NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 21, 31 May 1923, Page 29

NOTES

Hokitika on the Map Few of our readers are aware that the Eternal City has a rival on the West Coast, and in Hokitika no Jess !, But- if any person should be so rash as to doubt this, let him consult the Christchurch Press, which, through its .correspondent, informs us that the Bishop of Christchurch has gone to Hokitika on his ad limina visit ! His Lordship will be honored to find that one of his parishes is so remarkable.' We have not heard that the Pope gave a dispensation whereby New Zealand, Australian, and American Bishops might fulfil their obligations by going to the old mining town by the lonely sea instead of to Rome. In view of the rush of prelatial, visitors in the near future, what about organising a company to erect hotels over there •

Convention ‘ We are all more or less diving , under .the' tyranny of conventions. Some . break their chains through ignorance, others through a desperation begotten of' common sense but on . the whole public opinion " (which forgives society criminals. and child-murderers) decides that the man who is superior or inferior to conventions ought to be flayed . alive with a thorny shillelagh. If you attained to good manners among, the politest ’.races on earth you will bravely seize . the leg of a fowl by the shank when eating it, but if you do that in this country you are in a worse state than if you broke all the commandments. Again, you stop at a railway station and you get five minutes- for-refreshments. Three; of these you spend knocking with a coin on the counter in vain efforts to- attract the attention of a flapper who tries to serve - twenty people at the same time. When you get your cup of alleged tea and your raw ham or your red paint paste, you find the tea is boiling, hot. Then it is up to you either to be polite and leave it there, or have common'sense and drink it from the saucer, just as King Edward is said to have done once on a similar, occasion. It is a strange fact that those whose savoir faire is . only superficial are' really the greatest sticklers for nonsensical observances. The man who wears starched cuffs with a soft shirt is the one who will turn up his nose at his neighbor who puts common sense before convention; and the lady who speaks of a serviette-instead of a napkin is the dame who lays-down the laws for her friends and acquaintances. If you hear anybody-talk of doing a 'thing “oft-ten” or of going to the “corral” society look out for the danger flag. You . are very near the “hay-school” mark then. Engrave it on the tablets of your, memory, write it broad on your philactories, there is no.politeness without true Christian conduct there is no real courtesy without religion. And that is whv the State atheists of New Zealand are reducing this country to the level of a Prime Minister who is retained, in his position after publicly making the offensive gesture of an ill-bred schoolboy. W. H. Mallock Recent Home papers contain notices of the death of a distinguished man of letters, well known to a more thoughtful; and earlier generation of readers. In an England -where traditional hostility to Catholics was rampant even in the highest circles we had a valiant defender in Mr. Mallock who, not- being himself a Catholic obtained a hearing -where Catholics -were disqualified as prejudiced witnesses. In his- day Mr. Mallock did right yeoman service for the Church, and he was to Catholics then what in recent years Mr. Chesterton became —a fair, clear-minded advocate of the truth. The following eloquent tribute from the pen of Canon Barry is a fine appreciation of Mr. Mallock’s life and labor’s;

To a man like myself, who was born in the same year with W. H. Mallock, and who began my literary career about the period of the late seventies as he did, the passing of this rare, if not unique, Victorian figure brings a world of reminiscence, brilliant, stimulating, sad also even to tragedy. But I should hesitate to attempt so much as even this slight “In Memoriam” here of the author of that once largely-discussed and lauded book, The i\ enr Republic , had its creator not stood in a peculiar relation to the Catholic Faith, as its defender, yet independent of it. A most powerful champion, as I judge, some of whose arguments were no less original than unanswerable yet he died out of the Church, so far as I can,tell, and we cannot reckon him our own. He certainly captured London and Oxford in 1877 at a single blow. His ironical searching presentment of the new masters in science, religion, art, and culture, might be frowned upon by those whom he satirised ; but, on turning over the pages to-day, my feeling is that caricature never was 1 the right word for such skilful reproduction of the manner and tone of Jowett, Pater, Tyndall, and Matthew Arnold. The women. of the dialogue are drawn to the,lifeMrs. Sinclair, who was not a saint, the delightful inconsequent Lady Ambrose, and Miss Merton, the grave Oath-

