of his visit to Cobham, the learned President of the Pickwick Club came upon a very old stone with an ancient-looking inscription, and at once jumped to the conclusion that he had made a great antiquarian discovery that would render his name immortal. They will remember how, almost beside himself with exultation and joy, the enthusiastic Pickwick proudly carried off the treasure ; how he lectured on it at a general meeting of the club and entered on a great variety of ingenious speculations as to the meaning of the inscription ; how, on the strength of the ' discovery ' he was elected an honorary member of seventeen native and foreign societies ; and how finally it was ascertained that the mysterious writing contained nothing more nor less than the simple inscription of ' Bill Stumps, his mark,' which words had been rudely carved only a few weeks before by the laborer near whose cottage the stone had been found lying. That just as laughable and ridiculous deceptions occur in fact as well as in fiction is evidenced by an amusing instance which has just come to light in connection with the great Chicago Fair of 1893. The story is told by Mr Joseph E. Ralph, who is now chiet officer in the United States Bureau of engraving and printing, but who was in 1893 the officer in charge of the Customs Service at the Great Fair.

'To some one acquainted with the Irish village,' says Mr Ralph, ' should be credited the greatest joke and deception ever perpetrated on the customs force, if not on the public. As it has never been published, I think it will prove interesting. At the opening of the " village " there was one essential thing lacking to make the Blarney Castle the counterpart of the oiiginal, and that was the Blarney Stone. The manager, anxious to give his visitors something to talk about, took into his confidence James Riley, a contractor, and requested that he produce a " Blarney Stone." Mr Riley secured the services of one Charles Thompson, an employe of the "village" and together, on a dark night in June, they repaired to the corner of Filty-seventh street and Portland avenue, in the city of Chicago, and there dug up from the street a lime-stone paving block, about 18 inches long and 8 x 10 inches in breadth and depth, carried it to the " village," and there placed it in a case, which had been received that day in bond — Case No. 97, Serial 4099— which was addressed to Thomas Baker, Irish Industrial Village. This case contained a model of " Bells of Shandon."

' Invitations were then issued to the representatives of the Chicago papers to come and see the famous relic, and Mayor Harrison accepted the invitation to officiate at the opening of the ease containing the " Blarney Stone." On the day set aside for the ceremonies Major Harrison, for some reason, could not be present, so in the presence of invited guests, Cu-toim Inspcttor E. W. Matlock was sent for to open the ra-e. The inspector arrived with the invoice for case No. 97, Siii.il 41199,^ which stated that the case contained model of " Hells of Shandon," valued at 25d01. He opened the case and found it checked "one stone over." He properly labelled

both model and stone and made his returns on the invoice " one stone over, estimated value 5d01." 'The stone was then placed in the walls of the " Castle," where it remained during the rest of the fair, and was kissed by at least 25,000 people, for which a fee of 10 cents was charged.

' At the close of the fair the manager of the village desired to take the stone and exhibit it in a store in the city of Chicago, and was informed that he could not do so unless he made a consumption entry on the -.amc and paid the duty. This was done and on the 24th of M iy, 1893, I delivered the stone on a duty pafd permit.'

If any of the unsuspecting thousands who kissed that old paving stone should ever happen to drop across the perpetrators of the fraud a long flat stone will probably again be in requisition, but this time it will be wanted for a tombstone.