A Story of 'Stuffing'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 37, 14 September 1905, Page 2

A Story of 'Stuffing'

' Our principle is newer to retract.' So spoke an American gHitter-presS editor, to auiy anpjry visitor whom 'ho (had fabcly credited with ha\mg committed suicide in a fit of temporary insanity. ' But,' added the newspaper man, 'as you appeared greatly annoyed by l<hc paragraph, I am willing to state in to-morrow's paper that the rope bro<ke, and that you

are forfcuttvafreiy alive.' The Rev. Wopls-Rutledgfc seems, in like manner, to imagine that the Walls of' Derry would fall if he admitted having made a mis-state-ment. Last year he followed up his flim-flam tale o! the invisible and anonymous ' ex-Methodist ' by declaring that the public service of New South Wales was, as the result of the customary ' conspiracy,' scandalously ' packed ' with ' Papists.' This cry was, as is usual in both Australia and New Zealand, raised with a view of influencing the result of t)he elections. It is now being repeated in New Zealand. It was eagerly taken <up by the Rev. Dill-Macky (Presbyterian) and his Yellow Pup friends and shrieked all over the Mother State. The malevolent vehemence of the cry led to the publication, in June, 1904, of Part VIII. of the 1901 Reports of the Census of New South Wales. It deals with the * Occupations of the People.' It is compiled from the particulars as to religious beliefs and occupations furnished by the people at the last census, and gives soparate tabulated returns for the males and the females employed in the various branches of the public service in New South Wales. The male State public servants reach a grand total cf 28,189. A ta"ble biefore us shows their distribution, as to num'tl rs afrd rel'i#ious beliefs, in each branch of the service. Of the numbers mentioned aibfove, 13,332 are adherents of the Church of Englainld, 6519 are Catholics, 2750 Methodists, and 3381 Presib/yteriians. The remainder (2207) axe divided up among u'rtspecifiod creeds or non-creeda. The following table shoe's that Catholic males are numerically represented in the public service well below the Catholic proportion to total population, • and that Angiicans, ■' others,' and especially Presbyterians are those tiiat do the ' packing ' :—

If the various creeds enumerated abwe bad a B r *P on the public service in accordance with their relative numerical strength, the comparison would work out as follows :—

* Of the mifn'ar creeds referred to as ' Others ' In the Statistical Reports, the CoinigragaticmaHsts, wh<v <«c only 1.9 per cent, of the population, have no less than 2.1 pec cent, of the positions for males in. the puibiic sen ice. Aonowgi tihe female public servants, the PreMtiyterians again 4 pack ' the offices of emolument in an overwhelming way, at the expense of Catholics, Anglicans, anld Methodists alike. There are altogether 3814 of the gentler sex in the public service of New South Wales. On the basis! of their proportion to total population, 37V- of these should be Presbyterians. The actual! mumlber is 588. And yet it 'was a Presbyterian clergyman (Rev. DilKMaicky) that shrieked ahlQut the predominance of ' Papists ' in the public service till he almost cradked his cheeks ; and in New Zealand the latest) sereiam upon the same subject came from the official organ of the same creed. Here is an official return that shows at a glance who are ' packing ' the female positions in the public service of New South Wales :—

Proportion of Proportion in Population. Public Service. OLuroh of England ... 46 6 ... 42 8 Roman Catholic ... 260 ... 247 Matbodiet ... ... 10 3 ... 9 9 Prenbyteriaa ... ... 99 ... 154 Others ... ... 7 2 ... 7.2

All this 1 tells its own tale—so far as it goes. But there ia worse behind it all. The figures quoted above deal only] with the total -and relative numerical strength of the adherents of various creeds in the p,ublic service of New South Wales. Matters are, for Catholics, Vastly worse when we come to deal with the vital tjuestion of total anid relative pay. We ha\e before us a full list of tfhe positions under the New South Wales Government in which the pay is £700 a year and upwardisi, taken from the State Blue Book and published in a Sydney con-temporary (the ' Catholic Press ') on July 20, 1901. There are on the list 109 names. Only three of tihdso are the names of Oatibolics—one of them a Protestant at the time of his appointment. The nonCatholics on the list draw every year a grand total-of £130,388 ; tihe Ctatholics £3090. Comment on these figures would bo a sort of journalistic saciilego. * The official statistical tables given abK>ve would smite with a half-ton blow the mind of any man who is open to reason and evidence. But it would be a groat mistake to imagine that they stilled the supple tongues or dislocated 1 th© jawbones of the Revs. Wdols-Rutlodgo awd Dill-Macky. They had about as much effect on those hyphenated ministers of the Lord as upon a pair ot brazen images. The holy mon simply repeated their slanders as serenely as before. They remind one of the (asstociarti'oin of old women of both sexes who met in Exeter Hall recently and besought the Almiighty to open the eyes of flbeir erring brethren Who fancy that the earth is a spihieroid, whereas it is in reality (so the new lights contend) as flat as a pancake or at worst (as some of the lecturers conceded) 'as a saucer.' Sane people do not waiste breath and brain-tissue trying to coinince this sort of ''queer folk i' the shaws.' You give ilhem a wide Ijcrth, as Billings did to the rattlesnake, and address yourself to those who listen to them, not 'knowing the freakish peculiarities of 'ye^ow' clerics to w^liom newspaiper notoriety is as the breath of life. Twelve months of searching investigation into the personnel of the public service in every part of New Zealand have convinced us that an official return, on the lines of that of New South Wales, would reveal a good deal of ' stuffing ' —but not by Catholics. We have repeatedly urged, and still urge, the compilation and publication of these returns.

3hnrch of England lonian Catholio VT«tho'liHt Presbyterian ... 3tnera Proportion in whole Population. ... 46 6 per oeut. ... 2fi-0 „ ... 10 3 •• ... 9 9 ... 7 2 „ Proportion in Public Service. 47'S per oent. 231 9-8 12 0 „ 7-8 „ ~~~~ i< Total ... ... 100 0 „ 100 0 „

Actual number True in Service. Proportion. hurchof Rnpland... 13,332 13 136 ioman Catholic ... 6 519 7.329 lethodist 2 7SO 2,903 reabyterian ... 3 SHI 2 791 ithera ... ... 2,207 2,030 Actnal Fxie*B ... 196 „ Shortage 810 158 " Exoeaa ... 590 Total ... 28,189 28,189"