Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 10 April 1919, Page 14

Current Topics

How Ireland is Governed The following are the qualifications of Mr. Macpherson for governing the Irish people:—l. He is the son of a Scotch carrier; 2. He has written an occasional review for that hide-bound Tory and No-Popery paper, the Spectator; 3. Since he entered Parliament he has made speeches on the average level of the following: “Is it true, Sir (to the Postmaster General), that you have succeeded in sending so many packets of letters to Paris safely ,4. He defended the officer who commanded the party that fired into the house in which were Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington and her child ; 5. He got a D.S.O. for the same hero. The question naturally occurs to us: Have they no man of brains and principle to send over, or is it that, they prefer to send nincompoops like Macpherson and lunatics like Colthurst? It is certainly time that Ireland took steps to protect herself from the Lloyd George Government. Colthurst was declared to be a lunatic. Was he any more guilty or more mad than the rest of the gang?

War Statistics The following table gives the authentic figures regarding the man power of the sixteen nations which were officially mobilised, also the numbers of dead, wounded, and missing:

In the foregoing figures are not included the three new nations which came into being in the war. The round numbers given in many cases make it appear that these authentic figures must be taken as an approximate estimate. We see, however, that the Allies had nearly twice as many men in the field as the enemy, and that the enemy’s loss was only little more than half ours. France’s losses were terrible and they give us some idea of the heroic sacrifices of that noble people to whose valor the victory of the Entente is certainly due. Russia also suffered dreadfully.

Mediocrity In a striking book an American writer deplores the dead level of mediocrity of the present age. He excepts Cardinal Mercier and Mr. Wilson, and he might add Benedict XV. and Marshal Foch. He finds the cause of it in the fatal error by which. Democracy is conceived to be a levelling down influence, reducing everyone and everything to the plane of the masses and expecting men of superior brains and of fixed principles to become mere mouthpieces for a majority. He condemns our so-called education, which he says is probably the worst ever devised as far as characterbuilding is concerned. “Secularised, eclectic, vocational, intensive educational systems do not educate in any true sense of the word, while they do not develop character, but even work in the opposite direction.” He sees how religion and morals are practically ignored in State schools, and with, what deplorable results. Every thing that can make for the right formation of character and for sound formation of moral principles is banned in favor of materialistic ideals founded on the principle that a man’s sole end in life is to make money. This writer has but repeated what is being said all over the world now. The highest authorities in France found that the secular-system was a failure and that it led directly to anarchy and disorder. Germany found out too late whither the same system led her. The Churches in this country have at last taken the matter up seriously and determined that as far as in them lies the young people shall have a chance to live as Christians. In this benighted country a few parrotlike politicians still uphold the secular system and they are supported by two classes of persons : first, by those who are making a living out of the present system ; and second, by those who either have no Christian principles or else understand them so little as to be unable to grasp their importance. Gradually it is dawning on the majority of parents that the lack of reverence in children and the materialistic love of pleasure and dissipation common in the youth of the Dominion is the result of a so-called education from which are excluded the influences which alone can teach , children to honor their fathers and mothers and to realise that there are higher ideals for men and women than “having a good time.” Not one moment too soon will the time come when public opinion will arraign the culprits who are responsible for maintaining in our midst a pagan system of schools.

Proportional Representation Some weeks ago the Sligo municipal elections were conducted on the system of proportional representation. The result was that instead of Sinn Fein sweeping all before it minorities were properly represented. The Irish organ of Unionism, The Irish Times, had a leader pointing out the advisability of introducing proportional representation into all local elections in the country in order to safeguard minorities. Now we read that the matter has got so far that a second reading of a Hill with that aim in view has been passed in the House, of Commons. Mr. Samuels frankly said the object was to safeguard minorities and to prevent Sinn Fein from sweeping all before it. Sinn Fein, fair and welldisposed, is in favor of the measure and eager to give to minorities every possible security. Remembering this, readers will form their own opinion when they learn that the strongest opponent of the Bill was Sir Edward Carson. In Orange Ulster such a Bill would give fair play to Catholics ; but Orange Ulster' does not want to give fair play to Catholics under any circumstances. Orange Ulster wants to retain its ascendancy born of plunder and murder, and Carson sees clearly that a fair bill for the protection of minorities would not at ail suit the Ulster scheme. Hence, for the present, the Ulster slogan is, “To hell with the Pope and proportional representation.” This little incident is valuable as a test, of the honesty of Orange Ulster. How, in the light of the opposition of Carson to the Bill and of Sinn Fein’s support of it, can any man pretend that the Orangemen have any sense of justice

