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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 29, 20 July 1905, Page 18

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teachers and Bible -in -Schools One of the lions in the path of the Bible-in-scbools scheme is the objection of the State school teachers, as a body, to have to assume the white ' choker ' and turn themselves into the parsons of a new State creed. At the Wellington Anglican Synod last week the Rev. C. C. Harper stated— hea\ en knows for what reason—that, in this matter, the New Zealand Educational Institute did not represent the views of the teachers. Whereupon the Secretary of the Institute informed the Wellington daily papers that 1715 out of 2996 adult teachers of the Colony are financial members of that association, and that there is no rival organisation of the kind in New Zealand. ' The only channel,' added he, ' whereby an expression of opinion of the teachers of the Colony as a whole can be given is through the annual council of the New Zealand Educational Institute. In January of this year this council, consisting of fifty-seven teachers, ■representing every educational district in 'New Zealand, debated and agreed to the following resolution from tne tiawke's Bay District Institute : " That the introduction of religious instruction into the sqhool syllatfus^is not desirable." '

1 Yellow * Crime 'If there is anybody umter the canisler of heaven,' said Mrs. Malaprop, ' that hold in utter excrescence, it is the slanderer, going about like a vile boaconstructor, circulating his camomile amongst honest folks.' There is less crime in Ireland per thousand of the population than in any English-speaking country on the face of the earth. But the slanderej is abroad— which his color it is yellow. He has been 1 circulating his camomile '—to wit, reports of bogus outrages— -through the Unionist and Coercionist press in the British Isles. Arid now the cable demon has taken a hand in the game and sent the stories to the ends of the earth. In the House of Commons on May 25, Mr. John Redmond gave what looks like an inside account of the origin of the crusade of lying in re-

gard to crime in Ireland. The Orange faction * faUve for a lonfe time past been calling for the dismissal of Sir Antony MacDonndl from the position of Undersecretary for Ireland. The London • Daily Chronicle ' said of them in a recent issue : ' FaiMninded Englishmen can only view with disgust the endeavors of the Orange faction to monopolise all offices in Ireland.' But there is -another reason. Sir Antony is a Catholic. And to the eyes of our tawny friends in Ulster it is a Macedonian atrocity that he shibuld hold any position under th© Crown, and, afljdve 1 all/ one of such high influence as that of Under-Secretary for IrelaiWt ' Hinc illae laobrymae '— henoe their raucous and pertistent clamour for his dismissal* Some time ago Sir Antony MacDonnell declared that he would not administer the regime of intolerable tyranny that is associated with Coercion in Ireland. This (according to Mr, Redmond) gave the cue to the Orange leaders who control the policy of Dublin Castle. Almost immediately the Orange and Coercionist press began to p»ublis|h sensational details of incendiary fires, shootings, barbarous mutilation of cattle, etc. These * outrages ' turned out, on investigation, to be bogus— the invention of designing 'rascals who' had an object in blackening the rejitftation 'oTfehe most crimeless people in the British Isles, in Ireland the object of the conspiracy was perfectly well understood. Such methods are the invariable prelude to Coercion. And if Coercion was forced upon the country, Sir Antony MacDonnell, according to his declaration, would have to hand in his resignation. The clumsy attempts to manufacture ' outrages ' met, however, with prompt an<d telling exposure. Then came the next stage of the conspiracy. It ran on two separate lines, each in itself calculated to goad " ; the people into overt acts of violence, as was done dtiring the savage repression of the Coercion regime of the early eighties. One of the Castle methods was describekl as follows in a recent issue of the Lori<san ' Daily News- ' : 'Mr. Long (Chief Secretary for Ireland) is stirring up revolt in Ireland by sending his police into the peasants' houses late at night, precisely in a manner with which tne Russian people are so familiar. This provocation,' the ' Daily News ' adds, ' is intended to produce disorder, and the disorder will be made a jretext for Coercion.' The other resort of 'Dublin Castle is to prevent or suppress legal and 'constitutional public meetings by irritating displays of r a*med forces, and to bludgeon and ill-use Members : of Parliament while addressing peaceful' assemblies of their constituents. The attitude of the Royal Irish Constabulary towards Nationalist Members is well illustrated in a recent issue of the London ' Chronicle. 1 During- an eviction scene some years ago a policeman "brought down his baton with unpleasant energy on the head of a man who (as it happened) was a reporter on the staff of the Coercionist ' Irish Times.' ' Don't :you know,' angrily exclaimed the man with the damaged head, ' that I am a member of the press ?' 'I beg your pardou,' said the constable, humjbly, ' I thought you were a Member of Parliament.' • Things, however, have not been altogether gay with the Orange Coercioirist conspiracy. In the House of Commons a few weeks ago a rather disconcerting flawking movement was executed against Mr. Long and his* friends of the ' yellow agony' from Ulster. It was pointed ooit by Mr. Roche, M.P., that, according to a Return issued during the las>t week of May, most of the serious crimes committed in Ireland in 1904, took place i»n Ulster, This was reluctaintly admitted by Chief Secretary Long. 'He had humbly to confess,' says the ' Weekly Freeman ' of' June 3> ' that of the six cases of bigamy reported to the police in Ireland last year, " five, were in Ulster"' ; of the 8l cases of robbery, and assaults with intent to rob, it were' in Ulster, 34 of which were in Belfast ; of the 41 cases of concealment of birth, 17 were in Ulster ; of 475 cases of burglary and housebreaking, 188 werfe in Ulster, 127 -of which were in Belfast. 1 It is untter-

stood , that more, is t<» bej lizard, of tie, matter. For, as all the world knows, there are two Ulsters^the 1 yellow » or Orange belt in t#ie north-eaist, a^d the remainder, which is preponderating] y Catholic and, by comparison, remarkably free from crime. Crimes against morality, for instance, are enormously more frequent in the Orange counties of Ulster than in any other part of Ireland— so much so, that a Protestant writer, Mr. J. A. Fox, says in hifc ' Key lo the Irish Question,' p. 106: 'It seems that Orangeism and illegitimacy go together, and that illegitimate children in Ireland are in proportion to Orange lodges.' And. in an. article on ' The Beliast Problem,' in its issue, of June 29 ,1900, the (ProtesUant) • Church of England Gazette.' sa^d': f A considerable numbtefr of the inhabitants have drifted into pagianism. There are whole streets where the. people go to no place of worship — their relijgion is purely political. They seem to think 'it sufficient to be a Protestant : while meaning and committing all kinds of sin, it will get them to • heaven at last. This portion of the population will soon become a great danger to the Government.'