olic girl, whose, piety equals her common sense. Those were the days of “Fors Clavigera,” when Ruskin reigned in Oxford ; and . here, as “Mr. Herbert,” , he, speaks with angelic . authority, with Dantean sternness. In point and purpose The New Republic has not lost but gained by.the lapse of a generation. Its forecasts have come, or are coming, true. Especially, with- regard ,to the fatal ■ effects of - treating this lower world as the be-all and end-all of existence every % day shows them in forbidding relief. Then we must add the driving-force of a fresh apologetics, in which the plain and solid bulwark of Christianity is shown to be the Roman Church. From this position Mallock never swerved. Champion not Convert Mr. Mallock was by marriage related to the Froudes. His mother was a sister of Hurrell and of James Anthony Fronde, the former being a man of deep spiritual insight with a love for all things Catholic, and the latter a Rationalist who became a writer of history of a sort that does little credit to his love of truth. Mr. Mallock had not the faith of Hurrell but he was incapable of the injustices and the perversions of c act which inspired so much of James Anthony’s history. Of his life, from his Oxford days onward; Canon Barry says:

Being of this parentage and temperament, Mallock went up to Oxford, lighted upon a Broad Church tutor at Balliol, and lived under Jowett, whom he disliked personally. In his view Jowett was a word-spinner, serving the time, deftly combining ? phrases *by means of which Christian dogmas and all they promised were to melt into the "infinite azure” celebrated in Professor Tyndall’s "Belfast Address.” Broad Church amounted to capitulation without the honors of war. Another equally futile compromise lurked in the “culture”' offered to a world , in. agony by Matthew Arnold with his engaging smile. The so-called aesthetic movement had invaded Oxford; and Mr., Rose (that is to say, Walter Pater) preached a strange kind of Renaissance, Greek-Italian, Pagan-Catholic, which proved in not many; years to be decadence, with tragic results. Then science, or its arrogant-experts, Huxley, Clifford, and their followers, denounced Christianity as “having destroyed two civilisations and menacing a third.” All these we behold in The New Republic deliberating hoy they shall build the City Beautiful, of years to come. And build it they could, in its outward material aspect. But the life, the spirit? Not they singly or altogether. For they had no religion, or everlasting, law of right and wrong. The Christian creed is the only foundation. When it fails, "art after art goes out and all is night.” I his counter-demonstration was wrought with power of argument, with sarcasm, pathos, and. some- terribly impressive strokes of cynicism, to a climax, in. the funeral oration over Humanity delivered by Mr. Herbert, the mask of John Ruskin. And now I wish it were possible to add that, having won so splendid a victory,. Mallock entered the Church as a convert, which, he had thus vindicated in face of her deadliest foes. •• But something held him back. We who belonged .to the literary group - with which he was chiefly, bound *up , felt very sorry when he drifted away from his Catholic friends into general society, where, of course, he. shone; but he had not followed his star. The pity of it! Life had its poignant sorrows for him ;, yet - greater than any other loss I count his turning from the light of faith to a career of social distinction—how vain,- .:how. poor in comparison with an apostolate.on behalf of the known truth! He is gone, and has made no sigh.. But we will make over him the sign of the Cross* with a prayer for his soul. We owe him that much*: since he lifted a sharp sword in defence of Holy Church and with it smote the captains of unbelief. Therefore I will ask all good Catholics to say with me, Requiem eeterneim dona ei, T)amine, et lux perpetua lucedt ei. : Amen.

One cannot hear the word of God without, the. infusion of His wisdom, nor penetrate the meaning of ' what He has told ns if one has not received His Spirit.St. Gregory the Great, - , - V