or fair play? One fact like this is worth a volume of logic. It bears out how it is that the Orange minority has always been the bitter, persecuting element in Ireland, and how Catholic majorities are ever, ready to give fair play to the Protestant population in their midst. Sinn Fein stimulated the British Government to a new interest in minorities. What a pity the Westminster wiseacres would not take some interest in the rights of majorities. The demands of four-fifths of a people ought to have some weight. They have, except where there is question of that extraordinary, laughable farce known as “British fair play,” which is a decent imitation of Prussianism. However that may be, the principle of proportional representation is sound. When Labor is strong enough in this country, when pitiful Party-men have been shot on the dust heap, we hope to see it carried here. The profiteers and the placemen will resist to the end, just as Carson resists at home, but it will come even in benighted New Zealand, and with it will come the safety of minorities. We know that the absentees, Massey and Ward, have no time to listen to reasons in behalf of proportional representation. it does not suit the Party book at all. . In that near day when New Zealand’s people get a chance of governing themselves, and when profiteers and militarists have met with their deserts, proportional repi'esontation will come. In the meantime every opportunity should be taken to educate the people as to its value and its procedure.

Educational Reform We have received a leaflet and a circular dealing with educational reform which call for some comment. The leaflet sets forth that the proposed reform is based on the following principles : 1. The right of the individual to any opportunity to develop his powers for real living : 2. The necessity in the common interest of drawing out the best intellectual and moral capacities of the people for their work of life : 3. The necessity of a high standard of education for taking part in the life of a free and self-governing people : 4. The right and duty of all to share in a function which is the concern of all. It goes on to state that it is assumed that “every child is equally entitled to the care of the State : and that in the interests of the community as well as of himself he must be educated to live the best kind of life of which he is capable.” It suggests that parents should be given a share in the moulding and fostering of the education of the children. It concludes that care must be taken that the lives of the young be given a chance to come to full fruition, and this it defines as the true meaning of education.

We are curious to know if the promoters of this reform believe that there can be no real living for Christians without an education which will embrace both body and soul and be mindful of man’s eternal as well as his temporal destiny; for if “real living” means anything apart from life here with a view to life hereafter, it is only the living of him to whom it was said, Thou foot! This night I will demand ihg soul of thee. Further, we would be glad to hear if those who are anxious that the best moral capacities of all should be drawn out are aware that in the opinion, not only of Christian thinkers, but also of the French educationists who have witnessed the failure of the secular system, there can be no sound moral training without religious teaching. Again, when we read of “a high standard of education” we would like to know if by that is meant a training which does not forget that children have souls and that a knowledge of the Law of God is essential for them if we would not reduce them to the level of mere animals. Do the promoters of this reform sympathise with the boycott which is enforced against those parents who know what education really means and who will not have schools in which 1 indifference to God is indirectly taught? Are they in favor of ex-

eluding the children of such parents from swimming lessons and from instruction in wood-work and so forth? Do they advocate that parents, who, while paying taxes for the support of secular schools make the heroic sacrifice 'of supporting religious schools should be penalised as the . Teachers’ Executive lately demanded ? Would they advocate the persecution of schools (like the Brothers’ Schools in Dunedin) which can win first places for both Senior and Junior Scholarships and also beat out of the field the pupils of other schools in open athletic competitions? When it is stated that to bring the lives of the young to “full fruition” is the true meaning of education, are we to understand that by religious teaching children o should be trained to follow Christ in purity, justice, and truth,' and to make His Law their sole rule of life all the days 'they spend on this earth? or are we to gather that the spiritual interests, which are the dominant interests, are still to be neglected and that such empty names as “culture,” “gentlemanliness,” and “elficiency” mean “full fruition”? Until we have some assurance that the reformers have come to realise, as. France has and as Germany did when too late, that there can be no sound moral training without a religious basis, and that without sound moral training education isfolly, we shall hold that the proposed scheme is but another of the futile and vain efforts made by men who are walking in the darkness like blind guides. As Dean Burke said in his paper read before the Catholic Federation, there are some people who hold that as long as a man escapes the policeman there is nothing wrong. In a drastic way that defines the sum of the ideals of many people who talk about uplifting the country. If the ugly pages in the police court reports were absent, if exterior respectability were spotless, such people would have attained their ideal. They do not know what moral principles are. They are at sea when those who do know talk about them. All their scheme of reform is limited by their own notions, and as a consequence it is not possible for them to aim at reform at all. Now the discipline of school life, the example of gentlemanly teachers, the association with gentlemanly pupils, “the basic application of the birch,” a feeling that certain things are bad form and that other things are wicked, occasional readings from the Bible, maxims from the sages, lectures on the evil results of vice and on the nobility of virtue, are certainly not without good results for schoolboys and girls. They supply, to some extent as least, a line of conduct which is in part moral training. But the trouble is that • the whole sanction is from without and that the inner principles are not thought about at all. The root principle of all, the truth that certain things must be done and certain things avoided according to the dictates of conscience, is never touched. You may have proper discipline, you may get pupils who will agree that to tell lies, to cheat, to act indecently are things to be avoided, but you will not have pupils who have an inward and vital motive for holding that such things are wrong. You will have an outward hedge or an exterior force which will restrain them for motives altogether outside their own personal and inner principles. It will not go very deep. A day will come when temptation will go deeper, and when in the absence of all interior restraint the outward guard will fail absolutely.

Moral education is worthless unless it is a building .up from within, unless it supplies some force that will remain while life remains, alone as well as in company, in the night as well as in the day, as long as the soul, is naked and open before the eye of God who will judge us all. Moral education must form character principles deeply rooted in the soul and consistently applied to everyday life. A moral sense of duty, a conscience that will infallibly point out the right way because it is. the right way, whether it be a hard or an easy way, must be the basis of character. No character can be formed without ideals; and right ideals can only be had by one who has been trained to form right moral principles, Evepy system of education has its

ideals. The secular system has its ; frankly worldly ideals and it cannot soar above them. Religious education has its religious ideals which may be .summed up in saying that it aims at training the young to work out in their lives the Gospel of Christ, our Lord. Now, we hold that religious ideals are of paramount importance for Christians and that there is no hope of forming Christian character without them. We believe that the supporters of secular schools do not care two straws for Christianity or its ideals, and we believe that parents who send their children to a secular school when they could send them to a Christian school are indifferent to the salvation of the souls of their children. For only in schools which make the teaching of Christ the most important part of the children’s education can characters be formed on right moral lines, built up from within and not from without, solid and stable and able to withstand the temptations that come to all sooner or later. And it. is surely a selfevident truth that the interests of individuals and r society demand such characters, just as it is selfevident that the secular schools have all over the world failed to mould them.

Nation. Mobilised. Dead. Wounded. Missing. Tot. U.S.A. ... 4,272,521 67,813 192,483 14,363 274,659 Britain 7,500,000 692,065 2,037,325 360,367 3,089,757 Francs 7,500,000 1,385,300 2,675,000 446,300 4,506,600 Italy 5,500,000 460,000 947,000 1,393,000 2,800,000 Belgium ... 267,000 ,20,000 60,000 10,000 90,000 Russia 12,000,000 1,700,000 4,950,000 2.500,000 9,150,000 Japan 800,000 300 907 3 1,210 Rumania 750,000 200,000 120,000 80,000 400,000 Serbia 707.343 322,000 28,000 100,000 450,000 Montenegro 50,000 3,000 10,000 7,000 20,000 Greece 230,000 15,000 40,000 45,000 100,000 Portugal ... 100,000 4,000 15,000 200 10,000 Total 39,676,864 4,869,487 ,075,715 4,956,233 20,892,226 Powers.Central tral Power s. Germany 11,000,000 1,611,104 3,683,143 772,522 6,066,769 Austria-Hungary 11,000,0006,500,000 1,611.104800,000 3,683,1433,200,000 772,5221,211,000 6.066.7695,211,000 6,500,000 800.000 3,200,000 1,211,000 5,211,000 Bulgaria ... 400,000 201,224 152,399 10,825 264,448 Turkey 1,600,000 300,000 570,000 130,000 1,000,000 Total 19,500,000 2,912,328 7,605,542 2,124,347 7 total 59,176,864 7,781,806 18,681,257 7,080,580 33,434,443